BOOK XVIII. Lwiii. 266-270 



for they look towards another quarter of the sky 

 than that towards which they faced yesterday. You 

 use the willow to inake withes for binding all things 

 — the lowUest of trees, you yourself are a whole 

 head taller : its leaves also I will turn round. Why 

 complain that you are a mcre peasant ? It is not 

 owing to me that you do not understand the heavens 

 and know the things thereof. I will bestow a sign 

 upon your ears also : only Usten to the cooing of the 

 ring-doves, and beware of thinking that midsummer 

 is past until you have seen the dove sitting on her 

 nest.' 



Between the solstice and the setting of the Lyre, cmHeiia- 

 on June 26 by Caesar's reckoning, Orion rises, and ^t«ml.'"" 

 Orion's Belt on July 4, in the region of Assyria, c/. §214. 

 while in that of Egypt in the niorning rises the 

 scorching consteUation of Procyon, which has no 

 name with the Romans, unless we take it to be the 

 same as the Little Dog»; it has a grcat effect in 

 producing hot weather as we shaU show a Uttle Uiter. § 272. 

 On July 4 the Crown sets in the morning for the 

 people of Chaldaea and for Attica the whole of Orion 

 rises on that day. On July 14 Orion ceases rising 

 for the Egyptians, on July 17 Procyon rises for 

 Assyria, and then three days later the great constel- 

 lation recognized almost everywhere among aU 

 people, which we caU the rising of the Dogstar, when 

 the sun has entered the first quarter of the Lion : 

 this occurs on the 23rd day after midsummer. Its 

 rising influences both the seas and the lands, and 

 indeed many wild animals, as we have said in the 

 proper places ; nor is this consteUation less reverenced 11. 107 

 than the stars that are assigned to various gods ; ^^- ^^- 

 and it kindles the fire of the sun, and constitutes 



359 



