FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 59 



to be burning red, the hedgehog is done, and must be 

 taken out of the hole ; the clay-crust of the pie being 

 opened, the hedgehog's bristles are found sticking to it, 

 and the savoury dinner is ready. 



The fashion of eating hedgehogs was not, in former 

 days confined to gipsies. There was a farmer's family 

 living at Long Compton, near Oxford, who were supplied 

 with hedgehogs by our informant's grandmother; this 

 family used also to breed them, keep and fatten several 

 litters, " and," said the gipsy, " they used to eat up every 

 litter they bred, dressing 'em just when they wanted 'em, 

 like they did the fowls." 



Sometimes a nest of young hedgehogs is found by the 

 gipsies : if they are too small for eating, they are pre- 

 served till fit for use, or, as it is called in Oxfordshire, 

 " flitted," that is, a string is tied to the hind leg, and the 

 doomed animal is allowed to wander about the length of 

 his tether, picking up what he can get ; under this system, 

 if well fed, he will fatten wonderfoUy. 



Carnivora. — We next come to the animals of prey. 



Bears. — Of the carnivorous Plantigrades, the flesh of 

 our Mend Bruin is occasionally devoured. The bear was 

 eaten by the Romans, but it is clear that it was con- 

 sidered a rarity, and not relished by everybody. In the 

 famous narrative which Petronius gives of the dinner at 

 Trimalchio's, he represents a man who had dined at 

 another house dropping in to dessert, and describing the 

 feast enjoyed at the house he had just left. " We had," 

 he said, " a joint of bear, which my wife Scintilla was 

 rash enough to taste. On the other hand, I ate more 

 than a pound of it, for it tasted like boar itself ; and for 

 my part, I say, that if bear eats man, man has a much 

 greater right to eat bear." 



The liver of the American bear is a peculiar luxury 

 when dressed on skewers, kabob fashion, with alternate 

 slices of fat. The liver, however, of the Polar bear is 

 said to be unwholesome and dangerous. 



Liver-sausage is regarded as an exquisite delicacy 

 throughout Germany, and it would appear from a quaint 



