351And so that we might learn these things by sure signs, heat and rain and the winds that bring cold, the Father himself decreed what the monthly Moon should warn, at what sign the south winds should drop, what sight, seen often, should make farmers keep their herds nearer the stalls. 356At once, when winds are rising, either the straits of the sea begin to toss and swell, and a dry crashing to be heard on the high mountains, or the shores, echoing far, to be thrown into confusion, and the murmur of the woods to grow louder. 360Already then the wave scarcely holds back from the curved keels, when the swift divers fly back from mid-sea and carry their cry to the shores, and when the sea-coots play on dry land, and the heron leaves its familiar marshes and flies above the high cloud.
365Often too, when wind threatens, you will see stars fall headlong from the sky, and through the shadow of night long trails of flame grow white behind them; 368often light chaff and fallen leaves flutter, or feathers floating on the surface of the water play together. 370But when it lightens from the quarter of the savage North Wind, and when the home of the East and West Winds thunders, all the countryside swims with brimming ditches and every sailor on the sea furls his wet sails. 373Never has rain harmed the unwarned: either the airy cranes have fled it as it rises from the valley floor, or the heifer, looking up at the sky, has caught the breezes with wide nostrils, or the shrill swallow has flitted round the lakes, and the frogs in the mud have croaked their ancient complaint.
379More often too the ant, wearing a narrow path, has brought her eggs out of her inner chambers, and the great rainbow has drunk, and an army of rooks, leaving their pasture in a long column, has clamoured with crowded wings. 383Now the various birds of the sea, and those that search the Asian meadows around the sweet pools of Caystrus, you may see eagerly pouring copious spray over their shoulders, now ducking their heads into the waves, now running into the water, and revelling in a vain zeal for bathing. 388Then the wicked crow calls for rain with full voice and stalks alone by herself on the dry sand.
390Not even girls spinning their nightly tasks have failed to know of a storm, when they saw the oil sputter in the burning lamp and crumbling mould gather on the wick.