61 Sir J. D. Wilkinson, _op. cit._ ii. 398 _sq._; Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, cited above, vol. i. p. 231, note 3. According to Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xviii. 60) barley was reaped in Egypt in the sixth month from sowing, and wheat in the seventh month. Diodorus Siculus, on the other hand, says (i. 36. 4) that the corn was reaped after four or five months. Perhaps Pliny refers to Lower, and Diodorus to Upper Egypt. Elsewhere Pliny affirms (_Nat. Hist._ xviii. 169) that the corn was sown at the beginning of November, and that the reaping began at the end of March and was completed in May. This certainly applies better to Lower than to Upper Egypt. M27 The events of the agricultural year were probably celebrated with religious rites. M28 Mourning for Osiris at midsummer when the Nile begins to rise. 62 Pausanias, x. 32. 18. 63 E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, ii. 278. 64 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, _De Bare’e-sprekende Toradjas van Midden-Celebes_ (Batavia, 1912), i. 273. The more civilized Indians of tropical America, who practised agriculture and had developed a barbaric art, appear to have commonly represented the rain-god in human form with tears streaming down from his eyes. See T. A. Joyce, “The Weeping God,” _Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway_ (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 365-374. 65 This we learn from inscriptions at Silsilis. See A. Moret, _Mystères Égyptiens_ (Paris, 1913), p. 180. 66 E. W. Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians_ (Paisley and London, 1895), ch. xxvi. pp. 495 _sq._ M29 Sirius regarded as the star of Isis. The rising of Sirius marked the beginning of the sacred Egyptian year. The observation of the gradual displacement of Sirius in the calendar led to the determination of the true length of the solar year.