BOOK VI. XXVII. 4-8 



there is no stallion at hand, owing to their continuous 

 and excessive passion, by imagining in their own 

 minds the pleasures of love they become pregnant 

 with wind, just as farmyard hens produce " wind- 

 eggs." Indeed the poet is not indulging his fancy 

 too much when he says : " 



But, beyond all furies, wondrous is the rage 5 



Of mares ; 



Love leads them over Gargara * 



And o'er Ascanius' " loudly roaring stream ; 



They scale the mountain and through rivers swim. 



Soon as the flame has reached their craving marrow 6 



(More so in spring, for then the heat returns 



And warms their bones) all on high rocks they 



stand 

 Facing the west, and the light breezes catch. 

 And oft with wind conceive, without the aid 

 Of union — a wondrous tale to tell ! '^ 



For it is also well-known that on the Holy Mountain 7 

 of Spain,* which runs westward near the Ocean, 

 mares have often become pregnant without coition 

 and reared their offspring, which, however, is of no 

 use, because it is snatched away by death at three 

 years of age, before it can come to maturity. There- 

 fore, as I have said, we shall take care that the brood- 

 mares are not tormented by their natural desires 

 about the time of the spring equinox. But during 8 

 the rest of the year the valuable stallions should be 

 kept away from the mares, so that they do not cover 

 them whenever they wish, nor, if they are prevented 



• Varro, de Be Rustica (II. 1. 9) says that this occurred in the 

 district in which Olisipo, the modem Lisbon, was situated. 



193 



VOL. II. H 



