II] OF MILK AND WOOL 233 



with the rising of the Pleiads/ in spring, and goes 

 on to the rising of the same in summer. Milking 

 for the purpose of making cheese is done in spring 

 time, early in the morning, at other times about 

 noon, though owing to the varying nature of 

 climate and food the same practice does not obtain 

 in every place. To about two co?tgu (about one-and- 

 a-half gallon) of milk is added to cause coagulation 

 a piece of rennet the size of an olive — rennet taken 

 from a hare or kid being better than that from a 

 lamb. Some people use instead of rennet the milk 

 from a fig'' branch and vinegar; they also sprinkle 

 the milk with several other things which are in- 

 cluded under one term by the Greeks. The term 

 5 used is sometimes STrog^"^ sometimes ^anpuov. I would 



^ A Vergilias vemas. Cf. Festus: Vergiliae dictae quia 

 earum ortu ver jinitur et aestas incipit^ and Isidore, iii, 70 : Has 

 {Pleiadas) Latini Vergilias dicunt a temporis significatione quod 

 vere exoriuntur. Nam occasu suo hiemem, ortu aestatem prim- 

 aeque navigationis tempus ostendunt. Cf. also Pliny, xviii, 25. 

 The morning rising of the Pleiads was loth May. According 

 to the Caesarian calendar they set in Spring on 5th April, and 

 were invisible for thirty-four days (Pliny, xviii, 26). 



^ Fici ramo. Columella (vii, 8, i): ** Milk is generally made 

 to curdle by means of the rennet from a lamb or a kid, but the 

 down of the wild thistle will do it, as well as fig-milk which is 

 emitted from the tree if you wound the green bark. The best 

 cheese, however, is that which is the least * doctored ' — but 

 for a pail {sinum) of milk, a piece of rennet weighing not less 

 than a silver denarius (franc) is needed." 



^ 6ir6Q. Any exudation from a plant was called indifferently 

 hxoQ or SuKpvov. Cf. Theophrastus (C. P., vi, 11, 16): "And 

 they call these sometimes biroiQf sometimes icueftva (tears), the 



