- AD 77–79, Gaius Plinius Secundus (author), Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor), Naturalis Historia (1906), book XV, chapter xxviii:
- quae causa eas nuptiis fecit religiosas, tot modis fetu munito, quod est veri similius quam quia cadendo tripudium sonivium faciant.
- It is for this reason that this fruit has been looked upon as a symbol consecrated to marriage, its offspring being thus protected in such manifold ways: an explanation which bears a much greater air of probability than that which would derive it from the rattling which it makes when it bounds from the floor. ― translation from: John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book XV: “The Natural History of the Fruit-trees”, chapter xxiv (xxii): ‘Nine Varieties of the Nut’
