BOOK 1 1 .] History of Nature. 75 



appear by the Reason of their exceeding Height. All of 

 them, then, every one in its own Motion, exercise their 

 several Natures : which appeareth manifestly by Saturn 

 especially, who setteth open the Gates for Rain and Showers 

 to pass. And not only the seven Wandering Stars possess 

 this Power, but many of them also that are fixed in the Fir- 

 mament ; so often as they be either driven by the Approach 

 of those Planets, or provoked by the Casting and Influence 

 of their Beams : like as we find it happeneth in the seven 

 Stars called Suculce, which the Grecians, of Rain, name 

 Hyades (because they ever bring foul Weather). Howbeit 

 some of their own Nature, and at certain set Times, do cause 

 Rain ; as the Rising of the Kids. The Star Arcturus very 

 rarely appeareth without some tempestuous Hail 1 . 



CHAPTER XL. 

 The Power of the Dog- Star. 



WHO knoweth not, that when the Dog-Star ariseth, the 

 Heat of the Sun is fiery and burning? the effects of which 

 Star are felt exceeding much upon the Earth. The Seas at 

 his Rising do rage, the Wines in Cellars are troubled, stand- 

 ing Waters are moved. A wild Beast there is in Egypt, 

 called Orix~, which the Egyptians say, doth stand full against 



1 It is scarcely necessary to warn the modern reader, that throughout 

 these observations on the weather, an influence is ascribed to the rising of 

 certain stars, from no better cause than the coincidence of the occurrences. 

 Wern. Club. 



2 Pliny mentions this animal in book x. c. 73 ; and again in book xi. 

 c. 46 ; but modern naturalists have failed to identify it with any creature 

 known at the present time. Indeed, there is reason to believe that more 

 than one creature has been thus designated by the ancients ; for it has 

 been described as having only one horn; which would make it either 

 a species of rhinoceros, or the animal resembling a stag or horse, so often 

 spoken of under the name of Unicorn. It has also been compared to an 

 ox ; and four horns have been ascribed to it. But, more precisely, it is said 

 to be white, with horns and a beard ; which renders it probable that it 

 was of the goat kind. As the religion of the ancient Heathens was merely 

 ceremonial, the imputing to the creature, in the practice of sneezing, an 

 act of adoration to Anubis, or the Dog- Star, one of the chief deities of the 



