Ill 
100 JOURNEY TO PLATiEA. 
CHAP, while he peeled the onions; *'for," said he, "the 
strangers shall eat and be merry." The cake 
was soon prepared, and covered with glowing 
embers; the wife every now and then pushing 
the hot coals aside, with her fingers, to see when 
the edges of the dough began to crack\ Pre- 
sently it was all uncovered ; and taking it from 
the fire, she wiped off the ashes with her woollen 
apron; and then, breaking it nicely into shares, 
she gave to each person present a smoking por- 
tion, accompanied by a large peeled onion. The 
custom is, to eat the onion raw, with the hot 
cake of the unleavened bread : and this diet we 
relished, with a little salt, to the full as much 
as did our host himself; who setting the ex- 
ample, encouraged us, by adding, that " his 
sacks were all full, and that we need not fear to 
> eat plentifully." His neighbours, attracted by 
curiosity, joined the circle round his hearth ; 
and a fresh cake was made for them ; another 
and another being afterwards devoured. When 
they had all eaten, as it sometimes happens 
(1) Cakes of bread, thus baked upon the hearth and covered with 
the embers, were called, by the Ant'ieat Greeks, I'^ro'SiTai a^rm, 'Eyx^v^ixi. 
{Fid. Alhcncei Deipnosoph. lib.'m. c. 27- Suid. Hest/ch.) If baked upon 
the embers, the bread bore another name : "A^rov S' JSo; Ur) xai i ««•«- 
Alhen. Deip. \ih.\\i. c. 29. p. 111. Lugd. 1657. 
