seek shelter, have this one care, to gain thick coverts or some
hollow rock. Then, like the Three-legged One (24) whose back is
broken and whose head looks down upon the ground, like him, I
say, they wander to escape the white snow.

(ll. 536-563) Then put on, as I bid you, a soft coat and a tunic
to the feet to shield your body, -- and you should weave thick
woof on thin warp. In this clothe yourself so that your hair may
keep still and not bristle and stand upon end all over your body.

Lace on your feet close-fitting boots of the hide of a
slaughtered ox, thickly lined with felt inside. And when the
season of frost comes on, stitch together skins of firstling kids
with ox-sinew, to put over your back and to keep off the rain.
On your head above wear a shaped cap of felt to keep your ears
from getting wet, for the dawn is chill when Boreas has once made
his onslaught, and at dawn a fruitful mist is spread over the
earth from starry heaven upon the fields of blessed men: it is
drawn from the ever flowing rivers and is raised high above the
earth by windstorm, and sometimes it turns to rain towards
evening, and sometimes to wind when Thracian Boreas huddles the
thick clouds. Finish your work and return home ahead of him, and
do not let the dark cloud from heaven wrap round you and make
your body clammy and soak your clothes. Avoid it; for this is
the hardest month, wintry, hard for sheep and hard for men. In
this season let your oxen have half their usual food, but let
your man have more; for the helpful nights are long. Observe all
this until the year is ended and you have nights and days of
equal length, and Earth, the mother of all, bears again her
various fruit.