92 THE OCTOPUS. 



Who saw that he was greatly out of order ; 

 " If," said the doctor, " you have any business 

 Not well arranged, do not delay to settle it, 

 For you will die before six hours are over ! " 

 Philoxenus replied, ' ' All my affairs, 

 O Doctor, are well ended and arranged 

 Long, long ago ; but now, since deadly fate 

 Calls me away, who can't be disobeyed, 

 That I may go below with all my goods. 

 Bring me the relics of that polypus ! " 



We learn something of the most approved methods of cooking 

 the " cuttle-fishes " and " squids " from the following passages. 

 Sotades, in his play entitled " The Shut-up Women/' introduces a 

 cook, who makes a speech in which these molluscs are men- 

 tioned : — 



A fine dish is the squill, when carefully cook'd, 



But the rich cuttle-fish is eaten plain ; 



Though I did stuff them all with a rich forced-meat 



Of almost every kind of herb and flower. 



Alexis, in his "Wicked Woman," also introduces a cook, who 

 speaks as follows : — 



Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought 

 For one small drachma. And when I've cut off 

 Their feelers and their fins, I then shall boil them ; 

 And, cutting up the main part of their meat 

 Into small discs, and rubbing in some salt. 

 After the guests already are sat down 

 I then shall put them in the frying-pan, 

 And serve up hot towards the end of supper. 



Eriphus says, in his " Meliboea :" — 



These things poor men cannot afford to buy ; — 

 The entrails of the tunny, or the head 

 Of greedy pike, or conger, or cuttle-fish. 

 Which I don't think the gods above despise. 



Athenceus cites a great many more authors, who testify to the 

 esteem in which the cephalopoda were held in the olden times, 

 as the constituents of dainty dishes. 



