BOOK II. XXXIX. 106-XU. 109 



denoting rain." Indeed some stars move of them- 

 selves and at fixed times — compare the rising of the 

 Kids. But the rising of the constellation Arctm-us 

 is almost ahvays accompanied by a hail-storm. 



XL. For who is not aware that the heat of the 

 sun increases at the rising of the Lesser Dog-star, 

 whose effects are felt on earth very widely ? At its 

 rise the seas are rough, wine in the cellars ripples in 

 waves, pools of water are stirred. There is a wild 

 animal in Egypt called the gazelle that according to 

 the natives stands facing this dog-star at its rise, and 

 gazing at it as if in worship, after first giving a sneeze. 

 It is indeed beyond doubt that dogs throughout the 

 whole of that period are specially hable to rabies. 



XLI. Moreover also the parts of some constella- 

 tions have an influence of their own — for instance 

 at the autumnal equinox and at mid-winter, when we 

 learn by the storms that the sun is completing its 

 orbit ; and not only by falls of rain and storms, 

 but by many things that happen to our bodies and 

 to the fields. Some men are paralysed by a star, andon 

 others suflfer periodic disturbances of the stomach "^"ntsf *" 

 or sinews or head or mind. The ohve and white 

 poplar and willow turn round their leaves at the 

 solstice. Fleabane hung up in the house to dry 

 flowers exactly on midwinter day, and inflated 

 skins burst. This may surprise one who does not 

 notice in daily experience that one plant, called heho- 

 trope, ahvays looks towards the sun as it passes and 

 at every hour of the day turns with it, even when it is 

 obscured by a cloud. Indeed persistent reseaxxh 

 has discovered that the influence of the moon causes 

 the shells of oysters, cockles and all shell-fish to grow 

 larger and again smaller in bulk, and moreover that 



