The mills ceased to turn and to grind, a profound silence reigned in the mills; the asses, patient and indefatigable movers of an incessant rotation, took a lively part, whether or no, in the festivals of which they became the principal actors. These honest creatures’ heads[III-24] were crowned with roses, and necklaces of little leaves encircled their necks and fell gracefully on their chests;[III-25] we need not add that, on this day, the thick bandages which generally covered the eyes of these useful labourers were removed.[III-26] Independently of this annual solemnity, the asses, turners of the mills, had sometimes their windfalls,--that is to say, hours of holiday, during which they could freely graze on the neighbouring thistles. This happened when an awkward slave performed badly the duties of fanning his master, or spilt carelessly a few drops of Falernian wine when filling his cup. The unfortunate creature was immediately condemned to work at the mill;[III-27] he was deprived of his name, and received in lieu that of the quadruped he replaced--_Asinus_;[III-28] and the instrument of his sufferings, by a refinement of strange irony, was called his manger.[III-29] It sometimes happened that a free man, reduced to extreme [Illustration: _Pl. 5._ ASINUS OR JUMENTARIÆ MILL.] [Illustration: _Pl. 6._ PLAUTUS’S MILL.] indigence, had recourse to this hard occupation, in order to earn a living. Plautus was obliged to work at it, and we know that he wrote some of his comedies during the short moments of leisure allowed him by his master the miller.[III-30] An important modification was subsequently made in the mechanism of mills: we mean hydraulic mills, whose introduction into Italy is of uncertain date, although Pomponius Sabinus asserts (but without proof), that this discovery took place in the reign of Julius Cæsar. They were known in Rome at the time of the Emperor Augustus, and Vitruvius mentions them.[III-31] More than sixty years afterwards, Pliny speaks of them as rare and extraordinary machines.[III-32] Some writers have thought that _hydraulæ_, or _hydromilæ_, watermills, were invented by Vitruvius, and that this celebrated architect made experiments with them, which were forgotten or neglected after his death.[III-33] Curious readers, who are not afraid of the venerable dust with which time has covered many useful though despised books, will consult with benefit the learned treatise of Goetzius on the mills of the ancients, printed in the year 1730.[III-34] Strabo, who flourished under the Emperor Augustus, tells us a watermill was to be seen near the town of Cabire and the palace of Mithridates.[III-35]