OPSOPHAaT. 537 



of poultry/ both boiled and roast, still it was the flesh 

 of fishes that ever bore away the palm ; they were the 

 soul of the supper, and the number of kinds occasionally- 

 brought together in one repast was surprisingly great. 

 In reading over various poetic bills of fare preserved by 

 AtheuEeus, we have verified twenty-six species in one 

 Attic supper, and not less than forty in another. Cuvier, 

 indeed, after much research, arrives at the conclusion 

 that the ancients were acquainted with not less than one 

 hundred and fifty kinds of Mediterranean fish — and if 

 so, with all the esculent species at present known to in- 

 habit its waters. On this course being brought in, the 

 appearance of the banquet-room changed, and became 

 much more splendid : the service of hardware made way 

 for one of solid silver; gold bread-baskets, filled with 

 fresh stores of biscuits, wafers, and painted cakes, were 

 handed round ; the flames in the replenished lamps shot 

 up with increased brilliancy ; new ones were introduced, 

 and the room blazed throughout as if it had been lit 

 with oxygen;* the flower of the youth of both sexes 

 entered, bearing bits of pumice,t drugs against drunk- 

 enness,! (jie6r)<; (pap/xaKa,) and trays full of chaplets of 



* Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis 



Inoensi, et noctem flammis ftinalia vinount. — Virg. 



t Topers, before ttey began drinking, were in tbe habit of 

 swallowing a piece of this porous stone, whicli, from its thirsty 

 nature, was supposed to enable them to absorb a larger quantity 

 of liquor. 



J There were many such antidotes in vogue, both in Greece 

 and Italy. ' When a man intends to drinlt hard,' says PUny, 

 ' let him taie a decoction of rue-leaves, and the wine will not af- 

 fect his head.' ' If the greatest wine-sop adopt but the precau- 

 tion of chewing four or five bitter almonds before he begins 

 drinking, he may take liquor to any amount without being the 

 worse for it.' And again, 'If a man drink a decoction of ivy ber- 

 ries, or eat a piece of hog's lung properly cooked, he will not get 

 drunk that day, let him driak what he will.' 



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