[57]
By the
way, Democritus gives a very good explanation of
why cocks crow before day. 'Their food,' he says,
' after it has been digested, is expelled from the craw
and is distributed over the entire body. By the
time that process is completed they have had sleep
enough and begin to crow.' And then, 'in the
silence of the night,' as Ennius says, ' they indulge
their russet throats in song and beat their flapping
wings.' In view, then, of the fact that this creature
is prone to crow of its own volition at any time,
and may be made to crow either by nature or by
chance, how did it ever occur to Callisthenes to say
[p. 437]
that the gods conveyed prophecies to men by the
crowing of cocks?
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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