II] OF COWS AND OXEN 193 



not gore or run against one another. And, as in 

 summer gad-flies^ generally annoy them, and a 

 kind of small gnat breeds under their tails, some 

 people, to prevent this annoyance, keep them shut 

 up in pens. Leaves or some substitute should be 

 strewn on the floor of their stalls that they may rest 

 more comfortably. In summer time they must be 



15 driven twice to the water, in winter once. When 

 they begin to breed, fresh fodder (for them to taste 

 as they go out) should be kept close to the stalls, 

 for their appetite becomes capricious at this time. 

 Care must also be taken that the place to which they 



I return be not cold, for cold as well as hunger makes 

 them grow thin. 



16 In the rearing of cattle proceed as follows. The 

 sucking calves must not sleep with their mothers, 



' Tahani. Tabanus, the popular name for the Greek olarpoi, 

 the proper Latin equivalent being astlus. At least so says Isi- 

 dore (xii, 8, last paragraph) : Oestrum animal armentis aculeis 

 permolestum. Oestrum autem Graecum est, quod Latine 

 *' astlus,'' vulgo tabanus vacatur. The word is still in use in 

 Italian, tabdno meaning a "back-biter," and tafdno a gad- 

 fly. 



Crescentius, paraphrasing this passage (ix, 65, quoted by 

 Schneider) puts for the bestiolae mtnutae, Zentalos Muscat. 

 Zentalos is no doubt the modern Italian Zanzara, an onoma- 

 topoeic word meaning gnat. If the text, however, be correct, 

 Varro would seem to refer to the eggs laid by the tabanus 

 under the tails of the oxen. 



The Gcoponica (xvii, 7) advise the sprinkling of the pastures 

 with a decoction of laurel berries as a means to get rid of the 

 gad-flies, "which run away because they hate it" {iia rrjv 

 dvTiiraOnav). 



O 



