BOOK VIII. Lxxi. 185-LXX11. 188 



worshipped. These companies are suddenly seized 

 with frenzy and chant prophecies of future events. 

 Once a year a coav is displayed to it, she too with her 

 decorations, although they are not the same as his ; 

 and it is traditional for her always to be found and 

 put to death on the same day. At Memphis there 

 is a place in the Nile which from its shape they call 

 the Goblet ; every year they throw into the river 

 there a gold and a silver cup on the days which they 

 keep as the birthdays of Apis. These are seven ; 

 and it is a remarkable fact that during these days 

 nobody is attacked by crocodiles, but that after 

 midday on the eighth day the creature's savagery 

 returns. 



LXXII. Sheep are also of great service either Sheep- 

 in respect of propitiatory offerings to the gods or ^^^ "'^' 

 in the use of their fleeces. As oxen improve men's 

 diet, so the protection of their bodies is owed 

 to sheep. They breed when two years old on both 

 sides, till the age of nine, and in some cases even till 

 ten. The lambs at the first birth are smaller. They 

 all couple from the setting of Arcturus, that is May 

 13th, to the setting of Aquila, July 23rd; they 

 carry their lambs 150 days. Lambs conceived 

 after the date mentioned are weak ; in old days those 

 born later were called cordi. Many people prefer 

 winter lambs to spring ones, holding that it is more 

 important for them to be well-established before 

 midsummer than before midwinter, and that this 

 animal alone is advantageously born in winter. It 

 is inbred in the ram to despise lambs as mates and 

 to desire maturity in sheep ; and the ram himself is 

 better in old age, and also more serviceable when 

 polled. His wildness is restrained by boring a hole 



131 



