498 PBOSE HALIETJTICS. 



Meya^ e'k rexykrir I have heard sufficient to convince 

 me of your ability.' 'And yet, sir, how little can you 

 know of one who has never yet cooked you a single din- 

 ner : a/yvoei<; irpo^ ov XaXet?/ ' Never mind, I intend you 

 to cook me many ; come at oncej and you shall have a 

 salary equal to your merits/ 



The Greek cook, however, had his faults j he was, as 

 we have just seen, an immense talker, and, it must be 

 added, without any regard for truth ; he was moreover 

 pedantic* and impertinent when addressed, would only 

 afford his services on certain conditions and to certain 

 persons,! was accused of constant peculation, and of eat- 



oMaus, ' that is the most worthless slave I ever beheld : who ever 

 heard of a cook omitting to gut a swine ! Were he mine, I would 

 hang him !' Lentulus, however, was more leniently disposed: 

 ' Tou deserve a severe chastisement,' said he to the slave, ' and 

 may thank my good-humour for escaping it ; but as a punishment 

 you must immediately perform the neglected duty.' In our pre- 

 sence the cook seized the knife, and having careftilly slit open the 

 belly on both sides, gave a sudden jerk, when, to the agreeable 

 surprise of the guests, a quantity of little sausages of aU. kinds 

 tumbled out.' — Becher's Gallus. 



* AthensBUS iutroduces us to a male sphinx, as his master face- 

 tiously calls liim (but not to his face), who, in place of taking his 

 plain orders for dumer, does nothing but pun and quote Homer, 

 to show his parts. The poor master, who can get nothing but 

 rhetoric and belles lettres for dinner, remiuds us in his reasonable 

 but useless expostulation, of the complaint addressed by the bon 

 horrnne in Moliere's ' Precieuses Ridicules' to bis sisters, when they 

 wish him to turn off a cook merely because he is illiterate : 



Que m'importe qu'il manque aux lois de Vauglas, 



Pourvu qua la cuisine il ne manque pas P 



J'aime mieux, pour moi, qu'en ^pluchant ses herbes, 



H accorde mal les noms avec les verbes; 



Qu'U dise cent fois un bas et mecha,nt mot, 



Que de bruler ma viande ou sahr trop mon pot. 



t Some kept a memorandum-book, a la Gil Bias, on whom to 

 wait, and on whom not ; all the wealthy, especially if they were 



