306 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



"I remember having seen that beautiful honey- 

 comb network," said Jules, "and the coarse velvet 

 lining of the paunch. They were very interesting. " 



"The office of the honeycomb is to receive, in 

 small portions, the food already somewhat softened 

 in the paunch, and to mold it into balls, which rise 

 one at a time to the ruminant's mouth. That in fact 

 is where the alimentary balls are made that we see 

 gliding from below upward, under the skin of the 

 neck of the ruminating ox. 



"After being re-chewed to the proper fineness the 

 food does not return to the paunch, where it would 

 mix with material not yet similarly prepared ; it goes 

 to the third stomach, or manyplies, so named on ac- 

 count of its numerous and wide parallel folds, hav- 

 ing some resemblance in arrangement to the leaves 

 of a book. 



"From the manyplies the food passes finally to a 

 fourth and last stomach called the rennet-bag. 

 After this come the intestines. Now guess whence 

 we get that significant name of rennet, knowing as 

 you do what I hare especially in mind in this con- 

 nection?" 



"You have in mind," answered Jules, "a certain 

 liquid, rennet, that makes milk curdle quickly. The 

 word rennet, or runnet, as it is also written, must 

 be connected with the verb run, in the sense of drop- 

 ping, coagulating. Can it be, then, that from this 

 fourth stomach or rennet-bag of ruminants we get 

 the liquid rennet that is used for curdling milk?" 



"You have said it yourself," declared Uncle Paul, 



