Chap. 72.] SHEEP. 331 



priate marks, although different from those on the male ; and 

 it is said that she is always killed the very same day that 

 they find her. There is a spot in the Mle, near Memphis, 

 which, from its figure, they call Phiala j 1 here they throw into 

 the water a dish of gold, and another of silver, every year upon 

 the days on which they celebrate the birth of Apis. 2 These 

 days are seven in number, and it is a remarkable thing, that 

 during this time, no one is ever attacked by the crocodile ; on 

 the eighth day, however, after the sixth hour, these beasts 

 resume all their former ferocity. 



CHAP. 72. (47.) SHEEP, AND THEIK PROPAGATION. 3 



Many thanks, too, do we owe to the sheep, both for ap- 

 peasing the gods, and for giving us the use of its fleece. As 

 oxen cultivate the fields which yield food for man, so to sheep 

 are we indebted for the defence of our bodies. The generative 

 power lasts in both sexes from the second to the ninth year, 

 sometimes to the tenth. 4 The lambs produced at the first, 

 birth are but small. The season for coupling, in all of them, 

 is from the setting of Arcturus, that is to say, the third day 

 before the ides of May, 5 to the setting of Aquila, the tenth 

 day before the calends of August. 6 The period of gestation is 

 one hundred and fifty days. The lambs that are produced 

 after this time are feeble ; the ancients called those that were 

 born after it, cordi. 7 Many persons prefer the lambs that 

 are born in the winter to those of the spring, because it is 

 of much more consequence that they should have gained 

 strength before the summer solstice than before the winter 

 one ; consequently, the sheep is the only animal that is bene- 

 fitted by being born in the middle of winter. It is the nature of 



1 The " goblet." See B. v. c. 10. 



2 Seneca, Quaest. Nat. B. iv. c. 2, gives an account of this ceremony, 

 but does not refer to the birth of Apis. B. 



3 The contents of this Chapter appear to be principally from Yarro, B. 

 ii. cc. 1, 2, and Columella, B. vii. cc. 2, 3, 4. B. 



4 This account is probably from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14 ; B. 

 vi. c. 19 ; and B. ix. c. 3, where we have various particulars respecting 

 the production and mode of life of the sheep. B. 



* 13th May. 6 23rd July. 



7 Varro, ubi supra, gives a somewhat different account: " Those lambs 

 are called c cordi,' which are born after their time, and have remained 

 in the womb, called x P<- ov fr om which they take that name." B. 



