_*
[Footnote]
* For more than a century after Julius Caesar had altered the
year to three hundred and sixty-five days, the Roman soldiers
were still paid at the ancient rate of three hundred and
sixty days only, losing the rest as _"terminalia,"_ or days
not counted as belonging to the year! The proof of this
is that in the time of Domitian a soldier's _year's_ pay divided
by three hundred and sixty gives an even number of _ases_.
[End of Footnote]
And now we come back to the Verderer's Court at the Speech
House with a clear reason for its being held _"every forty
days at twelve o'clock at noon."_
Forty days was the _ninth_ of the Druid year of three hundred
and sixty, and was a period of five weeks of eight days each,
but which according to the ancient method of counting were
called _"nine-days."_ And the reason the Court sits "at Twelve
o'clock at noon" is because the Druid day began at noon. Even
now, within ten miles of where I write, the children on Minchinhampton
Common, on the Cotteswold hills, keep up _"old May Day,"_
which was the opening of the Druid year, though they are ignorant
of this.
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