286 THE OCEAN WOULD. 



however. In Corsica and Algeria the melon-shaped urchin {Echinus 

 indo) is much esteemed. In Naples and in the French ports of the 

 Channel the Echinus lividus is eaten. In Provence the common sea- 

 urchin {Echinus cscuhmius and Echinus granulosus) are tlie favourites. 



Sea-urchins are also eaten raw, like oysters. They are cut in four 

 parts, and the flesh taken out with a spoon ; they are sometimes, but 

 more rarely, dressed by boiling, and eaten from the shell like an egg, 

 using long sippets of bread, hence the name of sea-eggs, which they 

 bear in many countries. 



Sea-eggs were a choice dish upon the tables of the Greeks and 

 Romans ; they were then served up with vinegar or hydromel, with 

 the addition of mint or parsley. When Lentulus feasted the priest of 

 Mars — the Flamen Martialis — this formed the first dish at supper. 

 Sea-eggs also appeared at the marriage feast of the goddess Hebe. 

 " Afterwards," says the poet, "came crabs and sea-urchins, which do 

 not swim in the sea, but content themselves by travelling on the 

 sandy shore." For my own part, I have only once partaken of sea- 

 urchin, and it appeared to me to be food fit for the gods ; but perhaps 

 the circumstances sufficiently explain this dash of culinary enthusiasm. 

 The Reserve Restaurant at Marseilles has not always been the vast 

 stone edifice we now behold, backed majestically by the mountain, 

 and fronting the sea on the promenade of the Corniche du Prado ; in 

 1845 it rose quite at the entrance of the port, a small glass cage, 

 suspended as it were by a magic thread between the heavens and the 

 sea. From this aerial dwelling, overhanging with unheard-of audacity 

 the waters which surrounded it on all sides, we gazed on the most 

 wonderful prospect in the world, and reposed ourselves, while enjoying 

 this intoxicating scene, during which the ships were continually enter- 

 ing the port, passing under our very feet. It was in this enchanted 

 palace that sea-urchins were served up, supported by the traditional 

 bouillabaise. 



As I have said, it appeared to me delicious. Was it the Provencal 

 dish, the savoury bouillabaise, which contributed to my appreciation 

 of the humble sea-urchin of tlie Mediterranean ? Was not the 

 marvellous view which I enjoyed from the heights of my empyreum 

 of glass the indirect cause of it ? This is a tender and charming 

 problem which I love to leave floating in the clouds, half evanescent, 

 of my youthful recollections. 



HoLOTHUROIDEyE. 



The ignorant, like you and I. call the Holothurias Sea-cucumbers, 

 and perhaps, for two tea ons, they are not far wrong. The term 



