DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 



245 



oak-trees to supply the animals with acorns. These preserves 

 were called gliraria; holes were dug in the inside of the yard 

 for the dormice to breed in; a little water was supplied to them, 

 but dry soil was necessary. They were fattened in large jars 

 (doliis), and were plentifully supplied with acorns, chestnuts, and 

 walnuts. In these dark places they soon got fat. . . . Dormice 



Fig. 1178. The Fat Dormouse or Loir (Myoxus glis] 



were considered articles of such luxury that one of the consuls, 

 M. Scaurus, prohibited them by a censor's edict, and, as Pliny 

 says, ' they were banished from our tables '. Notwithstanding 

 this edict, however, a glirarium appears to have been an ordi- 

 nary adjunct of a Roman gentleman's villa. ... I believe the 

 fat dormouse is still eaten in some parts of Italy, but how far 

 the flavour depended on the inherent good quality of the crea- 

 ture's flesh, or on the mode in which it was cooked, I am unable 

 to say." 



