BOOK XVIII. xx\. 1 18-120 



bean pottage has a sanctity of its own in saci*ifice to 

 the gods. It occupies a high place as a dehcacy for 

 the table, but it was thought to have a dulhng effect on 

 the senses, and also to cause sleeplessness, and it was 

 under a ban with the Pythagorean system on that 

 account — or, as others have reported, because the 

 souls of the dead are contained in a bean, and at all 

 events it is for that reason that beans are employed 

 in memorial sacrifices to dead relatives. Moreover 

 according to Varro's account it is partly for these 

 reasons that a priest abstains from eating beans, 

 though also because certain letters of gloomy omen 

 are to be found inscribed on a bean-fiower. There is 

 also a special reUgious sanctity attached to the bean ; 

 at all events it is the custom to bring home from 

 the harvest a bean by way of an auspice, this being 

 consequently called the harvest-home bean. Also 

 it is supposed to bring luck at auctions if a bean 

 is included in a lot for sale. It is undoubtedly 

 the case that the bean is the only grain that even 

 when it has been grazed down by cattle fiUs out 

 again when the moon is waxing. It cannot be 

 thoroughly boiled in sea water or other water with 

 salt in it. 



The bean is sown first of the leguminous plants, 

 before the setting of the Pleiads, so that it may get 

 ahead of winter. Virgil advises sowing it all through Oeorg.i. 

 the spring, as is the custom of Italy near the river Po, ' ^" 

 but the majority of people prefer bcan crops of early 

 sowing to the produce of three months' growth, for 

 the pods and stalks of beans sown early make the 

 most acceptable fodder for cattle. When the bean 

 is in flower it particularly wants watcr, but when it 

 has shed its blossom it only needs Uttle. It serves 



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