NUTRITION 99 



the older civilizations, which in turn had collected them from remote 

 places; and (3) the newer tropical foods which are just making their start. 



The history of the cultivation of foods parallels the history of the human 

 race. However, it has not been until well within historical time that com- 

 merce and exploration have made such wide varieties so generally avail- 

 able. We read of the banquets of King Solomon and the extravagant feasts 

 of Belshazzar, and of the Roman banquets, some of which are reported 

 to have cost the equivalent of a thousand dollars per guest. Let us sit in 

 at some of these meals. 



The ancient Hebrews, who learned their cookery from the Egyptians, 

 made quite a ceremony of their feasts. Three successive invitations were 

 sent to each guest. When all were gathered together they sat cross-legged 

 around a low table. The food was mainly a stew, since knives and forks 

 were not available. The cut-up morsels were folded by the guest between 

 slices of bread and eaten. The grease was rubbed from the fingers onto 

 other pieces of bread, which were thrown to the dogs, waiting as anxiously 

 as they do today. Servants were ready with pitchers of water for washing 

 the hands. There were two persons to a dish. The food included flesh, fish, 

 fowl, melted butter, bread, honey and fruit, four or five dishes in all. 



The Greeks inaugurated the system of eating in a reclining position, 

 while being sprinkled with perfumes to combat the odor of perspiration. 

 They had two courses. The first was fish and meat, vegetables and entrees. 

 The second, pastry and fruit, was followed by salty cakes, cheeses and the 

 like to promote heavy drinking. This was accompanied by music, songs and 

 slave dances, and garlands were entwined about the heads of the partici- 

 pants "to counteract the action of the wine." 



The Romans learned cookery late. In 174 b. c. there were no cooks nor 

 public bakers in Rome. The common people lived on a porridge made of 

 pulse. There were several vegetables. Fish, domesticated animals and wild 

 game helped out. The wealthy learned of the luxuries of the table from 

 the Asiatic wars. They went mad on the subject of gastronomy. The best 

 cooks were the most expensive slaves. The Emperor Vitellius, an enor- 

 mous eater, sent his legions to every part of the empire to procure new and 

 exotic foods. In a typical Roman feast the first course, merely an ap- 

 petizer, consisted of conger eels, oysters, mussels, thrushes served on 

 asparagus, fat fowls, shellfish and matrons. The second course had more 

 fish, venison, wild boar and wild fowl. The third, or main, course included 

 the udder of swine, boar's head, fricassees of fish, duck and other fowl, 

 pastries and bread. Cheeses, lampreys, tongues of nightingales, brains of 

 peacocks and flamingoes, mushrooms and the rarest vintage wines were 

 served. 



While Petronius' description of Trimalchio's feast is satirical, we may 

 presume that the foods listed were the delicacies of the time. Also, he 

 could not have mentioned any foods that were then unknown. We may 



