THE OTSTEE. 23 



the '' breedy creatures" that glide, or have ever glided 

 down the throats of the human race, our ''Natives" 

 are probably the most delectable. Can we wonder, 

 then, when Macrobius tells us that the Eoman pontiffs 

 in the fourth centuiy never failed to have these Hutu- 

 pians at table, particularly, feeling sure that Constantine 

 the Great, and his mother, the pious Helena, must have 

 canied their British tastes with them to Eome at that 

 period. 



The Greeks have not said much in praise of oysters ; 

 but then they knew nothing of Britain beyond its name, 

 and looked upon it very much in the same light as we 

 now regard the regions of the Esquimaux ; and as to the 

 little dabs of w^atery pulps found in the Mediterranean, 

 what are they but oysters in name ? Indeed, the best use 

 the Athenians could make of them was to use their shells . 

 to ostracise any good citizen who, like Aristides, was 

 too virtuous for a "Greek." However, on the plea 

 that oysters are oysters, we presume — ^for it could not 

 be on account of their flavour — "oysters," says the 

 author of the "Tabella Cibaria," "were held in great 

 esteem by the Athenians." Ko doubt when Constantine 

 moved the seat of the Empii^e from E-ome to Constanti- 

 nople, he did not forget to have his Eutupians regularly 

 forwarded; so, perhaps, after all it was our "^N'atives," 

 which thus found their way into Greece, that they 

 delighted in ; and if so, the good taste of the Athenians 

 need not be called into question ; but, as in literature 

 and the arts, in oyster-eating too, it deserves to be held 

 up to commendation. 



