Chap. 69] CAUSES OF STERILTTT. 99 



llobigalia,^- the Florolia, and the Yinalia. The Hobigalla were 

 established by Numa in tlie fortietli year of his reign, and are 

 still celebrated on the seventli day before the calends of Maj-, 

 as it is at this period that mildew ^^ mostly makes its first at- 

 tacks upon the growing corn. Yarro fixes this crisis at the 

 moment at which the sun enters the tenth degree of Taurus, 

 in accordance with the notions that preyailed in his day : but 

 the real cause is the fact, that thirty-one ^^ days after the yernal 

 equinox, according to the observations of yarious nations, the 

 Dog-star sets between the seyenth and fourth before the c;i- 

 lends of May, a constellation baneful in itself, and to appease 

 which a young dog should first be sacrificed. ^^ The same people 

 also, in the year of the City 513, instituted tlie Floralia, a 

 festival held upon the fourth before^ the calends of May, in 

 accordance with the oracular injunctions of the Sibyl, to secure 

 a favourable season for the blossoms and flowers. Varro fixes 

 this day as the time at which the sun enters the fourteenth 

 degree of Taurus. If there should happen to be a full moon 

 during the four days at this period, injury to the corn and all 

 the plants that are in blossom, will be the necessary result. 

 The First Yinalia, which in ancient times were established on 

 the ninth before ^' the calends of May, for the purpose of tast- 

 ing ^^ the wines, have no signification whatever in reference to 

 the fruits of the earth, any more than the festivals already 

 mentioned have in reference to the vine and the olive ; the 

 germination of these last not commencing, in fact, till the 

 rising of the Yergiliae, on the Sixth day before ^^ the ides of 



^- Or festival in honour of Robigo, the Goddess of mildew, on the 

 twenty-fifth of April. See Ovid's Fasti, B. iv. 1. 907, et sea. 



^* Eohigo. 



^^ " Nineteen" is the proper number. 



^5 " Et cui prseoccidere caniculam necesse est." The real meaning of 

 this passage would seem to bo, — " Before which, as a matter of coursf^, 

 Caniciila must set." But if so, Pliny is in error, for Canicula, or Procyon, 

 sets heliacally after the Dog-star, tliough it rises before it. Hardouin ob- 

 serves, that it is abundantly proved from the ancient writers that it was 

 the custom to sacrifice a puppy to Sirius, or the Dog-star, at the Robigalia. 

 As Littre justly remarks, it would almost appear that Pliny intended, by 

 his ambiguous language, to lead his readers into error. 



5s Twenty-eighth of April. The festival of Flora. 



*" Tweuly-third of April. Tliis was the first, or Urban Vinalia : tlifc 

 second, or Rustic Yinalia, were held on the nineteenth of August. 



"•^ The same as the Greek IliQotyca, or "opening of the Ca.sks." 



6» Tenth of May. 



H 2 



