100 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



they prognosticated his Death. There are many kinds of 

 them in the Country of Cyrerie : some with a broad Fore- 

 head, others with a sharp-pointed ; and some with sharp 

 Bristles, like Hedgehogs. Theophrastus reporteth, that they 

 drove away the Inhabitants of the Island Gyaros, and 

 gnawed even the Iron : a Thing which it seems their 

 Nature to do ; for among the Chalybes they eat the Iron in 

 the Smiths' Workshops ; and, indeed, in Gold Mines 1 on 

 this Account they cut open their Bowels, and so they always 

 find their stolen Goods again : such Delight this Creature 

 taketh in thieving. We read in the Chronicles, that when 

 Annibal besieged Casilinum, a Mouse (Murem) was sold 

 for two hundred Sesterces ; and the Man who bought it 

 lived, but he that sold it died for Hunger. If white ones 

 abound, it presageth Prosperity. Our Annals are full of 

 Instances, that when Rats (Sorices) are heard to squeak 

 the Auspices are broken off. Nigidius saith, that Rats also 

 lie hid in Winter, like Dormice 2 (Glires). By the Laws of 

 the Censors, and principally by an Act of M. Scaurus, in his 

 Consulship, it was provided that these should be kept away 

 from Suppers in no other Manner than were Shell-fish, or 

 Birds brought from foreign Countries. The Dormouse is a 

 half- wild Creature ; and he who first contrived to keep 

 Boars in Parks, also fed these Animals in Tubs. In which 

 Practice it hath been observed, that these little Creatures 

 will not associate unless they were Inhabitants of the same 

 Wood ; and if there be mingled among them any Strangers, 

 such as had some River or Mountain between the Places 

 where they were bred, they kill one another with fighting. 



1 Livy tells us, Lib. xxviii. 23, that at Cumse mice gnawed some gold 

 in the temple of Jupiter ; and again, Lib. xxx. 2, that at Antium some 

 mice gnawed a golden crown. Wern. Club. 



2 Myoxus glis. Cuv. An animal as big as a rat, and not to be con- 

 founded with the little English creature of the same name : the M. Avel- 

 lanarius of Cuvier. The Romans regarded dormice as a great delicacy, 

 rearing them in enclosures, and lodging them in earthen jars of a peculiar 

 form ; and fattening them with worms and chestnuts. B. xxxvi. c. 2. 

 The writers on agriculture speak of the rearing of these creatures as they 

 do of any other country work. Wern. Club. 



