534 PROSE HALIETJTICS. 



cies of subacid ricotta, called oxygala,* butter,t and an 

 occasional dish of fresli cicadas^ brushed from the tree 

 by means of a taper pole («as\a/ip Xe^rrm) kept for the 

 purpose of this particular Oripa, or chase. The CHicians 

 are said to have crammed so many good things into their 

 introductory course, that a famous ancient gastrologer 

 was wont to affirm that the whole Athenian supper put 

 together was not to be compared to it. The next entree 

 was called K€<f>aX7) SecTrvov, the head or beginning of the 



into fragments of an oval shape, which are thrown into a pan of 

 sahne Maremma cream, called conserva ; this imparts not only 

 some of its richness to the curd, but also a sufficient impregna- 

 tion of salt to preserve it for some time ; the buffalo's eggs, on 

 removal from the conserva, are hung up in strings for sale, and 

 are ready for immediate use. 



* This, Pliny tells us, is formed of ewes' milk after the butter 

 has been removed ; the residuum being then heated, it becomes 

 turbid, and this second coagulum, carefully skimmed off, consti- 

 tutes oiygala. A Roman contadino gave us the following recipe 

 for that most delicate of the products of milk, the modem Roman 

 ' ricotta ;' it taUies exactly with the process for procuring the an- 

 cient oxygala : — Ewes' milk being coagulated for cheese, as soon 

 as the curd has been removed the remaining fluid is subjected a 

 second time to a slow fire, care being taken that it should not 

 boil ; the whey thus heated forms a second softer curd, and to 

 collect the loose coagulum the whole is passed through a rush 

 basket, which retains the sohd portion, or ' ricotta' (so called from 

 this supplementary cooking) ; the thin whey that runs through is 

 given to pigs and horses, who thrive and fatten upon it. 



t To disparage butter, we say it is only fit for greasing cart 

 wheels: perhaps, in the early days of the churn, this may have 

 been one of its legitimate uses ; it certainly was so with hogs' 

 lard, aocunga; this word being formed from axis, a wheel, and 

 wngo, I anoint. Butter, a much later commodity than oil, was 

 first called oleum lactis, oil of milk ; just as sugar, which of course 

 was not manufactured tiU long after honey became well known, 

 was first called mel arundinis, reed honey. The word butter is 

 derived etymologically from (Sous (as the earliest was made from 

 cows' milk alone), and rupos, a coagulum ; it appears, however, 

 that other milks were employed occasionally in its fabrication. 



