Chap. 29. ALICA. 41 



not that line really belongs to him. We have the fact, too, 

 well ascertained, in the opinion of Ateius Capito, that the 

 cooks in those days were in the habit of making the bread for 

 persons of affluence, while the name of *' pistor "^^ was only 

 given to the person who pounded, or '' pisebat," the spelt. In 

 those times, they had no cooks in the number of their slaves, 

 but used to hire them for the occasion from the market. The 

 Gauls were the first to employ the bolter that is made of 

 horse-hair ; while the people of Spain make their sieves and 

 meal-dressers of flax,^^ and the Egyptians of papyrus and 

 rushes. 



CHAP. 29. ALTCA. 



But among the very first things of all, we ought to speak of 

 the method employed in preparing alica,^*^ a most delightful 

 and most wholesome food, and which incontestably confers 

 upon Italy the highest rank among the countries that produce 

 the cereals. This delicacy is prepared, no doubt, in Egypt 

 as well, but of a very inferior quality, and not worth our no- 

 tice. In Italy, however, it is prepared in numerous places, 

 the territories of Verona and Pisae, for example ; but that of 

 Campania is the most highly esteemed. There, at the foot of 

 mountains capped with clouds, runs a plain, not less in all than 

 forty miles in extent. The land here — to give a description 

 first of the nature of the soil — is dusty on the surface, but 

 spongy below, aud as porous as pumice. The inconveniences 

 that generally arise from the close vicinity of mountains are 

 here converted into so many advantages : for the soil, acting 

 on it as a sort of filter, absorbs the water of the abundant 

 rains that fall ; the consequence of which is, that the water not 

 being left to soak or form mud on the surface, the cultivation 

 is greatly facilitated thereby. This land does not return, by 

 the aid of any springs, the moisture it has thus absorbed, but 

 thoroughly digests it, by warming it in its bosom, in a heated 

 oven as it were. The ground is kept cropped the whole year 

 through, once with panic, and twice with spelt ; and yet in the 

 spring, when the soil is allowed to have a moment's repose, 



^^ "WTiich in Pliny's time signified " baker." 



^^ The Stipa tenacissima of Linnaeus, Fee says ; or else the Lygeum 

 Bpartum of Linnaeus. 

 2" As to the cereal so called, see c. 10 of this Book. 



