It will be as well, too, here to give some advice, in reference to the climate of Italy, as to certain precautions to be observed at certain hours of the day. You, woodman, must never lop the branches in the middle of the day; and you, shepherd, when you see midday approaching in summer, and the shadow gradually decreasing, drive your flocks from out of the sun into some well-shaded spot. When you lead the flocks to pasture in summer, let them face the west before midday,[670] and after that time, the east: if this precaution is not adopted, calamitous results will ensue; the same, too, if the flocks are led in winter or spring to pastures covered with dew. Nor must you let them feed with their faces to the north, as already mentioned;[671] for the wind will either close their eyes or else make them bleared, and they will die of looseness. If you wish to have females,[672] you should let the dams have their faces towards the north while being covered. CHAP. 77. (34.)—THE LAYING OUT OF LANDS ACCORDING TO THE POINTS OF THE WIND. We have already stated[673] that the umbilicus should be described in the middle of the line. Let another line be drawn transversely through the middle of it, and it will be found to run from due east to due west; a trench cut through the land in accordance with this line is known by the name of “decumanus.” Two other lines must then be traced obliquely across them in the form of the letter X, in such a way as to run exactly from right and left of the northern point to left and right of the southern one. All these lines must pass through the centre of the umbilicus, and all must be of corresponding length, and at equal distances. This method should always be adopted in laying out land; or if it should be found necessary to employ it frequently, a plan[674] of it may be made in wood, sticks of equal length being fixed upon the surface of a small tambour,[675] but perfectly round. In the method which I am here explaining, it is necessary to point out one precaution that must always be observed by those who are unacquainted with the subject. The point that must be verified first of all is the south, as that is always the same; but the sun, it must be remembered, rises every day at a point in the heavens different to that of his rising on the day before, so that the east must never be taken as the basis for tracing the lines.