BOOK VII. viii, 5-7 



place which is not exposed to the winds. Under 

 these conditions it does not become full of holes or 

 salty or dry, the first of these bad conditions being 

 generally due to too little pressure, the second to its 

 being over-salted, and the third to its being scorched 

 by the sun. This kind of cheese can even be 

 exported beyond the sea. Cheese which is to be 

 eaten within a few days while still fresh, is prepared 

 with less trouble ; for it is taken out of the wicker- 

 baskets and dipped into salt and brine and then 

 dried a little in the sun. Some people, before they 

 put the shackles " on the she-goats, drop green pine- 

 nuts into the pail and then milk the she-goats over 

 them and only remove them when they have trans- 

 ferred the curdled milk into the moulds. Some 

 crush the green pine-kernels by themselves and mix 

 them with the milk and curdle it in this way. Others ' 

 allow thyme which has been crushed and pounded 

 through a sieve to coagulate with the milk ; similarly, 

 you can give the cheese any flavour you like by adding 

 any seasoning which you choose. The method of 

 making what we call " hand-pressed " cheese is the 

 best-known of all : when the milk is slightly con- 

 gealed in the pail and still warm, it is broken up and 

 hot water is poured over it, and then it is either shaped 

 by hand or else pressed into box-wood moulds. 

 Cheese also which is hardened in brine and then 

 coloured with the smoke of apple-tree wood or 

 stubble has a not unpleasant flavour. But let us now 

 return to the point from which we digressed.'' 



" I.e. to restrain them while they are being milked. 



* The author regards this chapter on cheese-making as a 

 digression from his real subject, which is a description of the 

 smaller domestic animals. 



289 

 VOL. II. L 



