298 HOW TO REMOVE THE SPINES. 



wine or mead, parsley and mint. They were the first 

 dish in the famous supper of Lentulus when he was 

 made Flamen Martialis. By some of the concomitant 

 dishes they seemed designed as a whet for the second 

 course to the holy personages, priests and vestals, 

 invited on the occasion/ 



The illustration on Plate X. was drawn from a 

 living specimen, and gives a somewhat unusual re- 

 presentation of a Sea-Urchin. In general the spines 

 alone are shown, but I have endeavoured to give the 

 uninitiated reader some faint notion of the appearance 

 which the suckers present when extended from the 

 surface of the shell. 



The young Urchin sat very quietly while I was 

 engaged in taking his portrait, but continually ex- 

 tended crowds of his slender tubular legs in all 

 directions, as above indicated, much to my gratifica- 

 tion and apparently to his own. 



In preparing a Sea-Urchin for a chimney ornament, 

 the most important point is to remove the spines so 

 as to let the tubercles remain entire. In performing 

 this operation some little experience is necessary. 

 Several times I attempted the process by aid of a 

 pen-knife and a pair of pliers, but not with a satis- 

 factory result. Having mentioned my difficulty to 

 a friend, he laughingly asked me if I had ever heard 

 of a certain pilgrim who, for some peccadillo he had 

 committed, was doomed to perform penance by 

 walking to Loretto's shrine with peas in his shoes ? 



