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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