AN ANCIENT RECIPE. 103 



Among the ancients, the part of the fish most relished 

 was the belly; and, from a Greek epigram, it would seem 

 to have fetched a very high price : 



" Bass, conger's head, and tunny's under side, 

 Are luxuries to slender means denied." 



Athenaeus recommends it ev /ATTTTODTCO that is, stufled 

 with onions, and some other of the more acrid condi- 

 ments, to which, for indigestibility, our goose and onions 

 must be a light dish. The Ligurians, says Jovius, as 

 quoted by Badham, eat it under the name of " azemi- 

 num," stewed in oil and Corsican wine, with pounded 

 pepper and chopped onion ; a capital recipe, if there were 

 not too many known already, for nightmare. " All the 

 carcass was salted and pickled, and sold under various 

 names. The best part for pickling was the belly, already 

 mentioned as the best part fresh. The next in esteem 

 was the ' omotarichum/ or pickled shoulder ; lastly came 

 the dry parts, ' cybias, melandrias and urseas : ? the first 

 and last were lumps, generally in cubes, cut out of the 

 back or tail ; the other, yet served in oil by dirty stewards 

 on board Mediterranean steamers," may be described as 

 " like veneers of mahogany in appearance, and tasteless 

 as any wood." 



The tunny is a handsome fish in appearance ; its back 

 is of a deep lustrous blue, like the tint of polished steel ; 

 its belly flashes all over with silvery gleams. 



It is very voracious in its habits ; particularly partial 

 to sardines, pilchards, and mackerel ; not sparing even 

 its own species the cannibal ! But, by a just law of 

 compensation, it is not spared in its turn by the shark or 

 the sword-fish, to say nothing of its prime enemy, Man. 



