From July Nineteenth until September First:
“In these Dog Days, it is forbidden by astronomy to all manner of people to be let blood or take physic. Yea, it is good to abstain all this time from women. For why, all that time, reigneth a star that is called Canicula Canis, a hound in English. All this time, the heat of the sun is so fervent and violent that men’s bodies at midnight sweat as at midday; and if they be hurt, they be more sick than at any other time— yea, very near dead.”
— The Husbandman’s Practice, 1729
Or, as Norma’s Grandma used to say,
"When the Weather’s hot and sticky,
That’s no time for Dunkin’ Dicky;
When the Frost is on the Punkin’
—that’s the time for Dicky Dunkin’!”
