XI
table ; entries occasionally ajjpearing- in the work, of capita arietum, and
pedes ovium. Tlie goat does not appoar to have occupied a place in the
larder, though the kid is occasionally referred to.
Swine appear but seldom among the animals purchased, though on
one occasion, twenty-four salted carcases are recorded, accompanied by
as many merte salse from Orkney. Pigs, porcelli, were in common
nse. A kw instances occur in which the terms Aper and caput Apri
appear in such circumstances as to restrict the meaning to the domesti-
cated, and not to the wild Boar.
Rabbits, old and young, appear to have been extensively employed,
while hares and leverets occur less frequently in the list.
The supply of Venison seems to have been limited in an extraordi-
nary degree, as but few references are made to the Roe, Rabuck, or
Rais, or to the Stag, cervus magnus. This, iiowever, may be explained
in part, by the circumstance of the residence of the King being in the
best cidtivated districts, and by keeping in view the extreme difficulty,
in those days, of transporting from a distance the carcases of such ani-
mals as the wooded and remote regions could have furnished.
The table of the King appears to have been freqnently supplied with
dishes unknown at present in this country, as in use by either rich or
poor. Thus, the Seal was purchased for the larder, either whole or in
quarters, and entered as Phoca or Selch. The Porpoise, too, was in
demand in similar circumstances, under the epithet Pellok. It may
here be added, that the monks of Dunfermline had a grant from Mal-
colm IV. of the heads of tlie porpoises caught in the Forth, except tbe
tongues ; and that the bones of this small kind of whale, found a kw