VICTUAL  ,

food, provisions, most commonly in the plural, " victuals." The word and its pronunciation came into English from the O . Fr. vitaille . The modern French and English spelling are due to a pedantic approximation to the Latin original, victualia, a neuter plural substantive formed from victualis, victus, nourishment, provisions (vivere, to live) . The most familiar use of the term is in " licensed victualler," to which the Licensing Act 1872 (§ 27) has applied the wide significance of any person selling any intoxicating liquor under a licence from a justice of the peace . Properly a " victualling house" is one where persons are provided with food and drink but not lodgings, and is thus distinct from an inn, which also provides the last . VICUGItA, one of the two wild living South American re- presentatives of the camel-tribe, a Camelidae (see TYLOPODA) . Head of Vicugna . From its relative the guanaco the vicugna (Lama vicunia) differs by its inferior stature, more slender build and shorter head, as well as by the absence of bare patches or callosities on the hind limbs . The general colour of the woolly coat is orange-red . Vicugnas live in herds on the bleak and elevated parts of the mountain range bordering the region of perpetual snow, amidst rocks and precipices, occurring in various parts of Peru, in the southern part of Ecuador, and as far south as the middle of Bolivia . The wool is extremely delicate and soft, and highly valued for the purposes of weaving, but the quantity which each animal produces is not great .