Let us next try to get a little further by assuming the supposed method of dating to have been actually employed, and finding the year of the beginning of one or more of these cycles thus obtained. This should eventually help us to determine whether or not the Egyptians acted on this principle, or used one widely different. In such an investigation as this, however, we are terribly hampered by the uncertainty of Egyptian dates; while, as I have said before, there is great divergence of opinion among Egyptologists as to whether, from very early times, there was not a true fixed year. But let us suppose that the vague year was in common use as a civil year, and that the rising of Sirius started the year; then, if we can get any accepted date to work with, and use the diagram to see how many years had elapsed between that date and the start-point of the cycle, we shall see if there be any cyclical relation; and if we find it, it will be evidence, so far as it goes, of the existence not only of a vague year, but of the mode of reckoning we are discussing. Now it so happens that there are three references, with dates given, to the rising of Sirius in widely different times; and, curiously enough, the month references are nearly the same. I begin with the most recent, as in this case the date can be fixed with the greater certainty. It is an inscription at Philæ, described by Brugsch (p. 87), who states that, when it was written, the 1st of Thoth = 28th of Epiphi. That is, according to the view we are considering, the heliacal rising of Sirius--that is, the 1st Thoth of the vague year fell on the 28th Epiphi of our cycle. He fixes the date of the inscription between 127 and 117 B.C. Let us take it as 122. Next, referring to our diagram to find how many years had elapsed since the beginning of the cycle, we have-- Days. 5 Epacts. 30 Mesori. 2 Epiphi. ── 37 × 4 = 148 years elapsed. The cycle, then, began in (118 + 122 =) 270 B.C. We next find a much more ancient inscription recording the rising of Sirius on the 28th of Epiphi. Obviously, if the Sothic cycle had anything to do with the matter, this must have happened 1458 years earlier, _i.e._, about (1458 + 122 =) 1580 B.C. Under which king? Thothmes III., who reigned, according to Lepsius, 1603-1565 B.C.; according to Brugsch, 1625-1577. Now, the inscription in question is stated to have been inscribed by Thothmes III., and, it may be added, on the temple (now destroyed) at Elephantine.