Chap. 8.] 
WOOD rOR riJEL. 
349 
charcoal is that obtained from the wood of young trees.^® 
Square billets of wood, newly cut, are piled compactly together 
with clay, and built up in the form of a chimney ; the pile is 
then set fire to, and incisions are made in the coat of clay as it 
gradually hardens, by the aid of long poles, for the purpose of 
letting the moisture of the wood evaporate. 
The worst kind of all, however, both for timber and for 
making charcoal, is the oak known as the haliphloeos,"^^ the 
bark of which is remarkably thick, and the trunk of consider- 
able size, but mostly hollow and spongy : it is the only one 
of this species that rots while the tree is still alive. In 
addition to this, it is very frequently struck by lightning, 
although it is not so remarkably lofty in height: for this 
reason it is not considered lawful to employ its wood for the 
purposes of sacrifice. It is but rarely that it bears any acorns, 
and when it does they are bitter : no animal will touch them, 
with the sole exception of swine, and not even they, if they 
can get any other food. An additional reason also for its ex- 
clusion from all religious ceremonials, is the circumstance 
that the fire is very apt to go out in the middle of the 
sacrifice when the wood of it is used for fuel. 
The acorn of the beech, when given to swine,^^ makes them 
brisk and lively, and renders the flesh tender for cooking, and 
light and easy of digestion ; while, on the other hand, that of 
the holm oak has the effect of making them thin, pallid, 
meagre, and lumpish. The acorn of the quercus is of a broad 
shape, and is the heaviest as well as the sweetest of them 
all. According to T^igidius, the acorn of the cerrus occupies 
the next rank to this, and, indeed, there is no acorn that 
renders the flesh of swine more firm, though at the same time 
it is apt to impart a certain degree of hardness. The same 
author assures us also, that the acorn of the holm oak is a 
trying diet for swine, unless it is given in very small quan- 
5^ Pliny's account of making charcoal is derived from Theophrastus, 
B. iii. c. 10. F^e remarks that it differs little from the method adopted in 
France at the present day. 
^9 The Quercus Hispanica, probably, of Lamarck, of which Fee thinks 
the Quercus pseudo-suher of Desfontaines is a variety ; it is found in 
Greece and on the shores of the Mediterranean, near Gibraltar. The Greek 
name signifies the " sea cork-tree." 
6^ The statement here given as to the effect of beech-mast on swine, is 
destitute, Fee remarks, of all foundation. If fed upon it, their flesh will 
naturally be of a soft, spongy nature. 
