DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 245 
oak-trees to supply the animals with acorns. These preserves 
were called givaria; 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 
(dots), 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 (Zyoxus 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 gézvarzum 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.” 
