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[329] πυκιναί. See the description of the ‘wind-witch,’ as given by Schleiden, ‘The Plant, p. 354:’ ‘In autumn, on the Russian Steppes, the stem of the thistle-plant rots off, and the globe of branches dries up into a ball, light as a feather, which is then driven through the air by the winds. Numbers of such balls often fly at once over the plain with such rapidity that no horseman can catch them; now hopping with short, quick, springs along the ground, now caught by an eddy and rising suddenly a hundred feet into the air. Often one “wind-witch” hooks on to another; twenty more join company, and the whole gigantic, yet airy, mass rolls away before the piping east wind.’

Notice the transition to the indicative mood. See note on Od. 4.335.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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