72 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



As articles of this description^ when approved of, always 

 lead to spurious imitations, we are not surprised to read 

 of certain unscrupulous persons who manufactured alec 

 out of crabs, oysters, shrimps, sea-urchins, and a variety 

 of improper substitutes, in place of the proper ingredients, 

 to the detriment of the genuine sauce; and we may 

 readUy suppose, in a place so famous for its mural ad- 

 vertisements as Pompeii, that visitors would not be left 

 in the dark where to procure the right sort, but that 

 many a friendly index-finger pointed it out on the wall, 

 whilst as many caveats against unprincipled vendors of 

 shell-fish counterfeits would be sedulously stuck up du- 

 ring the bathing season, with suitable warnings; and as 

 there was an inferior black article palmed oif in com- 

 merce under the nam.e, a special warning would be di- 

 rected against this: 



Hie niger est, hunc tu Eomane eaveto.* 



* Garum was still, in Belon's day, manufactured by the Greeks 

 at Constantinople. Other attempts too liave been oooasionaUy 

 made to revive these ancient sauces in modern times. Kondolet, 

 in particular, was the inventor of one bearing, lie says, compari- 

 son with the best of those gone by. His plan in preparing it was 

 to macerate anchovies in oil and vinegar, well spiced and seasoned 

 with chopped parsley, over a very slow fire, till the whole was 

 dissolved, and so highly did he approve of this mixture as to 

 speak and even write of it with enthusiasm. 'My oxygarum,' says 

 he, ' unlike those putrescent gravies which hide themselves from 

 reprobation under the proverbial exemption putri salsamentum 

 amat origanum, is a sauce at once wholesome and savoury, and fit 

 to set before a king.' Garum, though no longer manufactured in 

 Italy, seems to have continued to be so even after the Latin lan- 

 guage had melted down into the modem Italian; evidence of this 

 occurs in an analysis of the modern word for a dealer in salt pro- 

 visions^^esei^'aroZo, corrupted into pizziearolo. Decompose it, 

 and you have pesci, fish; garo, garum; and lo, the occupation 

 or trade, — the whole word, dealer in fish garum ; though anv 

 such dealer would certainly stare were you to ask for the article 

 still designated in the title of his calling. 



