CHAPTER XX 



THE DRUM 



" His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye." 



Rape of Lucrece. 



THE good Bishop Paul Jovius, who flourished 

 in 1531, tells the following story, illustrative of 

 the regard in which the epicures of olden times 

 held a European representative of the drumfish. 



In 1480 there lived in Rome a famous gour- 

 mand named Tamisio, who had a weakness 

 for the maigre, the surmullet, and for murries 

 drowned in wine. To such an extent did this 

 passion carry Tamisio that it was his custom to sta- 

 tion his servant in the fish-market to bring him 

 intelligence of the destination of the finest fish. 

 Learning, one evening, that a maigre of unusual 

 size had been brought in, he instantly hurried to 

 wait on the conservators, in expectation of an 

 invitation to dinner; but as he ascended the steps 

 of the capitol he met the head of the fish, adorned 

 with flowers and borne, by order of the conserva- 



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