Chap- 66.] THE YEUNAL EQUINOX. 8 / 



fore the calends of April. Between the equinox and the 

 morning rising of the Vergil iae, the calends ^* of April announce, 

 according to Cassar, [stormy weatlier].^'' Upon the third ^^ 

 before the nones of April, the Yergiliae set in the evening 

 in Attica, and the day after in Boeotia, but according to Caesar 

 and the Chaldaeans, upon the nones, ^' In Egj'pt, at this time, 

 Orion and his Sword begin to set. According to Caesar, the 

 Betting of Libra on the sixth before ^^ the ides of April an- 

 nounces rain. On the fourteenth before ^^ the calends of May, 

 the Suculse set to the people of Egypt in the evening, a stormy 

 constellation, and significant of tempests both by land and sea. 

 This constellation sets on the sixteenth^'' in Attica, and on the 

 fifteenth, according to Caesar, announcing four days of bad 

 weather in succession : in Assj-ria it sets upon the twelfth ^^ 

 before the calends of May. This constellation has ordinarily the 

 name of Parilicium, from the circumstance that the eleventh ^- 

 before the calends of May is observed as the natal day of the 

 Citj' of Rome ; upon this day, too, fine weather generally re- 

 turns, and gives us a clear sky for our observations. The 

 Greeks call the Suculae by the name of "Hyades,"^-^ in conse- 

 quence of the rain and clouds which they bring with them ; 

 while our people, misled b}' the resemblance of the Greek name 

 to another word^^ of theirs, meaning a *'pig," have imagined 

 that the constellation receives its name from that word, and 

 have consequently given it, in their ignorance, the name of 

 "Suculse," or the ''Little Pigs." 



In the calculations made by Caesar, the eighth ^^ before the 

 calends of May is a day remarked, and on the seventh ^^ before 

 tte calends, the constellation of the Kids rises in Egypt. On 

 the sixth before ^'^ the calends, the Dog sets in the evening in 

 Boeotia and Attica, and the Lyre rises in the morning. On 

 the fifth ^^ before the calends of May, Orion has wholly set 



81 First of April. 



®5 This passage is omitted in the original, but "was probably left out by 

 inadvertence, 



8« Third of April. s^ Fifth of April. 



88 Eighth of April. 89 Eigbteentli of Apr'l. 



80 Sixteenth of April. 9i Twentieth of Apri. 



®- Twenty-first of April. See B. xix. c. 24. 



5^ From veiv, to rain. ^^ " Sus," a pig. 



»5 Twenty-fourth of April. ^s Twenty-fiftli of April. 



'" Twenty-sixth of April. ^8 Twenty-seventh of April. 



