Cum dabit aura viam, præbebis carbasa ventis.—Epist. vii. 171.
When the gale favors, give the wind your sails.
Sed non, quo dederas a litore carbasa, vento
Utendum, medio cum potiare freto.—Art. Am. ii. 357.
The wind to which you give your sails on shore,
In the mid ocean will assist no more.
Dumque parant torto subducere carbasa lino.—Fast. iii. 587.
They now with twisted ropes let down the sails.
In all these passages Ovid uses carbasa in the improper sense: it was an easy transition from the idea of a cotton awning, with which the Romans had become familiar, to apply the term to the sail of a ship. To these examples we may add the following:
Et sequitur curvus fugienta carbasa delphin.