DISCOVERY 



17 



eg. " WTicn you hear the voice of the crane who cries tion by name— tombstones, for instance. " Do not let 



year by year from the clouds above [i.e. in the middle a boy of twelve years sit on that which may not be 



of October] mark it well, for she gives the signal for moved, for that is bad and makes a man unmanly." ' 



ploughing and shows that the season of rainy winter He knows, too, all about lucky and unlucky days, and 



is near"; or " When the house-carrier climbs up the he is a mine of rustic lore. The fourth is the lucky 



plants from the earth to escape the Pleiades [middle day to be married. The fifth is a very unlucky day. 



FLOCKS COMING INTO MAfDIA IN Till; MIDDLE Ol" THE D.\Y 



THER.-^— THRESHING FLOOR. 



of May], then is the time to whet your sickles." The 

 house-carrier is, of course, the snail. Hesiod, like other 

 rustics, has queer old-fashioned names for beasts. 

 The ant is " the ^^■lse One," the cuttlefish " the 

 Boneless One," the burglar " the Man who sleeps by 

 Day." Some things, of course, it is unlucky to men- 



Men born on the twentieth of the month in daylight 

 are very wise. The nineteenth is a lucky birthday for 

 boys, and the fourth for girls. Never put the ladle 

 on the mixing-bowl at a wine-party, for malignant 



I The superstitious man in Theophrastus will not tread on 

 a tombstone (Theophrastus, Characters, xxviii). 



