II] CATTLE FARMING: ITS PRACTICE 143 



tion and foaling. Foaling? said Vaccius, as though 



one didn't sometimes hear of a mule having foaled ^ 



1 at Rome! I, to support him, put in the statement 



of Mago and Dionysius to the effect that mules and 



mares are delivered in the twelfth month after they 



have conceived. And so, said I, if the parturition 



of a mule be with us in Italy a portent, all countries 



do not agree with us in thinking it one. Swallows, 



moreover, and storks, which breed in Italy, do not 



do so in all countries. You know, of course, that 



the Syrian date-palm," which bears in Judaea, can- 



1 not do so in Italy. But, said Scrofa, if you prefer 



I to make up the number eighty-one without reference 



' to the parturition of mules and the rearing of their 



ung, there is a way of filling up the two gaps, 



iur there are, in addition, two supplementary means 



iof making profit which are of considerable import- 



j ance; one of which is shearing — for sheep and goats 



are shorn or plucked — the other, of wider extent, 



has to do with milk and cheese; to it the Greeks 



have given a special name, rvpoTroua, and have written 



much concerning it. 



Peperisse^ held as a prodigy by the Romans. Cf. Livy, 

 vi,23: lapidibus pluisse et Reate mulam peperisse \ and again, 

 ^vii, 3: Terra apud se pluisse Tusculani nunciabant: et 

 itini mulam in agro suo peperisse. It is curious how often 

 rro's Reate is mentioned by Livy as the scene of prodigies ! 

 Palmulas. Pliny (N. H., xiii, /^'.Judaea vero iticlyta est 

 majifis palmis. . . . Sunt quidem et in Europa vul^oque 

 ilia, sed steriles. 



