THE PILCHARD IN OLD TIMES. 173 



each containing about 2400 fish and pressed together 

 for the purpose of extracting the oil, which is valuable as 

 a commercial staple. 



It now remains to head up the casks, and they are ready 

 for exportation. The principal buyers are found in 

 Italy whence the fishermen's toast. " Long life to the 

 Pope, and death to thousands." A brisk trade is also 

 carried on with Spain ; and there, as Fuller quaintly 

 says, "under the name of fumadoes ('fair maids'), with 

 oil and a lemon, they are meat for the mightiest don." 

 About 3500 hogsheads are annually caught and cured, 

 and of these some 6000 to 7000 are retained for home 

 consumption. 



The ancient Greeks looked upon the pilchard as a fish 

 unfit for the table ; but the Romans had a more catholic 

 taste, and ate it with pine-nuts for a relish. The more 

 important clupea, the herring, was not known either to 

 Greeks or Kornans. As Dr. Doran jocularly remarks, it 

 was the Scots who " discovered " this fish, and the Dutch 

 bought, pickled, and sold or ate them. The story goes 

 that Charles V., in 1536, ate a herring upon the tomb of 

 Beuckels, the genius who first taught men how to salt 

 and cure it, and thereby enriched his country with a new 

 source of wealth. 



The appearance of a " school" of pilchards is a welcome 

 sight on the Cornish coast, and their threefold value has 

 been commemorated in a local rhyme 



" Meat, money, and light, 

 All in one night" 



which must be of considerable antiquity. " Meat " and 

 " money" they still supply; but pilchard-oil is now very 

 little used for "light." There are many better substi- 



