616 ANCIENT COOKERY. 



Many of the gourmands became great adepts in the use of the feather. 

 Vitellius used it so effectually that he could cause himself to be invited to 

 dinner by several different senators the same da3\ Little he cared if it 

 should cause their ruin ; for they could not venture on such a banquet at a 

 less expense than -1:00,000 sesterces (^16,000), and this was but a moderate 

 sum. Lucullus served Cicero and Porapey with a little collation that cost 

 ^5,000, and there were three of them to eat it. How they could expend so 

 much maybe easily seen if we examine their dishes, which were little prized 

 unless procured at great expense. They had flesh of peacocks at $40 per pair, 

 was preferred to that of eheajier but more delicious poultry. But since 

 many could avail themselves of peacocks, even at this price, those who would 

 not be outdone had dishes of peacocks' brains. Another dish was composed 

 of the tongues of singing birds. Young pigs were fed on dates ; geese were 

 fattened on figs, and their livers alone were used, being soaked in milk and 

 honey^ — -the forerunner of the modern paU da foie gras. Fish were in great 

 demand, and those which were brought the greatest distance were the most 

 highly esteemed. Whole fleets of ships were employed in bringing the&e and 

 other dainties from abroad. Eoman nobles would not unfrequently pay one 

 hundred dollars for a single lamprey. Mullets sold as high as froni seventy- 

 five to one hundred dollars each, and it is related that Crispinus paid three 

 hundred dollars for one weighing six pounds, and considered it cheap at 

 that. In the reign of Tiberius three of these were sold for one thousand 

 dollars. What, then, must be the cost of dishes composed only of the livers 

 of these fish? Heliogabalus had upon occasion two large dishes filled with 

 their gills only. At last the wealthy built expensive reservoirs and kept 

 their own fish, though not with a view to economj^, for the}^ fed them with 

 the rarest dainties. It was even said that slaves were thrown in to satiate 

 these pets, but whether this be true or not, their sea-eels were commonly fed 

 with veal soaked in blood. Other sorts were taken from the river just 

 where it received the tilth from the entire cit3^ 



In wonder it may well be asked what had become of the common sense 

 .and decency of hunum nature. We can account for these excesses and 

 atrocities only by observing the entire departure of the people from natural 

 rules and their utter abandonment to the artificial. Instead of studying into 

 the nature of their materials, with a view to producing the greatest harmony 

 in their combinations, they seem to consider it a crowning achievement if 

 they could entirel}^ obliterate all traces of their real nature and substitute 

 therefor whatever was most foreign and not recognizable. Fish of various 

 sizes were served up to resemble pork, veal, beef, or mutton, and vice versa. 

 Yegetables were cooked to resemble meats, and meats disguised to resemble 

 other substances. Eggs were served, which on being broken were found to 

 contain fat ortolans. The cook of Louis XIY, who on Good Friday served 

 up a dinner composed of poultry and butchers' meat, but which was really 

 nothing but vegetables, had a good deal of the same spirit, and must have 

 had no small amount of practice to bring about such results. 



