BOOK VIII. Lxxvii. 206-209 



their front teeth." It is thought that a sow that loses 

 an eye soon dies, but that otherwise sows hve to 

 fifteen and in some cases even twenty years ; but 

 they become savage, and in any case the breed is 

 liable to diseases, especially quinsy and scrofula. 

 Symptoms of bad health in a sow are when blood 

 is found on the root of a bristle pulled out of its 

 back and when it holds its head on one side in 

 walking. If too fat they experience lack of milk; 

 and they have a smaller number of pigs in their 

 first htter. The breed hkes wallowing in mud. 

 The tail is curly ; also it has been noticed that it 

 is easier to kill them for sacrifice when the tail 

 curls to the right than when to the left. They take 

 60 days to fatten, but fatten better if feeding up 

 is preceded by three days' fast. The pig is the 

 most brutish of animals, and there used to be a 

 not unattractive idea that its soul was given it to 

 serve as sah.'' It is a known fact that some pigs 

 carried off by thieves recognized the voice of their 

 swineherd, crowded to one side of the ship till it 

 capsized and sank, and swam back to shore. More- 

 over the leaders of a hei-d in the city learn to go 

 to the market place and to find their way home ; 

 and wild hogs know how to obhterate their tracks 

 by crossing marshy ground, and to reHeve them- 

 selves when running away by making water. Sows 

 are spayed in the same way as also camels are, by 

 being hung up by the fore legs after two days 

 without food and having the matrix cut out ; this 

 makes them fatten quicker. There is also a method 

 of treating the Hver of sows as of geese, a discovery 

 of Marcus Apicius — they are stuffed with dried fig, 

 and when full killed directly after having been 



145 



