234 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
and esteemed as a condiment, composed of sweet and acid spices, 
the usual ingredients being ripe fruit (mangoes, tamarinds, 
cocoanut, and raisins), with sour herbs, also Cayenne, and lime- 
juice. These are powdered, and boiled together, being either 
used straightway, as in making stews, and Curries, or bottled 
for future occasions. Likewise Mulligatawny is a spiced, or 
curried soup, of hashed chicken and rice. It has derived its 
Indian name from the Tamil words “ mollegoo,’ pepper, and 
““ tumnee,” water. This said “ pepperwater” is useful as a sauce 
to accompany rice. English cooks employ broth as a foundation. 
CYGNET. 
By the Romans the Swan, first deprived of its sight, was fattened 
for the table. In Chaucer’s time the meat of a plump Swan 
was evidently in favour for giving a good ruddy complexion to 
the men of that day. We read respecting the Monk, in the 
Canterbury Tales (1385) :— 
** Now certainly he was a fayre prelat ; 
He was not pale, as a forpinéd gost ; 
A fat swan loved he best of any rost.”’ 
Pepys tells in his Diary (January 19th, 1662): ‘“‘ To Mr. Povy’s, 
where really I made a most excellent, and large dinner, he 
bidding us, in a frolique, to call for what we had a mind, and he 
would undertake to give it us; and we did, for prawns, Swan, 
venison, after I had thought the dinner was quite done, and he 
did immediately produce it, which I thought great plenty.”’ 
In more modern days a different experience is recorded : ‘* When 
I was a girl my father shot a Swan—a wild one, as he thought— 
passing over our village before a storm. Alas! it belonged to 
a nobleman, his dearest friend, and was only taking a frisk 
round on its own account from the lonely lake where it lived. 
That bird was skinned for its plumage, and throughout many 
winters I was the envy of the whole village with a boa, muff, 
and cuffs of Swansdown feathering. The slaughtered bird was 
straightway spitted for roasting, and basting. Oh! the smell !! 
Whitby after a great catch of herrings wouldn’t have been 
in it! The maids turned sick, my grandmother and aunts 
followed suit, also my grandfather ; furthermore, a groom called 
_in for the job turned sick in like fashion; and then, with the 
confidence of youth, I volunteered to baste that Swan! At 
