ds of the Southern and Northern countries appear to thee
in the thirty-six nomes; thou goest where they are as a perfect soul, thou
doest what pleases thee in the heaven, thou art amongst the constellations
of the thirty-six Beka."

This word is rendered by Brugsch as the "Dekane" in German and I have been
unable to find its exact equivalent in English. The Dekanes are alluded to
in an inscription from the Ptolemaic period cited by Brugsch (_op. cit._
I, p. 135) as follows: "They shine forth after the sun has set. They _run
in a circle_, and continually release each other. They become apparent at
sunset at hours varying with the seasons." The Dekane constellations or
stars were those which rose at the beginning of each decade or period of
ten days, which constituted the Egyptian "week." There were thirty-six or
4x9 of these in the Egyptian year, at the end of which an epact of five
days was added, each day being consecrated to one of the five chief gods.
Deferring the discussion of the Egyptian numerical calendaric system, I
merely point out here the obvious agreement between the number of
celestial nomes = 36, the number of decades in the year of 360 days to
which should be added the familiar fact that each day and decade had its
special "god." Laying stress upon the point that in ancient Egypt we find
thirty-six celestial, geographical districts, corresponding to the
thirty-six decades of the year and to thirty-six gods, I take pleasure in
pointing out how clearly the following passages of Sir Norman Lockyer's
"Dawn of Astronomy" show that the thirty-six gods had as many human
representatives, priests, who performed certain religious rites and homage
in the chief temple in a fixed order of rotation. "Even at Philae in late
times, in the temple of Osiris, there were 360 bowls for sacrifices, which
were filled daily with milk by a specified rotation of priests. At
Acanthus there was a perforated cask into which one of the 360 priests
poured water from the Nile daily;" an enforced act of obedience recalling
the punishment of the daughters of Danae. As Sir Norman Lockyer justly
remarks "these temple ceremonials are an evidence of their antiquity and
may be regarded as traditions preserved by the conservative priesthood."

I am inclined to regard the above mentioned acts of empty homage as
survivals of conditions strictly analogous to those which existed in
ancient America, where each geographical district of the state was