S9, flint's natural histoet. [BookXVIIL 



to the people of Assyria, and on the fourth ^ before the calends 

 the Dog. On the sixth beTore ^ the nones of May, the Suculse 

 rise in the morning, according to the calculation of Csesar, and 

 on the eighth before ^ the ides, the She-goat, which announces 

 rain. In Egypt the Dog sets in the evening of the same day. 

 Such are pretty nearly the movements of the constellations up 

 to the sixth before ^ the ides of May, the period of the rising 

 of the Vergilise. 



In this interval of time, during the first fifteen days, the 

 agriculturist must make haste and do all the work for which 

 he has not been able to find time before the vernal equinox ; 

 and he should bear in mind that those who are late in pruning 

 their vines are exposed to jibes and taunts, in imitation of the 

 note of the bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.* For it 

 is looked upon as a disgrace, and one that subjects him to well- 

 merited censure, for that bird, upon its arrival, to find him 

 only then pruning his vines. Hence it is, too, that we find 

 those cutting jokes,^ of which our peasantry are the object, at 

 the beginning of spring. Still, however, all such jokes are to 

 be looked upon as most abominable, from the ill omens ^ they 

 convey. 



In this way, then, we see that, in agricultural operations, 

 the most trifling things are construed as so many hints supplied 

 us by Nature. The latter part of this period is the proper- 

 time for sowing panic and millet ; the precise moment, how- 

 ever, is just after the barley has ripened. In the case of the 

 very same land, too, there is one sign that points in common 

 both to the ripening of the barlej^ and the sowing of panic and 

 millet — the appearance of the glow-worm, shining in the fields 

 at niglit. " Cicindelaj "'' is the name given by the country 

 people to these flying stars, while the Greeks call them '* 1am- 

 pyrides," — another manifestation of the incredible bounteous- 

 ness of Nature. 



CHAP. 67. (27.) WOEK TO BE DONE AFTER THE RISING OF THE 



VERGILI^ : HAY-MAKING. 



Nature had already formed the Vergiliae, a noble group of 

 5 Twcnty-fiighth of April. ' Second of May. 



2 Eighth of May. 3 Xenth of May. 



* " Cuculus." Sec B. X. c. 11. 



* " Petuhuitiaj vales." Perhaps *' indecent," or "wanton jokes :" at least, 

 llnrdoiiin thinks so. 



^ By causing quarrels, probably. ' See B. xi. c. 34. 



