Chapter IV: Studies of the Farmer

In other branches of rural economy the country gentlemen of Attica exhibited no less enthusiasm or skill. Indeed, throughout Greece, there prevailed a similar taste. Every one was eager to instruct and be instructed; and so great in consequence was the demand for treatises on husbandry, theoretical and practical, that numerous writers, the names of fifty of whom are preserved by Varro,[1621] made it the object of their study. Others without committing the result of their experience to writing, devoted themselves wholly to its practical improvement. They purchased waste or ill-cultivated lands, and, by investigating the nature of the soil, skilfully adapting their crops to it, manuring, irrigating, and draining, converted a comparative desert into a productive estate.[1622] We can possibly, as Dr. Johnson insists, improve very little our knowledge of agriculture by erudite researches into the methods of the ancients; though Milton was of opinion, that even here some useful hints might be obtained. In describing, however, what the Greeks did, I am not pretending to enlighten the present age, but to enable it to enjoy its superiority by instituting a comparison with the ruder practices of antiquity.

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Footnote 1621:

De Re Rusticâ, i. 1. Cf. Colum. i. 1.

Footnote 1622:

Xenoph. Œconom. xx. 22, sqq.

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Already in those times the men of experience and routine,[1623] had begun to vent their sneers against philosophers for their profound researches into the nature of soils,[1624] in which, however, they by no means designed to engage the husbandman, but only to present him, in brief and intelligible maxims, with the fruit of their labours. Nevertheless the practical husbandman went to work a shorter way. He observed his neighbour’s grounds,[1625] saw what throve in this soil, what in the other, what was bettered by irrigation, what in this respect might safely be left to the care of Heaven; and thus, in a brief space, acquired a rough theory wherewith to commence operations. An agriculturist, the Athenians thought, required no recondite erudition, though to his complete success the exercise of much good sense and careful observation was necessary. Every man would, doubtless, know in what seasons of the year he must plough and sow and reap, that lands exhausted by cultivation must be suffered to lie fallow, that change of crops is beneficial to the soil, and so on. But the great art consists in nicely adapting each operation to the varying march of the seasons, in converting accidents to use, in rendering the winds, the showers, the sunshine, subservient to your purposes, in mastering the signs of the weather, and guarding as far as possible against the injuries sustained from storms of rain or hail.

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Footnote 1623:

Cf. Plat. De Legg. t. vii. p. 111. t. viii. p. 103.

Footnote 1624:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 1, sqq.

Footnote 1625:

The sight of a rich and thriving neighbour operated likewise as a spur
to his industry:—

Εἰς ἕτερον γάρ τίς τε ἰδὼν ἔργοιο χατίζων
Πλούσιον ὅς σπεύδει μέν ἀρόμμεναι ἠδὲ φυτεύειν,
Οἶκον τ᾽ εὖ θέσθαι· ζηλοῖ δὲ τε γείτονα γείτων
Εἰς ἄφενον σπεύδοντ᾽ ἀγαθὴ δ᾽
Ἔρις ἥδε βροτοῖσι.
Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 21, sqq.

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There was in circulation among the Greeks a small body of precepts, addressed more especially to husbandmen, designed to promote the real object of civilisation. Quaint, no doubt, and ineffably commonplace, they will now appear, but they served, nevertheless, in early and rude times, to soften the manners and regulate the conduct of the rustic Hellenes. Who first began to collect and preserve them is, of course, unknown; they are thickly sprinkled through the works of Hesiod,[1626] and impart to them an air of moral dignity which relieves the monotony that would otherwise result from a mere string of agricultural maxims. The chief aim of the poet seems to be, to promote peace and good neighbourhood, to multiply among the inhabitants of the fields occasions of joining the “rough right hand,”[1627] to apply the sharp spur to industry, and thus to augment the stores, and, along with them, the contentment, of his native land. Be industrious, exclaims the poet, for famine is the companion of the idle. Labour confers fertility on flocks and herds, and is the parent of opulence. He who toils is beloved by gods[1628] and men, while the idle hand is the object of their aversion. The slothful man envies the prosperity of his neighbour; but glory is the reward of virtue. Prudence heaps up that which profligacy dissipates. Be hospitable to the stranger, for he who repels the suppliant from his door is no less guilty than the adulterer, than the despoiler of the orphan, or the wretch who blasphemes his aged parent on the brink of the grave: of such men the end is miserable, when Zeus rains down vengeance upon them in recompense for their evil actions. Be mindful that thou offer up victims to the gods with pure hands and holy thoughts,—to pour libations in their temples, adorn their altars, and render them propitious to thee in all things. When about to ascend thy couch to enjoy sweet sleep, and when the sacred light of the day-spring first appears, omit not to demand of heaven a pure heart and a cheerful mind, with the means of extending thy possessions, and protection from loss. When thou makest a feast, invite thy friends and thy neighbours, and in times of trouble they will run to thy assistance half-clad, while thy relations will tarry to buckle on their girdles. Borrow of thy neighbour, but, in repaying him, exceed rather than fall short of what is his due. Rise betimes. Every little makes a mickle. Store is no sore. Housed corn breaks no sleep. Drink largely the top and the bottom of the jar; be sparing of the middle:[1629] it is niggardly to stint your friends when the wine runs low. Do unto others as they do unto you.—These seeds of morality are simple, as I have said, and far from recondite; but they produced the warriors of Marathon and Platæa, and preserved for ages the freedom and the independence of Greece.

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Footnote 1626:

Opp. et Dies, 298, sqq.

Footnote 1627:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 190.

Footnote 1628:

Καὶ τ᾽ ἐργαζόμενος πολὺ φίλτερος ἀθανάτοισιν.
Ἔσσεαι ἠδὲ βροτοῖς· μάλα γὰρ στυγέουσιν ἀεργούς.
Opp. et Dies. 309, seq.

Footnote 1629:

Cf. Plut. Sympos. vii. 3.

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The other branches of an Hellenic farmer’s studies comprehended something like the elements of natural philosophy,—the influence of the sun and moon, the rising and setting of the stars, the motion of the winds, the generation and effects of dews, clouds, meteors, showers and tempests, the origin of springs and fountains, and the migrations and habits of birds and other animals. In addition to these things, it was necessary that he should be acquainted with certain practices, prevalent from time immemorial in his country, and, probably, deriving their origin from ages beyond the utmost reach of tradition. The source of these we usually denominate superstition, though it would, perhaps, be more proper to regard them as the offspring of that lively and plastic fancy which gave birth to poetry and art, and inclined its possessors to create a sort of minor religion, based on a praiseworthy principle, but developing itself chiefly in observances almost always minute and trifling, and sometimes ridiculous. To describe all these at length would be beside my present purpose, which only requires that I mention by the way the more remarkable of those connected especially with agriculture.

The knowledge of soil was called into play both in purchasing estates and in appropriating their several parts to different kinds of culture. According to their notions, which appear to have been founded on long experience, and in most points, I believe, agree with those which still prevail, a rich black mould, deep, friable, and porous,[1630] which would resist equally the effects of rain and drought, was, for all purposes, the best. Next to this they esteemed a yellow alluvial soil, and that sweet warm ground which best suited vines, corn, and trees. The red earth, also, they highly valued, except for timber.

Their rules for detecting the character and qualities of the soil appear to have been judicious. Good land, they thought, might be known even from its appearance, since in drought it cracks not too much, and during heavy and continued showers becomes not miry, but suffers all the rain to sink into its bosom. That earth they considered inferior which in cold weather becomes baked, and is covered on the surface by a shell-like incrustation. They judged, likewise, of the virtue of the soil by the luxuriant or stunted character of its natural productions:[1631] thus they augured favourably of those tracts of country which were covered by vast and lofty timber-trees, while such as produced only a dwarfed vegetation, consisting of meagre bushes, scattered thickets, and hungry grass, they reckoned almost worthless.

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Footnote 1630:

Geop. ii. 9. In these rich loams, particularly on the banks of the
Stymphalian and Copaic lakes, wheat has been known to yield a return
of fifty-fold. Thiersch, Etat Act. de la Grèce. t. ii. p. 17.

Other spots, again, return thirty-fold. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 60.

Footnote 1631:

The pitch-pine indicated a light and hungry soil; the cypress, a
clayey soil. Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

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Not content with the testimony of the eye, some husbandmen were accustomed to consult both the smell and the taste; for, digging a pit of some depth, they took thence a small quantity of earth, from the odour of which they drew an opinion favourable or otherwise. But to render surety doubly sure, they then threw it into a vase, and poured on it a quantity of potable water, which they afterwards tasted, inferring from the flavour the fertility or barrenness of the soil. This was the experiment most relied on; though many considered that soil sweet which produced the basket-rush, the reed, the lotos, and the bramble. On some occasions they employed another method, which was, to make a small excavation, and then, throwing back the earth into the opening whence it had been drawn, to observe whether or not it filled the whole cavity:[1632] if it did so, or left a surplus, the soil was judged to be excellent; if not, they regarded it as of little value. Soils possessing saline qualities were shunned by the ancients, who carefully avoided mingling salt with their manure, though lands of this description were rightly thought to be well adapted to the cultivation of palm-trees,[1633] which they produce in the greatest perfection,[1634] as in Phœnicia, Egypt, and the country round Babylon.[1635]

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Footnote 1632:

Geop. ii. 11.

Footnote 1633:

The Grecian husbandman, therefore, when planting palm-trees in any
other than a sandy soil, sprinkled salt on the earth immediately
around. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 2.

Footnote 1634:

Geop. ii. 10.

Footnote 1635:

Xenoph. Anab. ii. 3. 16. The doom-palm, generally, I believe, supposed
to be peculiar to Upper Egypt and the countries beyond the cataract,
was anciently cultivated also in Crete. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 3.

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Another art in which the condition of the husbandman required him to be well versed was that of discovering the signs of latent springs,[1636] the existence of which it was necessary to ascertain before laying the foundation of a new farm. The investigation was complicated, and carried on in a variety of ways. First, and most obvious, was the inference drawn from plants and the nature of the soil itself; for those grounds, they thought, were intersected below by veins of water which bore upon their surface certain tribes of grasses and herbs and bushes, as the couch-grass, the broad-leaved plantain, the heliotrope, the red-grass, the agnus-castus, the bramble, the horse-tail, or shave-grass, ivy, bush-calamint, soft and slender reeds,[1637] maiden-hair, the melilot, ditch-dock, cinquefoil, or five leaf-grass, broad-leaved bloodwort, the rush, nightshade, mil-foil, colt’s-foot or foal’s-foot, trefoil or pond-weed, and the black thistle. Spring-heads were always supposed to lurk beneath fat and black loam, as, likewise, in a stony soil, especially where the rocks are dark and of a ferruginous colour. But in argillaceous districts, particularly where potter’s-clay abounds, or where there are many pebbles and pumice-stones,[1638] they are of rare occurrence.

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Footnote 1636:

Geop. ii. 4, sqq.

Footnote 1637:

Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

Footnote 1638:

Spallanzani, in his scientific Travels in the Two Sicilies, describes
and explains the cause of the rarity of springs in volcanic countries.
In some districts among the roots of Ætna the female peasants are
compelled to travel ten miles, at certain seasons of the year, in
search of water, a jar of which costs, consequently, almost a day’s
journey. vol. i. p. 299, sqq. In another part of the same work he
investigates the origin of springs in the Æolian isles, which he
illustrates by the example of Stromboli. iv. 128. In this island there
are two fountains, one of slightly tepid water, at the foot of the
mountain, the other on its slope. “Je recontrai,” observes Monsieur
Dolomieu, “à moitié hauteur une source d’eau froide, douce, légère et
très bonne à boire, qui ne tarit jamais et qui est l’unique ressourse
des habitans lorsque leurs cîternes sont épuisées et lorsque les
chaleurs ont desséché une seconde source qui est au pied de la
montagne ce qui arrive tous les étés.” He then adds with reason:
“Cette petite fontaine dans ce lieu très élevé au milieu des cendres
volcaniques, est très remarquable, elle ne peut avoir son réservoir
que dans une pointe de montagne isolée, toute de sable et de pierres
poreuses, matières qui ne peuvent point retenir l’eau, puisqu’elles
sont perméables à la fumée.” Voyage aux Iles de Lipari, t. i. p. 120.
He then endeavours to account for its existence by evaporation. In the
island of Saline, among the same Æolian group, there is another
never-failing spring, which, as some years no rain falls in these
islands during the space of nine months, has greatly perplexed the
theories of naturalists. Spallanzani conceives, however, that the
phenomenon may be explained in the usual way: “It appears to me,” he
says, “extremely probable, that in the internal parts of an island
which, like this, is the work of fire, there may be immense caverns
that may be filled with water by the rains; and that in some of these
which are placed above the spring, the water may always continue at
nearly the same height.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 136.

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To the above indications they were in most cases careful to add others. Ascending ere sunrise to a higher level than the spot under examination, they observed by the first rays and before the light thickened, whether they could detect the presence of any exhalations, which were held unerringly to indicate the presence of springs below. Sometimes inquisition was made during the bright and clear noon, when the subterraneous retreats of the Naiads were supposed in summer to be betrayed by cloudlets of thin silvery vapour, and in the winter season by curling threads of steam. In this way the natives of southern Africa discover the existence of hidden fountains in the desert.[1639] Swarms of gnats flitting hither and thither, or whirling round and ascending in a column, were regarded as another sign.

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Footnote 1639:

Le Vaillant, t. viii. p. 162. Even in the southern provinces of
France, the discovery of hidden springs is an art of no mean
importance; and the persons who possess it are regarded as public
benefactors. Thus, as I learn from my friend M. Louis Froment, of the
department of the Lot, M. Paramelle, a curé having a living in that
part of the country, is held in high estimation on account of the
power he possesses of discovering the lurking retreats of
spring-heads. He is able, from a certain distance, and without the
least hesitation, to point out the source of living water, determine
the depth at which it is to be found, say, without ever falling into
error, what is the quantity and what the quality of the water. Without
seeking to penetrate the plan, of which he keeps the secret, his
countrymen avail themselves of the advantages offered to them; and the
inhabitants of one village, situated on a calcareous tableland, have
discovered, by the assistance of M. Paramelle, a source in their
market-place, whilst before they were compelled to seek water at a
distance of five miles.

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When not entirely satisfied by any of the above means, they had recourse to the following experiment:[1640] sinking a pit to the depth of about four feet and a half, they took a hemispherical pan or lead basin, and having anointed it with oil, and fastened with wax a long flake of wool to the bottom, placed it inverted in the pit. It was then covered with earth about a foot deep, and left undisturbed during a whole night. On its being taken forth in the morning, if the inside of the vessel were covered thickly with globules, and the wool were dripping wet, it was concluded there were springs beneath, the depth of which they calculated from the scantiness or profusion of the moisture. A similar trial was made with a sponge covered with reeds.

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Footnote 1640:

Geop. ii. 4.

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Since most streams and rivers take their rise in lofty table-lands or mountains, which by the ancients were supposed to be richer in springs in proportion to the number of their peaks, it would seem to follow, that scarcely any country in Europe should be better supplied with water than Greece. Experience, however, shows, that this in modern times is not the fact, several rivers supposed to have been of great volume in antiquity, having now dwindled into mere brooks, and innumerable streamlets and fountains become altogether dry; on which account the credit of Greek writers is often impugned, it being supposed that the natural characteristics of the country must necessarily be invariable. But this is an error. For the existence of springs and rivulets depends less perhaps on the presence of mountains than on the prevalence of forests, as Democritos[1641] long ago observed. Now, from a variety of causes, still in active operation, the ridges and hills and lower eminences of modern Greece have been almost completely denuded of trees, along with which have necessarily disappeared the well-springs, and runnels, and cascades, and rills, and mountain tarns, which anciently shed beauty and fertility over the face of Hellas, whose highlands were once so densely clad with woods[1642] that the peasants requiring a short cut from one valley to another, were compelled to clear themselves a pathway with the axe.[1643] To restore to Greece, therefore, its waters, and the beauty and riches depending on them, the mountains must be again forested, and severe restraint put on the wantonness of those vagrant shepherds who constantly expose vast woods to the risk of entire destruction for the sake of procuring more delicate grass for their flocks.[1644]

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Footnote 1641:

Geop. ii. 6.

Footnote 1642:

Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 233, where he speaks of swarms of wild bees
on the slopes of the mountains.

In another passage this poet describes the ravages and devastation of
a hurricane amid the fountain forests:

Μῆνα δὲ Ληναιῶνα, κάκ᾽ ἤματα, βουδόρα πάντα,
τοῦτον ἀλεύασθαι, καὶ πηγάδας, αἵτ ἐπὶ γαῖαν
πνεύσαντος Βορέαο δυσηλεγέες τελέθουσιν,
ὅστε διὰ Θρῄκης ἱπποτρόφου ἐυρέϊ πόντῳ
ἐμπνεύσας ὤρινε· μέμυκε δὲ γαῖα καὶ ὕλη.
πολλὰς δὲ δρῦς ὑψικόμους ἐλάτας τε παχείας
οὔρεος ἐν βήσσῃς πιλνᾷ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ
ἐμπίπτων, καὶ πᾶσα βοᾷ τότε νήριτος ὕλη.
Opp. et Dies, 504, sqq.

The pine and pitch trees, it is related by Theophrastus, were often
uprooted by the winds in Arcadia. Hist. Plant. iii. 6. 4.

Footnote 1643:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 3. 7. In all countries, small and great, the
progress of civilisation has been inimical to forests. Thus in the
little island of Stromboli, containing about a thousand inhabitants,
attempts were made towards the end of the eighteenth century to
enlarge the cultivable ground by clearing away the woods. Spallanzani,
Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 126, seq. The difficulty of
extirpating trees is illustrated by Theophrastus who relates that, in
a spot near Pheneon in Arcadia, a well-wooded tract was overflowed by
the water and the trees destroyed. Next year, when the flood had
subsided and the mud dried, each kind of tree appeared in the
situation which it had formerly occupied. The willow, the elm, the
pine, and the fir, growing in its own place, doubtless from the roots
of the former trees. Hist. Plant. iii. 1. 2. Again: the Nessos, in the
territory of the Abderites, constantly changed its bed, and in the old
channels trees sprung up so rapidly that, in three years, they were so
many strips of forest. Id. iii. 1. 5.

Footnote 1644:

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce. t. i. p. 276. It is remarked by
Theophrastus, however, that pine forests, being destroyed by fire,
shot up again, as happened in Lesbos, on a mountain near Pyrrha. Hist.
Plant. iii. 9. 4.

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In Attica,[1645] both fields and gardens were chiefly irrigated by means of wells which, sometimes, in extremely long and dry summers, failed entirely, thus causing a scarcity of vegetables.[1646] The water, we find, was drawn up by precisely the same machinery as is still employed for the purpose. The invention of these conveniences of primary necessity having preceded the birth of tradition, has, by some writers, been attributed to Danaos, who is supposed to have emigrated from Egypt into Greece. Arriving, we are told, at Argos, he, upon the failure of spontaneous fountains, taught the inhabitants to dig wells, in consequence of which he was elected chief. But where was Danaos himself to have learned this art? He is said to have been an Egyptian, and Egypt is a country so entirely without springs, that two only exist within its limits, and of these but one was known to the ancients. Of wells they had none. Danaos could, therefore, if he was an Egyptian, have known nothing of springs or wells; and, if he had such knowledge, he must have come from some other land.[1647]

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Footnote 1645:

Cf. Chandler, i. p. 261. The apparatus now used in irrigation by the
Sciots exactly resembles that of the Egyptian Arabs. Id. i. 315.

Footnote 1646:

Demosth. Adv. Polycl. § 16. On the supply of water to Athens we
possess little positive information, though we cannot doubt that all
possible advantage was taken of those pure sources which are still
found in its neighbourhood. “In no country necessity was more likely
to have created the hydragogic art than in Attica; and we have
evidence of the attention bestowed by the Athenians upon their canals
and fountains in the time of Themistocles, as well as in that of
Alexander the Great.” Col. Leake, on some disputed points in the
Topography of Athens. Trans. Lit. Soc. iii. 189. Cf. Aristoph. Av.
Schol. 998. Plut. Themist. § 31. Arist. Polit. vi. 8. vii. 12. We
find, from Theophrastus, that there was in his time, an aqueduct in
the Lyceum with a number of plane trees growing near it. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. i. 7. 1.

Footnote 1647:

Mitford, i. 33, seq. In Bœotia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Cyrenaica,
the dew served instead of rain. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 4. 6.

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Where there existed neither wells nor fountains, people were compelled to depend on rain-water, collected and preserved in cisterns.[1648] For this purpose troughs were in some farm-houses run along the eaves both of the stables, barns, and sheep-cotes, as well as of the dwelling of the family, while others used only that which ran from the last, the roof of which was kept scrupulously clean. The water was conveyed through wooden pipes[1649] to the cisterns, which appear to have been frequently situated in the front court.[1650] Bad water they purified in several ways: by casting into it a little coral powder,[1651] small linen bags of bruised barley, or a quantity of laurel leaves, or by pouring it into broad tubs and exposing it for a considerable time to the action of the sun and air. When there happened to be about the farms ponds of any magnitude, they introduced into them a number of eels or river crabs, which opened the veins of the earth and destroyed leeches.

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Footnote 1648:

Λακκοὶ. Machon. ap. Athen. xiii. 43.

Footnote 1649:

Geop. ii. 7.

Footnote 1650:

Sir W. Hamilton, Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 13.

Footnote 1651:

Water was cooled by being suspended in vessels over the mouths of
wells; and sometimes boiled previously to render the process more
complete. For, according to the Peripatetics, πᾶν ὕδωρ προθερμανθὲν
ψύχεται μᾶλλον, ὥσπερ τὸ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι παρασκευαζόμενον, ὅταν ἑψηθῇ
μέχρι ζέσεως, περισωρεύουσι τῷ ἀγγείῳ χιόνα πολλὴν, καὶ γίνεται
ψυχρότερον. Plut. Sympos. vi. 4. 1.

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A scarcely less important branch of the farmer’s studies was that which related to the weather and the general march of the seasons.[1652] Above all things, it behoved him to observe diligently the rising and setting of the sun and moon. He was, likewise, carefully to note the state of the atmosphere at the disappearance of the Pleiades, since it was expected to continue the same until the winter solstice, after which a change sometimes immediately supervened, otherwise there was usually no alteration till the vernal equinox.[1653] Another variation then took place in the character of the weather, which afterwards remained fixed till the rising of the Pleiades, undergoing successively fresh mutations at the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. According to their observations, moreover, a rainy winter[1654] was followed by a dry and raw spring, and the contrary; and a snowy winter by a year of abundance. But as nature by no means steadily follows this course, exhibiting many sudden and abrupt fluctuations, it was found necessary to subject her restless phenomena to a more rigid scrutiny, in order that rules might be obtained for foretelling the approach of rain, or tempests, or droughts, or a continuance of fair weather. Of these some, possibly, were founded on imperfect observation or casual coincidences, or a fanciful linking of causes and effects; while others, we cannot doubt, sprang from a practical familiarity with the subtler and more shifting elements of natural philosophy.

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Footnote 1652:

Geop. i. 2–4. 11. Theophrast. De Signis Pluviarum et de Ventis,
_passim_. Our own agriculturists, also, were formerly much addicted to
these studies. Thus, “The oke apples, if broken in sunder about the
time of their withering, do foreshewe the sequel of the yeare, as the
expert Kentish husbandmen have observed, by the living things found in
them: as, if they find an ant, they foretell plentie of graine to
insue; if a whole worm, like a gentill or maggot, then they
prognosticate murren of beasts and cattle; if a spider, then (saie
they) we shall have a pestilence or some such like sickness to followe
amongst men. These things the learned, also, have observed and noted:
for Mathiolus, writing upon Dioscorides saith, that before they have
an hole through them, they conteine in them either a flie, a spider,
or a worme; if a flie, then warre insueth; if a creeping worme, then
scarcitie of victuals; if a running spider, then followeth great
sickness and mortalitie.” Gerrard, Herball, Third Book, c. 29. p.
1158. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 561.

Footnote 1653:

Cf. Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 486, seq.

Footnote 1654:

Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 675. 812.

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As nothing more obviously interests the husbandman than the seasonable arrival and departure of rains, everything connected with them, however remotely, was observed and treasured up with scrupulous accuracy. Of all the circumstances pre-signifying their approach the most certain was supposed to be the aspect of the morning; for if, before sunrise, beds of purpurescent clouds[1655] stretched along the verge of the horizon, rain was expected that day, or the day after the morrow. The same augury they drew, though with less confidence, from the appearance of the setting sun,[1656] especially if in winter or spring it went down through an accumulation of clouds or with masses of dusky rack on the left. Again, if, on rising, the sun looked pale, dull red, or spotted;[1657] or, if, previously, its rays were seen streaming upwards;[1658] or, if, immediately afterwards, a long band of clouds extended beneath it, intersecting its descending beams; or if the orient wore a sombre hue; or if piles of sable vapour towered into the welkin; or if the clouds were scattered loosely over the sky like fleeces of wool;[1659] or came waving up from the south in long sinuous streaks—the “mares’ tails” of our nautical vocabulary—the husbandman reckoned with certainty upon rain, floods, and tempestuous winds. Among the signs of showers peculiar to the site of Athens may be reckoned these following: if a rampart of white ground-fogs begirt at night the basis of Hymettos; or, if its summits were capped with vapour;[1660] or, if troops of mists settled in the hollow of the smaller mount, called the Springless; or, if a single cloud rested on the fane of Zeus at Ægina.[1661] The violent roaring of the sea upon the beach was the forerunner of a gale, and they were enabled to conjecture from what quarter it was to blow, by the movements of the waters, which retreated from the shore before a north wind; while, at the approach of the sirocco, they were piled up higher than usual against the cliffs. Elsewhere, in Attica, they supposed wet weather to be foretold by the summits of Eubœa rising clear, sharp, and unusually elevated through a dense floor of exhalations, which, when they mounted and gathered in blowing weather about the peaks of Caphareus,[1662] on the eastern shores of the island, presaged an impending storm of five days’ continuance. But here these signs concerned rather the mariner than the husbandman, since the cliffs that stretched along this coast are rugged and precipitous, and the approaches so dangerous that few vessels which are driven on it escape. Scarcely are the crews able to save themselves, unless their bark happen to be extremely light. Another portent of foul weather was the apparition of a circle about the moon, while, by the double reflection of its orb north and south, that luminary appeared to be multiplied into three. At night, also, if the nubecula,[1663] called the Manger, in the constellation of the Crab, shone less luminously, it betokened a similar state of the atmosphere. A like inference[1664] was drawn when the moon at three days old rose dusky; or, with blunt horns; or, with its rim, or whole disk, red; or blotted with black spots; or encircled by two halos.[1665]

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Footnote 1655:

Cf. Arato. Prognost. 102, sqq. But, on the other hand, “purus oriens,
atque non fervens, serenum diem nuntiat.” Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78.
Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 8.

Footnote 1656:

The sun-sets of the Mediterranean exhibit, as most travellers will
have observed, a variety of gorgeous phenomena, which, as betokening
certain states of the atmosphere serve as so many admonitions to the
husbandman. The sun before going down “assumed,” observes Dr.
Chandler, “a variety of fantastic shapes. It was surrounded, first,
with a golden glory of great extent, and flamed upon the surface of
the sea in a long column of fire. The lower half of the orb soon after
emerged in the horizon, the other portion remaining very large and
red, with half of a smaller orb beneath it, and separate, but in the
same direction, the circular rim approaching the line of its diameter.
These two, by degrees, united, and then changed rapidly into different
figures, until the resemblance was that of a capacious punch-bowl
inverted. The rim of the bottom extending upward, and the body
lengthening below it, became a mushroom on a stalk with a round head.
It was next metamorphosed into a flaming caldron, of which the lid,
rising up, swelled nearly into an orb and vanished. The other portion
put on several uncircular forms, and, after many twinklings and faint
glimmerings, slowly disappeared, quite red, leaving the clouds hanging
over the dark rocks on the Barbary shore finely tinged with a vivid
bloody hue.” Travels, i. p. 4. Appearances similar, though of inferior
brilliance and variety, are sometimes witnessed in the Western
Hemisphere. Describing the beauties of an evening on the Canadian
shore, Sir R. H. Bonnycastle observes: “First, there was a double sun
by reflection, each disk equally distinct; afterwards, when the orb
reached the mark x, a solid body of light, equal in breadth with the
sun itself, but of great length from the shore, shot down on the sea,
and remained like a broad fiery golden column, or bar, until the black
high land hid the luminary itself.” The Canadas in 1841. v. i. p. 34.

Footnote 1657:

Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum
Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe;
Suspecti tibi sint imbres.
Virg. Georg. i. 441, sqq.

Footnote 1658:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78. Aratus, Prognost. 137, sqq.

Footnote 1659:

Cf. Plin. xviii. 82. “Si nubes ut vellera lanæ spargentur multæ ab
oriente, aquam in triduum præsagient;” and Virg. Georg, i. 397:

Tenuia nec lanæ per cœlum vellera ferri.

Footnote 1660:

If the Mounts Parnes and Brylessus appeared enveloped in clouds, the
circumstance was thought to foretel a tempest. Theoph. de Sign. Pluv.
iii. 6. Cf. Strabo. ix. 11. t. ii. p. 253.

Footnote 1661:

Pausan. ii. 30. 3. Pind. Nem. v. 10. Dissen.—Müll. Æginetica, § 5. p.
19.

Footnote 1662:

Dion. Chrysost. i. 222. Cf. Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 1.

Footnote 1663:

This is explained by Lord Bacon. “The upper regions of the air,” he
observes, “perceive the collection of the matter of tempest and wind
before the air here below. And, therefore, the observing of the
smaller stars is a sign of tempests following.” Sylva Sylvarum, 812.

Footnote 1664:

Similar observations have been made in most countries, as we find from
the signs of the weather collected by Erra Pater, and translated by
Lilly, Part iv. § 3–5.

Footnote 1665:

Cf. Seneca. Quæst. Nat. i. c. 2.

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The phenomena of thunder and lightning, likewise, instructed the husbandman who was studious in the language of the heavens: thus, when thunder was heard in winter or in the morning, it betokened wind; in the evening or at noon, in summer, rain; when it lightened from every part of the heavens, both. Falling stars[1666] likewise denoted wind or rain, originating in that part of the heavens where they appeared.

Among our own rustics the whole philosophy of rainbows has been compressed into a couple of distichs:

A rainbow at night
Is the shepherd’s delight.
A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd’s warning.

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Footnote 1666:

Aristot. Problem, xxvi. 24. Alexand. Aphrodis. Problem. i. 72. Plin.
xviii. 80. Virg. Georg. i. 365, sqq.

Sæpe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis
Præcipites cœlo labi, noctisque per umbram
Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus.

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And upon this subject,[1667] the peasants of Hellas had little more to say; their opinion having been that, in proportion to the number of rainbows, would be the fury and continuance of the showers with which they were threatened.

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Footnote 1667:

On the effects of the rainbow the ancients held a curious opinion,
which Lord Bacon thus expounds:—“It hath been observed by the
ancients, that where a rainbow seemeth to hang over or to touch, there
breathed forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happeneth
but in certain matters which have in themselves some sweetness, which
the gentle dew of the rainbow doth draw forth, and the like to soft
showers, for they also make the ground sweet, but none are so delicate
as the dew of the rainbow where it falleth.” Sylva Sylvarum. 832. His
Lordship here, as in many other places, adopts the explanation of the
Peripatetics while he seems to be himself assigning the cause of the
phenomenon. Aristotle (Problem. 12. 3) enters fully into the subject,
which appears to have been brought under the notice of philosophers by
the shepherds who had observed that when certain thickets had been
laid in ashes the passing of a rainbow over the spot caused a sweet
odour to exhale from it. The same fact is noticed by Theophrastus, De
Caus. Plant. 6. 17. 7. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. 12. 52. 21. 18. 2. 60. To
many among the older philosophers that comparatively rare phenomenon,
the lunar rainbow, was unknown. (Arist. Meteor. iii. 2: νύκτωρ δ᾽ ἀπὸ
σελήνης ὡς μὲν οἱ ἀρχαῖοι ᾢοντο οὐκ ἐγίγνετο·) but in the time of
Aristotle it had been observed, and the cause of its pearly whiteness
investigated. Cf. Meteorol. iii. 4. 5. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 2, sqq.

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Other signs of mutation in the atmosphere they discovered in almost every part of nature; for example, when bubbles rose on the surface of a river they looked for a fall of rain; as also when small land-birds were seen drenching their plumage; when the crow was beheld washing his head upon the rocky beach,[1668] or the raven flapping his wings, while with his voice he imitated amidst his croaking the pattering of drops of rain; when the peasant was awakened in the morning by the cry of the passing crane,[1669] or the shrill note of the chaffinch within his dwelling. Flights of island birds flocking to the continent,[1670] preceded drought; as a number of jackdaws and ravens flying up and down, and imitating the scream of the hawk, did rain. The incessant shrieks of the screech-owl and the vehement cawing of the crow, heard during a serene night, foretold the approach of storms. The barn-door fowl and the house-dog also played the part of soothsayers, teaching their master to dread impending storms by rolling themselves in the dust. Of similar import was the flocking of geese with noise to their food, or the skimming of swallows along the surface of the water.[1671] Again, when troops of dolphins were seen rolling near the shore, or oxen licking their fore-hoofs, or looking southwards, or, with a suspicious air, snuffing the elements,[1672] or going bellowing to their stalls; when wolves approached the homesteads; when flies bit sharp,[1673] or frogs croaked vociferously, or the ruddock, or land-toad, crept into the water; when the salamander lizard appeared, and the note of the green-frog was heard in the trees, the rustic donned his capote, and prepared, like Anaxagoras at Olympia,[1674] for a shower. The flight of the storm-birds, kepphoi,[1675] was supposed to indicate a tempest from the point of the heavens towards which they flew. When in bright and windless weather clouds of cobwebs,[1676] floated through the air, the husbandman anticipated a drenching for his fields, as also when earthen pots and brass pans emitted sparks; when lamps spat; when the wick made mushrooms;[1677] when a halo encircled its flame,[1678] or when the flame itself was dusky. The housewife was forewarned of coming hail-storms, generally from the north, by a profusion of bright sparks appearing on the surface of her charcoal fire; when her feet swelled she knew that the wind would blow from the south.[1679] Heaps of clouds like burnished copper rising after rain in the west portended fine weather; as did likewise the tops of lofty mountains, as Athos, Ossa, and Olympos, appearing sharply defined against the sky; while an apparent augmentation in the height of promontories and the number of islands foreshowed wind.

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Footnote 1668:

Cf. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7.

Footnote 1669:

Φράζεσθαι δ᾽, εὖτ᾽ ἂν γεράνου φωνὴν ἐπακούσῃς
ὑψόθεν ἐκ νεφέων ἐνιαύσια κεκληγυίης·
ἥτ᾽ ἀρότοιο τε σῆμα φέρει, καὶ χείματος ὥρην
δεικνύει ομβρηροῦ· κραδίην δ᾽ ἔδακ’ ἀνδρὸς ἀβούτεω.
Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 448, sqq.

To the same purpose, Homer:—Il. γ. 3, sqq.

Ἠΰτε περ κλαγγὴ γεράνων πέλει οὐρανόθι πρὸ,
αἵτ᾽ ἐπεὶ οὖν χειμῶνα φύγον καὶ ἀθέσφατον ὄμβρον,
κλαγγῇ ταίγε πέτονται ἐπ’ Ὠκεανοῖο ῥοάων.

And Aristophanes:—(Av. 710, sqq.)

Πρῶτα μὲν ὥρας φαίνομεν ἡμεῖς ἦρος, χειμῶνος, ὀπώρας ·
Σπείρειν μὲν, ὅταν γέρανος κρώζουσ᾽ ἐς τὴν Λιβύην μεταχωρῇ,
καὶ πηδάλιον τότε ναυκλήρῳ φράζει κρεμάσαντι καθεύδειν.

Footnote 1670:

All birds which frequent the sea, more particularly those which fly
high, are observed to seek terra firma at the approach of foul
weather:—Ἀριστοτέλους ἀκούω λέγοντος, ὅτι ἄρα γέρανοι ἐκ τοὺς πελάγους
εἰς τὴν γῆν πετόμενοι, χειμῶνος ἀπειλὴν ἰσχουραὶ ὑποσημαίνουσι τῷ
συνιέντι. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7. Before the great earthquake of
1783, which shook the whole of Calabria and destroyed the city of
Messina, the mews and other aquatic birds were observed to forsake the
sea and take refuge in the mountains. Spallanzani, Travels in the Two
Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 158.

Footnote 1671:

Aut arguta lacus circumvolitat hirundo. Virg. Georg. i. 377. “Hirundo
tam juxta aquam volitans, ut penna sæpe percutiat.” Plin. xviii. 87.

Footnote 1672:

Plin. xviii. 88. Virg. Georg. i. 375.—Ælian, De Nat. Anim. vii. 8,
describes the ox before rain snuffing the earth, and adds: πρόβατα δὲ
ἐρυττοντα ταῖς ὁπλαῖς τὴν γῆν, ἔοικε σημαίνειν χιεμῶνα.

Footnote 1673:

Cf. Ælian De Nat. Anim. viii. 8.

Footnote 1674:

Diog. Laert. i. 3. 5. Ælian (De Nat. Anim. vii. 8) relates a curious
anecdote of Hipparchos who, from some change in the goatskin cloak he
wore, likewise foretold a rain storm to the great admiration of Nero.

Footnote 1675:

Probably the storm-finch observed frequently on the wing flying along
the Ægean sea, particularly when it is troubled. Sibth. in Walp. Mem.
i. 76.

Footnote 1676:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvii. 63, where he investigates the causes of
the phenomenon; and Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 28.

Footnote 1677:

Vid. Aristoph. Vesp. 262. The Scholiast entertains a somewhat
different notion:—φασὶν ὅτι ὑετοῦ μέλλοντος γενέσθαι οἱ περὶ τὴν
θρυαλλίδα τοῦ λύχνου σπινθῆρες ἀποπηδῶσιν, οὓς μύκητας νῦν λέγει, ὡς
τοῦ λύχνου ἐναντιουμένου τῷ νοτερῷ ἀέρι· καὶ Ἄρατος “ἢ λύχνοιο μύκητες
ἐγείρονται περὶ μύξαν, νύκτα κατὰ νοτίην.”

Footnote 1678:

Aristot. Meteorol. iii. 4. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. 2.

Footnote 1679:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 17.

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