The historie of the vvorld: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke. The first [-second] tome

CHAP. LI.

¶ Of Swine, and their natures.

SWine goe a brimming from the time that the Westerne wind Fauonius beginnes to blow, [unspec F] vntill the spring Aequinoctiall: and they take the bore when they be eight months old: yea in some places at the fourth month of their age, and continue breeding vnto the seuenth yeare. They farrow commonly twice a yeare: they be with pig foure months. One sow may bring at one farrow twenty pigges, but reare so many she cannot. Nigidius saith, that those pigs

which are farrowed ten daies vnder or ten daies ouer the shortest day in the yeare, when the sun [unspec G] entreth into Capricorn, haue teeth immediatly. They stand lightly to the first brimming, but by reason that they are subject to cast their pigs, they had need to be brimmed a second time. Howbeit the best way to preuent that they doe not slip their young, is to keepe the bore from them at their first grunting and seeking after him, nor to let them be brimmed before their ears hang downe. Bores be not good to brim swine after they be three yeres old. Sowes when they be wearie for age that they cannot stand, take the bore lying along. That a sow should eat her own pigs, it is no prodigious wonder. A pig is pure & good for sacrifice, 5 daies after it is farrowed; a lamb, when it hath been yeaned 8 daies; and a calfe, being 30 daies old. But Gornucanus saith, That all beasts for sacrifice which chew cud, are not pure and right for that purpose, vntill they haue teeth. Swine hauing lost on eie, are not thought to liue long after; otherwise they may [unspec H] continue vntill they be fifteen yeares old, yea & some to twenty. But they grow to be wood and raging otherwhiles: and besides are subject to many maladies more, & most of all to the squi∣nancie, and wen or swelling of the kernels in the neck. Will ye know when a swine is sick or vn∣sound, pluck a bristle from the back and it will be bloudie at the root: also he will cary his neck atone side as he goeth, A sow, if she be ouer-fat, soone wanteth milke; and at her first farrow bringeth fewest pigs. All the kind of them loue to wallow in dirt and mire. They wrinkle their taile; wherin this also is obserued, that they be more likely to appease the gods in sacrifice, that rather writh & turn their tailes to the right hand, than the left. Swine wil be fat and wel larded in sixtie daies; and the rather, if before you begin to frank them vp, they be kept altogether from meat three daies. Of all other beasts, they are most brutish; insomuch as there goes a pleasant [unspec I] by-word of them, and fitteth them well, That their life is giuen them in stead of salt. This is known for a truth, that when certaine theeues had stolne and driuen away a companie of them, the swinheard hauing followed them to the water side (for by that time were the theeues imbarged with them) cried aloud vnto the swine, as his manner was: whereupon they knowing his voice, learned all to one side of the vessel, turned it ouer and sunke it, tooke the water, and so swam a∣gaine to land vnto their keeper. Moreouer, the hogs that vse to lead and goe before the heard, are so well trained, that they wil of themselues goe to the swine-market place within the citie, & from thence home againe to their maisters, without any guid to direct them. The wild bores in this kind, haue the wit to couer their tracks with mire, and for the nones to run ouer marish ground where the prints of their footing will not be sene; yea and to be more light in running, [unspec K] to void their vrine first. Sowes also are splaied as well as camels, but two daies before, they be kept from meat: then hang they by the fore-legs, for to make incision into their matrice, and to take forth their stones: and by this means they will sooner grow to be fat. There is an Art also in cookerie, to make the liuer of a sow, as also of a goose, more daintie (and it was the deuise of M. Apicius) namely, to feed them with drie figges, and when they haue eaten till they bee full, presently to giue them mead or honied wine to drink, vntill they die with being ouercharged. There is not the flesh of any other liuing creature, that yeeldeth more store of dishes to the maintenance of gluttonie, than this; for fiftie sundrie sorts of tastes it affordeth, whereas other haue but one a peece. From hence came so many edicts and proclamations published by the Censors, forbidding and prohibiting to serue vp at any feast or supper, the belly and paps of a sow, the kernels about the neck, the brizen, the stones, the womb, and the fore-part of the bores [unspec L] head: and yet for all that, Publius the Poet and maker of wanton songs, after that he was come to his freedom, neuer (by report) had supper without an hogs belly with the paps: who also to that dish gaue the name, and called it Sumen. Moreouer, the flesh of wild bores came to be in great request and was much set by: in such sort, as Cato the Censor in his inuectiue orations, challenged men for brawne. And yet when they made three kinds of meat of the wild bore, the loine was alwaies serued vp in the mids. The first Romane that brought to the table a whole bore at once was P. Seruilius Rullus, father of that Rullus, who in the time that Cicero was Con∣sull, published the law Agraria, as touching the diuision of lands. See how little while ago it is since these superfluities began, which now are taken vp so ordinarily euerie day. And yet the [unspec M] thing was noted and recorded in the Annals, as strange and rare; no doubt for this intent. To re∣presse these inordinate enormities. One supper then or feast was taxed and reprooued therein at the beginning: but now, two and three bores at a time are serued vp whole and eaten toge∣ther.