CHAP. 66.—WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE VERNAL EQUINOX.
The vernal equinox appears to end on the eighth
1 day be-
fore the calends of April. Between the equinox and the
morning rising of the Vergiliæ, the calends
2 of April announce,
according to Cæsar, [stormy weather].
3 Upon the third
4
before the nones of April, the Vergiliæ set in the evening
in Attica, and the day after in Bœotia, but according to Cæsar
and the Chaldæans, upon the nones.
5 In Egypt, at this time,
Orion and his Sword begin to set. According to Cæsar, the
setting of Libra on the sixth before
6 the ides of April announces
rain. On the fourteenth before
7 the calends of May,
the Suculæ set to the people of Egypt in the evening, a stormy
constellation, and significant of tempests both by land and sea.
This constellation sets on the sixteenth
8 in Attica, and on the
fifteenth, according to Cæsar, announcing four days of bad
weather in succession: in Assyria it sets upon the twelfth
9
before the calends of May. This constellation has ordinarily the
name of Parilicium, from the circumstance that the eleventh
10
before the calends of May is observed as the natal day of the
City of Rome; upon this day, too, fine weather generally returns, and
gives us a clear sky for our observations. The
Greeks call the Suculæ by the name of "Hyades,"
11 in consequence
of the rain and clouds which they bring with them;
while our people, misled by the resemblance of the Greek name
to another word
12 of theirs, meaning a "pig," have imagined
that the constellation receives its name from that word, and
have consequently given it, in their ignorance, the name of
"Suculæ," or the "Little Pigs."
In the calculations made by Cœsar, the eighth
13 before the
calends of May is a day remarked, and on the seventh
14 before
the calends, the constellation of the Kids rises in Egypt. On
the sixth before
15 the calends, the Dog sets in the evening in
Bœotia and Attica, and the Lyre rises in the morning. On
the fifth
16 before the calends of May, Orion has wholly set
to the people of Assyria, and on the fourth
17 before the calends
the Dog. On the sixth before
18 the nones of May, the Suculæ
rise in the morning, according to the calculation of Cæsar, and
on the eighth before
19 the ides, the She-goat, which announces
rain. In Egypt the Dog sets in the evening of the same day.
Such are pretty nearly the movements of the constellations up
to the sixth before
20 the ides of May, the period of the rising
of the Vergiliæ.
In this interval of time, during the first fifteen days, the
agriculturist must make haste and do all the work for which
he has not been able to find time before the vernal equinox;
and he should bear in mind that those who are late in pruning
their vines are exposed to jibes and taunts, in imitation of the
note of the bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.
21 For it
is looked upon as a disgrace, and one that subjects him to
well-merited censure, for that bird, upon its arrival, to find him
only then pruning his vines. Hence it is, too, that we find
those cutting jokes,
22 of which our peasantry are the object, at
the beginning of spring. Still, however, all such jokes are to
be looked upon as most abominable, from the ill omens
23 they
convey.
In this way, then, we see that, in agricultural operations,
the most trifling things are construed as so many hints supplied
us by Nature. The latter part of this period is the proper
time for sowing panic and millet; the precise moment, however, is
just after the barley has ripened. In the case of the
very same land, too, there is one sign that points in common
both to the ripening of the barley and the sowing of panic and
millet—the appearance of the glow-worm, shining in the fields
at night. "Cicindelæ"
24 is the name given by the country
people to these flying stars, while the Greeks call them
"lampyrides,"—another manifestation of the incredible bounteousness
of Nature.