The Old Weevils 



learnt to appreciate the Beccafico, 1 famous 

 among the Roman epicures and still 

 renowned to-day, under the name of Grasset, 

 among our Provencal gastronomers. It is 

 a pity that my bit of silver says nothing of 

 these events, more memorable than any 

 battle. 



It shows on one side a head and on the 

 other a galloping horse, all barbarously 

 inaccurate. A child trying its hand for the 

 first time with a sharp-pointed stone on the 

 fresh mortar of the walls would produce 

 no more shapeless design. No, of a surety, 

 those bold Allobroges were no artists. 



How greatly superior to them were the 

 foreigners from Phocaea! Here is a 

 drachma of the Massalietes : 2 MASSAAIHTON. 

 On the obverse, a head of Diana of Ephesus, 

 chub-faced, full-cheeked, thick-lipped. A 

 receding forehead, surmounted by a diadem; 

 an abundant head of hair, streaming down 

 the neck in a cascade of curls; heavy ear- 

 drops, a pearl necklace, a bow slung over the 



1 The Garden Warbler, or Bush-pipet, a bird which is 

 considered a great delicacy, especially in the autumn, 

 when it feeds on figs, grapes and so on. Cf. The Hunt- 

 ing^ Wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xii. Translator's Note. 



2 From Massalia, the ancient name of Marseilles, of 



3 



