of India came from a country situated in forty degrees of
northern latitude. Other writers are of the opinion that
civilization proceeded from Arabia; that the old Cushite race
carried commerce, letters, and laws to all the nations of the
East. Which of these theories is true, if either, may not with
certainty be proved at present; yet that in the far distant past
a race of people existed whose achievements exceeded those of any
of the historic nations may not be doubted.
That the length of the year was calculated with greater exactness
by an ancient and forgotten people than it was by early historic
nations is proved by the cycle of the Neros. This cycle, which
was formed of 7.421 lunar revolutions of 29 days, 12 hours, 44
minutes, and 3 seconds, or 219,146 days and a half, was equal to
600 solar years of 365 days, 5 hours, 51 minutes, and 36 seconds,
which time varies less than three minutes from the present
observations of the year's length. The length of the year as
calculated by the Egyptians and other early historic nations was
360 days, which fact would seem to indicate that a science of
astronomy had been developed in an earlier age which by the most
ancient peoples of whom we have any historic records has been
lost or forgotten. It has been said that if this cycle of the
Neros "were correct to the second, if on the first of January at
noon a new moon took place, it would take place again in exactly
600 years at the same moment of the day, and under all the same
circumstances."[61]
[61] Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. ii., sec. 14.
The Varaha Calpa has the famous cycle of 4,320,000,000 years for
its duration. This system makes the Cali Yug begin 3098 years
B.C. A dodecan consisted of 5 days, and 72 dodecans formed a
natural year of 360 days. According to the earlier calculations,
360 solar diurnal revolutions constituted a natural year. The
doctrine of the ancients concerning these cycles is thus set
forth by Godfrey Higgins:
"The sun, or rather that higher principle of which the sun was
the emblem or the shekinah, was considered to be incarnated every
six hundred years. Whilst the sun was in Taurus, the different
incarnations, under whatever names they might go, were all
