123These things observed, they press on as the season approaches, and spend all their care in filling out with firm fat the one they have chosen as leader and named as husband of the herd; 126and they cut flowering grass and supply rivers and corn, so that he may not fail to be equal to his pleasant labour, and weak offspring may not reflect the hunger of their sires. 129But the females themselves they purposely make thin and lean, and when the now familiar pleasure first prompts them to mate, they both deny them leaves and keep them from springs. 132Often too they shake them with running and tire them in the sun, when the threshing-floor groans heavily as the grain is pounded, and when the empty chaff is tossed to the rising west wind.
135This they do so that the use of the fertile field may not be dulled by too much indulgence and clog its sluggish furrows, but that it may thirstily seize love and store it deep within.