Religious garden design

79.Religion and magic were also called in to the aid of the cultivator. Columella says that husbandmen who are more religious than ordinary, when they sow turnips, pray that they may grow, both for themselves, and for their neighbours. If caterpillars attack them, Democritus affirms that a woman going with her hair loose, and barefooted, three times round each bed will kill them. Women must be rarely admitted where cucumbers or gourds are planted; for, commonly, green things languish, and are checked in their growth, by their handling of them.