In Varro we find it stated to the following effect:—“If, at the fourth day of the moon, her horns are erect, there will be great storms at sea, unless, indeed, she has a circlet[685] around her, and that circlet unblemished; for by that sign we are informed that there will be no stormy weather before full moon. If, at the full moon, one half of her disk is clear, it is indicative of fine weather, but if it is red, of wind, and if black, of rain. If a darkness comes over the face of the moon, covered with clouds, in whatever quarter it breaks, from that quarter wind may be expected. If a twofold circle surrounds the moon, the storm will be more violent, and even more so still, if there are three circles, or if they are black, broken, and disjointed. If the new moon at her rising has the upper horn obscured, there will be a prevalence of rainy weather, when she is on the wane; but if it is the lower horn that is obscured, there will be rain before full moon; if, again, the moon is darkened in the middle of her disk, there will be rain when she is at full. If the moon, when full, has a circle round her, it indicates wind from the quarter in the circle which is the brightest; but if at her rising the horns are obtuse, they are portentous of a frightful tempest. If, when the west wind prevails, the moon does not make her appearance before her fourth day, there will be a prevalence of stormy weather throughout the month. If on the sixteenth day the moon has a bright, flaming appearance, it is a presage of violent tempests.” There are eight different epochs of the moon, or periods at which she makes certain angles of incidence with the sun, and most persons only notice the prognostics derived from the moon, according to the places which they occupy between these angles. The periods of these angles are the third day, the seventh, the eleventh, the fifteenth, the nineteenth, the twenty-third, the twenty-seventh, and that of the conjunction. CHAP. 80.—PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM THE STARS.