I90 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



the buyer incurs no liability ^ for damage done by 

 them?" In buying them unbroken it is: " Do you 

 guarantee that these oxen are sound in the proper 

 sense of the word, come from a sound herd, and 

 that the buyer incurs no liability for damage done 

 by them? " Butchers who buy an ox for cutting up, 

 if they adopt the Manilian forms, use rather more 

 words than these, while those who buy for sacrifice 

 do not as a rule exact any guarantee as to the health 

 of the victim.^ 



Cattle are best pastured in clearings where there 

 are shrubs and leaves ^ in abundance. When they 



^ Noxisque praestari. Cf. note on ii, 4, 5. The -ce in illosce 

 is ** deictic," "those before our eyes." 



^ Non Solent stipulari. Because the priests themselves ap- 

 plied tests "offering the bulls barley, the he-goats pulse (epf- 

 ^ivOovg). Refusal to eat was interpreted as a sign of ill-health. 

 The test for a she-goat was cold water" (Plutarch, Orac. 

 Defect.). 



^ I^ros multa. Cf. Columella (vi, 3, 6) : ** From this time (ist 

 July) to ist November — that is, through the summer and 

 autumn — they may be fed on leaves. The best for the purpose 

 are those of the elm, the ash, and the poplar ; the worst those 

 of the holm oak, the oak, and the laurel. These, however, you 

 are obliged to use after summer as the others then fail. Fig 

 leaves may also be given." 



The number of things used as food for cattle is astonishing. 

 Columella {loc. cit.) mentions: peas, beans, vetches, lupines, 

 ocinum, barley, wheat, straw, grass, hay, acorns, leaves, 

 grape refuse — which he specially recommends as having the 

 virtues of both meat and wine, cytisus. Cato (54) mentions in 

 addition bean bran and ivy leaves. Much attention was given 

 to the health and feeding of the working ox. Cato (54) says : 

 Nihil est quod magis expediat quani boves bene curare. 



