of Abraham, and in passing from island to island guided themselves by the sight of the islands in the day time, or by the sight of some of the Stars in the night.  Their old year was the Lunisolar year, derived from Noah to all his posterity, ’till those days, and consisted of twelve months, each of thirty days, according to their calendar:  and to the end of this calendar-year they now added five days, and thereby made up the Solar year of twelve months and five days, or 365 days.

The ancient Egyptians feigned [260] that Rhea lay secretly with Saturn, and Sol prayed that she might bring forth neither in any month, nor in the year; and that Mercury playing at dice with Luna, overcame, and took from the Lunar year the 72d part of every day, and thereof composed five days, and added them to the year of 360 days, that she might bring forth in them; and that the Egyptians celebrated those days as the birth-days of Rhea’s five children, Osiris, Orus senior, Typhon, Isis, and Nephthe the wife of Typhon:  and therefore, according to the opinion of the ancient Egyptians, the five days were added to the Lunisolar calendar-year, in the Reign of Saturn and Rhea, the parents of Osiris, Isis, and Typhon; that is, in the Reign of Ammon and Titaea, the parents of the Titans; or in the latter half of the Reign of David, when those Titans were born, and by consequence soon after the flight of the Edomites from David into Egypt:  but the Solstices not being yet settled, the beginning of this new year might not be fixed to the Vernal Equinox before the Reign of Amenophis the successor of Orus junior, the Son of Osiris and Isis.

When the Edomites fled from David with their young King Hadad into Egypt, it is probable that they carried thither also the use of letters:  for letters were then in use among the posterity of Abraham in Arabia Petraea, and upon the borders of the Red Sea, the Law being written there by Moses in a book, and in tables of stone, long before:  for Moses marrying the daughter of the prince of Midian, and dwelling with him forty years, learnt them among the Midianites:  and Job, who lived [261] among their neighbours the Edomites, mentions the writing down or words, as there in use in his days, Job. xix. 23, 24. and there is no instance of letters for writing down sounds, being in use before the days of David, in any other nation besides the posterity of Abraham.  The Egyptians ascribed this invention to Thoth, the secretary of Osiris; and therefore Letters began to be in use in Egypt in the days of Thoth, that is, a little after the flight of the Edomites from David, or about the time that Cadmus brought them into Europe.