Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-07 15:44:47HEADmain

1 files changed, 2498 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/43643-0.txt b/43643-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d2a9f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/43643-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2498 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43643 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 43643-h.htm or 43643-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43643/43643-h/43643-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43643/43643-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/cu31924090142187
+
+
+
+
+
+FOODS AND CULINARY UTENSILS OF THE ANCIENTS
+
+Compiled from standard historical works by
+
+CHARLES MARTYN.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Published by
+The Caterer Publishing Co.,
+New York
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                   Page.
+"In the beginning"--The coming of the nations          3
+
+Assyria and the other kingdoms of the "tawny men"      9
+
+Egypt and the Egyptians                               13
+
+The "vegetable kingdom" of Ancient Egypt              25
+
+Greece before the age of luxury                       30
+
+Rome in the days of her greatest prosperity           39
+
+The ancient Jews                                      49
+
+The Chinese                                           60
+
+
+
+
+IN THE BEGINNING.
+
+
+The influence exerted by different foods over the physical and mental
+faculties of mankind is so marked as to verify the famous pun of the
+philosophic Feuerbach, "Der Mensch ist was er isst" (Man is what he
+eats). The advance of civilization has always been accompanied by an
+increased knowledge of culinary matters, until cooking has become a
+science and its various forms great in number. So in tracing back the
+history of foods, culinary utensils and their uses, we of necessity
+trace back the history of the world.
+
+It is of course impossible at this late date to determine what was the
+first food of primeval man; ignorant as we are of even the approximate
+date of his first appearance and of the manner and means of that
+appearance.
+
+But it is worthy of note that if he had not been endowed with an
+intelligence superior to that of the other inhabitants of the globe, his
+existence here would have been very brief. Nature provided him with a
+body which, in those days, was well nigh useless. His prehensile organs,
+his teeth, jaws, feet and nails, did not fit him for overcoming any of
+the difficulties entailed by the adoption of most foods prepared by
+nature. He could not tear his prey conveniently nor crack many nuts, nor
+grub roots, nor graze. His digestive viscera were in the middle age too
+bulky and heavy for the rapid movements of the carnivora; they were not
+long enough to extract nourishment from raw vegetables. The only foods,
+therefore, primarily obtainable by him which he could use to advantage
+were fruits and soft-shelled nuts.
+
+As man, however, advanced in knowledge, his skill in the art of cooking
+rendered any or all objects used for nourishment by other mammalia fit
+subjects of diet for himself. This may appear a sweeping assertion, but
+the statements of reliable travelers prove its truth. The fact should be
+carefully considered by those who advocate a diet exclusively of
+vegetables, and by those few enthusiasts who preach that man was not
+"intended" to be a cooking animal.
+
+Whatever else may be clouded with doubt, it is certain that man was so
+fashioned as to be compelled to eat in order to sustain life! In the
+beginning, instinct must have taught him that the consumption of food
+was the _sine qua non_ of his existence.
+
+When was the beginning?
+
+The Biblical chronology of events prior to the Deluge is not accepted by
+scientists. The students of to-day believe, and seek to prove, that the
+earth has existed for several million years, and has passed through many
+different stages; that animal life was first evolved from the
+"inanimate" state of matter; that man is the most highly finished
+creature that has as yet been attained in the ascending scale of
+evolution, and that he will, in the natural course of events, make place
+for a still more nearly perfect being.
+
+The exact date of the first appearance of man cannot now be ascertained.
+Geological research has led to the assertion that he probably existed
+thousands of years before the time usually assigned. But if we commence
+our history from the last great glacial visitation we find that the
+conceded date of its occurrence, about 5,000 years before the birth of
+Christ, coincides rather closely with the date of the creation as given
+in the book of Genesis. Assuming then that the neolithic, or stone age
+followed not only the ice visitation, but the creation (to use a
+familiar phrase), the theory of many scientists and the story of the
+Bible agree on the one, to us, essential point--the birth of the first
+people.
+
+Horace, in his third satire (first book), gives his views of the first
+food of the human race. (At that time, six hundred years before the
+Christian era, it was held that man was not created in a perfectly
+developed form, but was engendered from beings of a different kind.) He
+says: "When first these creatures crawled out of the ground, dumb and
+foul brutes, they fought for nuts, first with nails and fists, then with
+sticks, and later with weapons made of metal." This coincides with the
+deduction made in the third paragraph, that nuts have a just claim to
+the title of one of the "first foods."
+
+These savages must have suffered from exposure to the occasional
+inclemency of the weather. To protect themselves, they, being endowed
+with an ever-increasing power of reason, resorted to the skins of wild
+animals for covering. Failing to obtain a sufficient number from the
+carcasses of those which had died a natural death, they conceived the
+idea of destroying life in order to obtain the coveted article. They may
+not at first have availed themselves of anything but the outer covering,
+leaving the flesh to be eaten by other animals or birds, but the flesh
+adhering to the hide would soon become offensive from decomposition, and
+what is more probable than that their common sense soon directed them to
+remove it directly after being stripped from the slaughtered animal? The
+teeth of the primitive man were constantly in use for many purposes; so,
+in tearing off the pieces of flesh with them, may the first appetite for
+meat as food have been acquired.
+
+It is difficult to determine when food was first subjected to the
+influence of heat; it is still more useless to attempt to explain how
+the properties of fire were first discovered. It is presumed that the
+first fire witnessed by man, was caused by the fall of a meteorite, a
+volcanic eruption or a lightning flash. The observation of its peculiar
+effects excited the still dormant inventive spirit of the neolithic, and
+he essayed the production of it himself. Evidence proves that he first
+attained his end by striking pieces of flint against iron pyrites and
+letting the sparks fall upon some combustible material, placed
+accidentally or intentionally beneath. It is easy to imagine that it was
+soon learned that fire would destroy human life and that the pleasing
+odor of the burning flesh led to the use of cooked meat as food.
+
+The cradle of the fathers of the human race was undoubtedly the
+southern portion of Asia. They were nomadic in their habits and
+satisfied their acquired cravings by hunting and fishing. The stone
+floors of the caves in which they made their temporary abodes were
+admirably suited to the building of their rude fires.
+
+Ultimately these neolithics became owners of flocks and herds, usually
+of sheep and goats, and moved about from place to place in search of
+fresh pastures. Members of these flocks were slain from time to time as
+convenience dictated. When for any reason food was scarce, their other
+domestic animals, even their dogs, fell a prey to the insatiable
+appetite for blood. The forests abounded with living things, now
+generally classified under the title of "game," and these also
+contributed materially to the food supply.
+
+No fancy methods of preparing meats or game were then practiced.
+Everything was either roasted or cooked by means of hot stones. The
+roasting was in all probability accomplished by suspending the whole
+carcass of the animal, denuded of the skin, over burning embers,
+composed of the limbs of trees broken up into suitable lengths--as
+indeed do the gypsies of Europe to the present day. The roasted meat was
+at first separated from the body by the hand, later by sharpened sticks
+or flint flakes, subsequently by flint knives. There is no evidence of
+any metal being used for that purpose before the Deluge.
+
+Though these first people are known to have partaken freely of the flesh
+of animals and of the fruits of trees, both of the nut and pulp
+varieties, there is nothing that leads one to believe that fish was used
+as an article of food until after the Deluge.
+
+Turning again to the Scriptures, many interesting things may be noted.
+The first mention made of a flesh offering and of the ownership of
+domestic animals is in Genesis, when Abel "gave of the firstlings of his
+flocks and of the fat thereof," while Cain brought "of the fruits of the
+ground." The earliest mention of cooked animal flesh is found in Genesis
+8: 21, when Noah offered up "burnt offerings of every clean beast and
+every clean fowl" after the Deluge. In the story of the creation, man is
+enjoined to sustain life by vegetable food: "Every herb bearing seed,
+which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the
+fruit of a tree yielding seed" were given to him "for meat." Nothing was
+said about the flesh of animals. But, after the Flood, "God blessed Noah
+and his sons and said unto them: * * * Every moving thing that liveth
+shall be meat for you, even as the green herbs have I given you all
+things."
+
+So in many ways scientists and the Bible agree on the habits of the
+neolithics. Both state that the primitive food of man consisted of nuts
+and fruits; both mention the subsequent possession of flocks and herds,
+and both refer to the knowledge obtained later of the effects of fire on
+meat--with the one difference that the evolutionists seek to prove that
+the meat so roasted was eaten, while the Biblical man prior to the
+Deluge offered it untouched to his Maker.
+
+Although it is now generally acknowledged that the Deluge was not
+universal, it is undeniable that it marked an all-important epoch, for
+from it may be said to date the recorded history of the present race of
+men. From the posterity of Noah sprang up the principal nations which
+have made the world what it is to-day.
+
+
+THE COMING OF THE NATIONS.
+
+If we accept the biblical chronology of the events which immediately
+followed the Deluge, we find that Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and
+Japheth, landed on Mt. Ararat and fixed their habitations in the plains
+directly below. A formal division of the earth into three portions was
+made by Noah about a hundred years later, when he was still in the prime
+of life and when men were beginning to multiply sufficiently to form
+colonies and settlements. One portion was assigned to each of his sons
+with his posterity.
+
+The three territories may be roughly classed as the northern, or the
+region of the "ruddy men;" the central, the region of the "tawny men,"
+and the southern, the region of the "blacks."
+
+To the offspring of Japheth was allotted Garbia (the north)--Spain,
+France, the countries of the Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians
+and Armenians. The offspring of Shem were given the central
+region--Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samaria, Babel or Babylonia, and
+Hedjaz (Arabia). The sons of Ham received the southern division--Teman
+(or Idumea), Africa, Nigritia, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Scindia and
+India.
+
+Various causes scattered the posterities of the three brothers, and
+nations were founded in many parts of the world.
+
+Ultimately six great monarchies were established, Chaldea, Assyria,
+Babylonia, Egypt, Media and Persia.
+
+
+
+
+ASSYRIA AND OTHER KINGDOMS OF THE TAWNY MEN.
+
+
+The territories ruled by Chaldea, Assyria and Babylonia were located
+almost entirely on the vast plains of Mesopotamia. Although (or rather
+because) these nations were continually at war with one another they may
+be considered, for present purposes, as one country.
+
+Babylonia was the first to be settled, with Nimrod, the mighty hunter,
+as its monarch, about 2350 B. C.
+
+Although Assyria advanced rather more in civilization than the other
+two, the constant warfare waged and the varying degrees of supremacy and
+subjection held by the three kingdoms necessarily resulted in much
+intermingling of their inhabitants and a consequent similarity of
+domestic manners and customs as they emerged from barbarism.
+
+Agriculture soon became the most general industry. Wheat, barley, millet
+and sesame were largely raised. Other varieties of pulse and grains were
+plentiful also, as well as many excellent fruits, which have since been
+transported to our own countries with remarkable success.
+
+The different grains were ground to varying degrees of fineness between
+two stones. The flour or meal was then moistened with water, kneaded in
+a dish or bowl, and either rolled into thin cakes or pressed by the hand
+into small balls or loaves.
+
+The wheaten bread was generally preferred, but the poorer classes were
+perforce content with the cakes of coarse millet or durrha flour, eaten
+with milk, butter, oil or the fat of animals.
+
+Dates formed an important article of diet amongst the people of Chaldea
+and Babylonia, although they do not appear to have been very favorably
+regarded by the Assyrians. Date groves flourished in many parts of the
+land, and the fruit was dried and pressed into cakes. These with goats'
+milk and such vegetables as gourds, melons and cucumbers helped nourish
+the great mass of the population.
+
+Other fruits, some of them found in great numbers, were pomegranates,
+grapes, citrons, pineapples, oranges, pears, apples and many small
+berries.
+
+Bread, wine and a kind of honey were made from the fruit of the palm
+tree.
+
+King Sennacherib called Assyria "A land of corn and wine, a land of
+bread and vineyards, a land of oil, olives and honey."
+
+Nature seems indeed, to have blessed her first children with an
+abundance of the good things of life!
+
+It does not appear that the flesh of domestic animals was eaten to any
+great extent, and the inference is that it was beyond the means of most
+persons, for when warriors, upon an expedition, were able to obtain it
+at the expense of others, they freely indulged their appetites. After
+their victories they killed and cut up sheep and oxen, and roasted the
+joints over the embers of a wood fire. Sometimes they boiled the joints
+or the whole body in a huge pot or caldron, over a dead wood fire--on
+which, also, pieces of the flesh were fried.
+
+Amongst the upper classes mutton appears to have been the favorite meat.
+Chickens were also considered a great delicacy.
+
+As the races of those days, with the exception probably of a few people
+closely confined in the cities, were great hunters, a plentiful supply
+of game was usually obtainable--venison, antelopes' flesh, hares,
+partridges, etc. The flesh of the wild boar was also eaten, but there is
+no evidence to prove that the animal was domesticated with the intention
+of using it for food.
+
+According to Herodotus, some of the Babylonian tribes ate nothing but
+fish, dried in the sun, pounded in a mortar until the fibres would pass
+through a fine cloth, and then kneaded into a sort of bread and baked.
+At first a prejudice against this species of food seems to have
+existed, but later it was held in much esteem. The supply of both fresh
+and salt water fish was practically unlimited.
+
+Locusts were also eaten with great gusto.
+
+The culinary arrangements and operations are not yet very clearly
+defined by the chroniclers.
+
+The fireplace, built presumably of well-burned bricks, was open at the
+top, about two feet in height, and occasionally covering an area of many
+square feet. Whether it was of square or cylindrical shape does not
+appear. Over the top was set or suspended a large bronze caldron.
+
+These caldrons were sometimes of great value. They were usually circular
+in shape, flat or nearly flat at the bottom, without feet, and furnished
+at the rim with ears or rings to receive an arched handle or a hooked
+chain. Many belonging to the wealthier classes were embossed with
+flowers and otherwise richly ornamented. They were commonly known as
+"seething pots." They varied from eighteen inches to five feet in
+height, and from two and a half to six feet in diameter.
+
+Roasting was perhaps the most common mode of preparing meat, but it was
+also broiled, slices being cut from the divided joints and transfixed
+with wooden spits.
+
+For delicate operations, a fire of coal was later on made in a portable
+brazier. The oven then used was cylindrical in form, much deeper than
+wide, and made of fire-burnt bricks or indurated clay.
+
+In the houses of the wealthy, and the palaces of the monarchs, the
+cooks, though usually slaves, were treated with much respect. They were
+distinguished by the wearing of a cap (not unlike the tiara of the
+reigning sovereign, except that it was devoid of jewels and unsurmounted
+by an apex or peak), and they had numerous assistants to relieve them
+from all the menial labor.
+
+The cook's knife, closely resembling the modern two-bladed dagger, was
+usually made of bronze, often thickly gilded, with a much ornamented
+hilt carved from the hard black wood of the Syrian terebinth. Some,
+however, were fashioned from bone, partly covered with metal and adorned
+with pins and studs of gold. Others had handles of ivory carved to
+represent the foreparts of bulls and other animals, and many were
+embellished with precious stones. Quite a number were of copper, with
+hollow handles.
+
+Among the kitchen utensils was a jug with a long neck, an angular
+handle, and a pointed bottom. It was usually suspended from a nail or
+hook.
+
+There was also a plentiful and varied supply of vases, large and small,
+pitchers for holding water and other liquids, bowls, cups, pans, small
+bottles, ladles, jars and funnels--some of pottery and others of bronze,
+some of simple form and others elaborately patterned. The funnels were
+generally shaped like the wine strainers of to-day.
+
+Skins were often used for holding both wine and water.
+
+The dining tables were supported by props with one or several feet, in
+the houses of the rich made often of ivory and carved in the form of a
+lion or a hero such as Atlas, and among the poor of stone.
+
+The plates and dishes were of stone, alabaster or bronze. The dishes
+were generally made with handles, either fixed or movable, by which they
+could be carried or hung on pegs when not in use, and the red unglazed
+basins bore inscriptions, in cursive character, running round the
+interior in many lines to the bottom.
+
+The cups, especially those used for wine, were very beautiful. The lower
+part was often modeled in the form of a lion's head from which the cup
+itself rose in a graceful outward curve. Many of them were of gold and
+silver.
+
+To Assyria is due the birth of the "culinary art" and its gradual growth
+to a state closely bordering on perfection. It will be noted that it was
+marked also by the manufacture of utensils and vessels far more costly
+and elaborate than any in use at the present time.
+
+
+
+
+EGYPT AND THE EGYPTIANS.
+
+
+The recorded history of ancient Egypt which was, according to Herodotus,
+known as Thebes, commences with the reign of Menes, or Menas, who is
+supposed to have been its first king. He ascended the throne about 2320
+B. C.
+
+The growth of civilization among the early Egyptians was much more rapid
+than among the people of any contemporary nation. Even in the days of
+Abraham and Joseph they had attained to as high a degree of social
+culture as during the most glorious periods of their career. In art and
+science their advancement was especially marked.
+
+In her infancy, Egypt contented herself with the pursuits of
+agriculture, the chase, and, as the habits of the people became more
+settled, the rearing of cattle.
+
+The domestic oxen were usually of the hump-backed variety. But not only
+were the ordinary domestic animals tamed and reared, but also animals
+such as gazelles and oryxes.
+
+Sheep, though, do not appear to have been generally eaten; in some parts
+it was, indeed, unlawful to devour them.
+
+Goats were kept, presumably for their milk, and kids were occasionally
+allowed to browse on the vines in order to impart to their flesh a more
+delicate flavor.
+
+Pigs were generally looked upon as unclean, and therefore unfit for
+food. The chroniclers show them as used for food at only one festival.
+Those represented on the monuments were ugly in the extreme, with long
+legs and necks, rough hair, and a crest of bristles running down the
+back.
+
+Beef and goose were more generally eaten than any other kind of animal
+food. The flesh of the cow was, though, never consumed on account of its
+supposedly sacred character.
+
+The animals chiefly hunted were the gazelle, wild goat, auk, wild ox,
+stag, wild sheep, hare, porcupine and even the hyena. The wild boar is
+not represented on the monuments, but it probably thrived in ancient
+Egypt, for the country was admirably suited to its habits, as is proved
+by its tenancy there at the present date.
+
+In lower Egypt, people were in the habit of drying and salting birds of
+various kinds, such as geese, teal, quail, duck, and some of smaller
+size.
+
+Pigeons were also very plentiful and were much liked, and many of the
+wading tribe, as for instance the ardea, were so highly esteemed as to
+have been considered choice offerings for the gods.
+
+The greatest favorite, however, was the Vulpanser, known to us as the
+"Egyptian goose," which, with some others of the same genus, was caught
+alive and tamed. They were also taken in a wild state to the poulterers'
+shops to be displayed for immediate sale, and when not so disposed of
+were then often salted and potted in earthenware jars.
+
+According to Diodorus, the eggs of domestic birds were hatched by the
+use of artificial heat furnished by manure.
+
+Of the wild birds, the "sic sac," a small plover, was often mentioned.
+
+The river of Egypt was noted for the excellent quality of its fish
+(eaten both fresh and salted or dried), many varieties of which seem to
+have been peculiar to it. "The Israelites remembered with regret the
+fish which they did eat in Egypt freely."
+
+The kinds most highly regarded were the oxyrhynchus, lepidotus and
+lotus.
+
+The oxyrhynchus is now believed to have been the _mormyrus_ or the
+"mizdeh" of the Arabs. It has a smooth skin and a long nose, pointed
+downwards. In some districts it was held sacred to Athor.
+
+The lepidotus may have been the _salmo dentex_ or the binny (_Cyprinis
+lepidotus_). As its name implies, its body was covered with long scales.
+Its flesh was excellent.
+
+The lotus, sacred in the region of Latopolis, is supposed by De Pauw to
+be the _perca nilotica_.
+
+Other varieties much liked were: The oulti, to modern palates the best
+of all; the nefareh or Nile salmon, which occasionally attained the
+weight of one hundred pounds; the sagbosa, a kind of herring; a species
+of mullet, the shall, shilbeh byad, kilbel bahr, (the Nile dogfish) a
+species of carp, eels, and turtles of the soft-shelled variety.
+
+[Illustration: Roasting a goose over a fire of peculiar construction.
+
+(From a tomb at Thebes.)]
+
+Eels were, though, considered unwholesome in summer (Ibid.).
+
+Crocodiles were considered sacred in the neighborhood of Lake Moeris and
+of Thebes, but were eaten by the natives of the southern frontier.
+
+The many restrictions imposed by religion and custom on the diet of the
+early Egyptians subjected them to much ridicule from the inhabitants of
+contemporary nations, especially from the Greeks. Anaxandrides taunted
+them in his verses.
+
+The priests lived solely on oxen, geese, wine, bread and a few
+vegetables. Mutton, pork and fish were expressly forbidden them. They
+were also warned to abstain from beans, peas, lentils, onions, garlic
+and leeks. On fast days they ate only bread and drank only water.
+
+The people of the higher classes probably ate only two meals a day, as
+was the custom with the early Greeks and Romans. The breakfast was
+usually served at 10 or 11 a. m., and the dinner or supper in the
+evening.
+
+In the early ages, before men had acquired the art of smelting ore, many
+of the culinary utensils of the Egyptians were either of stone or
+earthenware.
+
+Knives were made of flint or stone, and were of two kinds, one broad and
+flat, the other narrow and pointed.
+
+The skins of the goat and gazelle were fashioned into vessels for the
+carrying of water, and pans, dishes and vases for kitchen purposes were
+made of a red ware--sometimes of a light or yellow tint, sometimes of a
+brilliant and polished appearance.
+
+The Egyptians were acquainted with the use of glass at least as early as
+the reign of Sesortasen II. (more than 3800 years ago), and made for it
+bottles and other utensils. Some of the former were made from two
+thicknesses of glass, enclosing between them bands of gold, alternating
+with a set of blue, green or other color.
+
+As the Egyptians advanced in social culture, the wealthier classes gave
+more and more attention to the pleasures of the table. Banquets became
+more general and increasingly more elaborate. The sums of money spent on
+some of these entertainments were fabulous; they have never since been
+equalled in their costly, wasteful magnificence.
+
+The preparation of a big dinner was in those days a weighty undertaking,
+for there were no big hotels to take the burden off the host's
+shoulders. Game had to be procured, professionals engaged, extra
+attendants hired, etc.
+
+As all the meat used was freshly slaughtered, the kitchen and the
+butcher's department presented an active appearance for many hours
+previous to the feast.
+
+In slaughtering, it was customary to take the ox or other animal into a
+courtyard near the house, tie its legs together and throw it to the
+ground, to be held in that position by one or more persons while the
+butcher prepared to cut its throat, as nearly as possible from one ear
+to the other, sometimes continuing the opening downwards along the neck,
+the blood being received in a vase or basin to be utilized later in
+cooking. The head was then taken off and the animal skinned, the
+operators beginning with the leg and neck. The first joint removed was
+the right foreleg or shoulder, the other parts following in succession
+according to convenience. One of their most remarkable joints, still
+seen in Egypt (although nowhere else) was cut from the leg and consisted
+of the flesh covering the tibia, whose two extremities projected
+slightly beyond it, as seen in the illustration.
+
+[Illustration: The Tibia, a peculiar Egyptian joint.]
+
+Servants carried the joints to the kitchen on wooden trays. There they
+were washed and prepared for the different processes of cooking. Then
+the various cooks were kept busy scouring the utensils, attending to the
+boiling, roasting, etc., pounding spice, making macaroni and performing
+all the other details of kitchen work.
+
+The head of the animal was usually given away in return for extra
+services, such as the holding of the guests' sticks, but it was
+occasionally eaten by the people of the higher classes, the assertion of
+Herodotus to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Geese and other tame and wild fowl were served up entire, and fish also
+came to table deprived of only the tails and fins.
+
+Vegetables were cooked in enormous quantities.
+
+Bronze caldrons of various sizes were used for boiling. They were placed
+over the fire on metal stands or tripods or supported on stones. Some of
+the smaller vessels, used for stewing meats, were heated over pans of
+charcoal. They resembled almost exactly the _magoor_ of modern Egypt.
+
+The mortars used for the pounding of spices were made of hard stone and
+the pestles of metal.
+
+Most of the bowls, ewers, jugs, buckets, basins, vases and ladles used
+in the kitchen were made of bronze alloyed with tin and iron. The usual
+proportion of tin was 12 per cent. and iron 1 per cent., although
+occasionally the amount of tin was as high as 15 (Ibid.) and as low as 6
+per cent.
+
+[Illustration: Slaves boiling meat and stirring fire.]
+
+Simpula, or ladles, were commonly made of bronze (often gilded), with
+the curved summit of the handle, which served to suspend the ladle at
+the side of the tureen or other vessel, terminating in the likeness of a
+goose's head (a favorite Egyptian ornament).
+
+Small strainers or collanders of bronze were also used, though for
+kitchen purposes they were made of strong papyrus stalks or rushes.
+
+The spoons were of various forms and made from ivory, wood and divers
+metals. In some the handle ended in a hook, by which when required they
+were suspended on nails. The handles of others were made to represent
+men, women or animals. Many were ornamented with lotus flowers.
+
+Skins were also used for holding wine and water.
+
+The roasting was performed over fire burning in shallow pans. These were
+regulated by slaves, who raised them with pokers and blew them with
+bellows worked by the feet.
+
+Though the Egyptians, except when impelled by the desire for extravagant
+display, partook sparingly of all but one or two meats, they were fond
+of a great variety of cakes and dainty confections. The more elaborate
+forms of pastry were mixed with fruits and spirits, and shaped to
+represent animals, birds and human beings.
+
+The plainer rolls were generally mixed and shaped by hand and sprinkled
+with seeds before baking. At other times, though, they were prepared
+from a thinner mixture, first well kneaded in a large wooden bowl (the
+feet often being used for this purpose), and then carried in vases to
+the chief pastry cook, who formed it into a sort of macaroni upon a
+metal pan over the fire, stirring the mixture with a wooden spatula,
+whilst an assistant stood ready with two pointed sticks to remove it
+when sufficiently cooked.
+
+Wine and water were placed in porous jars and fanned until cool. The
+water was purified by the use of paste of almonds (as it is, indeed, at
+the present day).
+
+In the meantime, the reception room had been arranged for the guests.
+Chairs or stools were placed in rows or groups, extra carpets and mats
+strewn about, flowers put in and around vases and the house decorated in
+every other conceivable manner.
+
+When guests began to arrive, they were first received in the vestibule
+by the attendants, who presented them with bouquets, placed garlands of
+lotus upon their heads and sometimes collars of lotus around their
+necks. To those who had come from a distance, they offered water and
+rinsed their feet. They then anointed their heads with sweet-smelling
+unguents and offered them wine and other beverages. During these
+proceedings the visitors were generally seated on the mats.
+
+[Illustration: A black and white slave waiting upon a lady.]
+
+After having received these attentions, the ladies and gentlemen
+intermingled and passed on to the main apartment, where the host and
+hostess received them and begged them to take their seats on the chairs
+and fauteuils which had been arranged for them. Here more refreshments
+were handed around and more flowers offered, while the guests, generally
+in couples, but sometimes in groups, conversed with one another. Music
+was next commonly introduced, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The
+performers in both acts were professionals and the dancing girls nearly
+if not quite naked. Sometimes at the same party there would be two
+bands, which we may suppose played alternately. Pet animals, such as
+dogs, gazelles and monkeys, were also often present (Ibid.).
+
+On some occasions the music, dancing and light refreshments constituted
+the whole of the entertainment, but more generally the proceedings
+described formed only the prelude to the more important part to follow.
+The stone pictures show us round tables loaded with a great variety of
+delicacies, such as joints of meat, geese, duck and waterfowl of
+different kinds, cakes, pastry, fruits, etc., interspersed amongst the
+guests.
+
+These tables could be more accurately described as low stools supporting
+round trays. The stool or pillar was often in the shape of a man,
+usually a captive, who bore the slab on his head. The whole was made of
+stone or some hard wood. It was not often covered with linen, but was
+from time to time cleansed with a moist rag or cloth (Homer).
+
+The dishes were probably handed round by the attendants and the guests
+helped themselves with their hands, as knives and forks were then
+unknown and the spoons that were manufactured do not seem to have been
+used for eating. The guests took as much as they could hold in their
+hands and, after eating, dipped them in water or wiped them in napkins
+which, it will be observed, the waiters carried. Beer and wine were
+supplied to quench the thirst.
+
+As individual cups were not usually seen, the women were presented with
+the desired beverage in silver vases, and the men with it in hand
+goblets, which after being drained were returned to the attendant. Women
+and men both imbibed freely and drunkenness was a universal and
+fashionable habit of both sexes.
+
+When the country was in the zenith of her power and magnificence, the
+drinking goblets were of gold, silver, glass, porcelain, alabaster and
+bronze. They varied also in form, some plain in appearance, others
+beautifully engraved and studded with precious stones. Heads of animals
+often adorned the handles, the eyes frequently composed of various
+gems. Many were without handles, while others were so shaped as to more
+properly come under the name of beakers and saucers. The beakers were
+frequently made of alabaster with a round base, which prevented their
+maintaining an upright position without additional support; and when
+empty they were turned downwards upon their rims. The saucers, which
+were of glazed pottery, were ornamented with lotus and fish carved or
+molded on their concave surface.
+
+Many of the vases have never yet been surpassed in daintiness of
+ornamentation. The most remarkable were those fashioned from porcelain
+which was made of a fine sand or grit, loosely fused and covered with a
+thick silicious glaze of a blue, green, white, purple or yellow color.
+The blue tints obtained have never been equalled in modern times.
+
+Herodotus tells us that, after the heavier part of a banquet, it was the
+custom to have a man carry round a coffin containing a wooden image in
+exact imitation of a corpse. Showing this to each of the revelers, the
+bearer would say: "Look upon this and then drink and enjoy yourself, for
+when dead you will be like unto this." A rather weird observance, which
+might be traced back to the death of Osiris.
+
+If the phrases are correctly reported, we must suppose the figure,
+brought in after the eating was ended and when the drinking began, was
+for the purpose of stimulating the guests to still greater conviviality.
+But if that were the case when Herodotus visited Egypt it must have been
+originated with a very different intention. The Egyptians were too much
+inclined to excesses in eating and drinking, both men and women
+(Herodotus and Plutarch), and the priests probably endeavored to thus
+check their too riotous mirth without personally interfering. Plutarch
+said concerning it:
+
+"The skeleton which the Egyptians appropriately introduce at their
+banquets, exhorting the guests to remember that they shall soon be like
+him, though he comes as an unwelcome and unseasonable boon companion,
+is nevertheless in a certain degree seasonable, if he exhorts them not
+to drink too deeply or indulge only in pleasures, but to cultivate
+mutual friendship and affection and not to render life, which is short
+in duration, long by evil deeds."
+
+[Illustration: EGYPTIAN PARTY. (From a Tomb at Thebes.)
+
+Host and hostess receiving presents. Dancing girls. Slaves waiting on
+guests. Placing collars of lotus around their necks. Slaves preparing
+bouquets. Scribe. Butchers cutting up ox. Carrying trays of meat. Man
+clapping hands and singing. Guitar player. Harpist. Slave carrying head
+and haunch. Stick custodian rewarded.]
+
+After the skeleton, there was sung a doleful song in honor of Maneros,
+whose identity is clouded by traditional disputes.
+
+Next, music and songs of more mirthful character were resumed. Sometimes
+jugglers, male and female, were hired for the occasion. They amused
+their audience with ball tossing, turning somersaults, leaping and
+wrestling. Occasionally, games, resembling our draughts or checkers,
+served to amuse those present (Ibid.), but as a rule the fumes of wine
+prevented any such quiet occupation, and the festival in many cases
+ended with a most riotous carousal.
+
+The foregoing is probably a true picture of a banquet in ancient
+Egypt--except that, according to some writers, the diners were seated on
+the floor and ate from very low stools or tables.
+
+Yet, in spite of all, the moral code of the early Egyptians was purer
+than that of contemporary nations. And commerce and war carried abroad
+the advanced thoughts, great learning and luxurious tastes of these
+ancient people, to be the foundations in after years of divers
+civilizations, amongst them our own.
+
+
+
+
+THE "VEGETABLE KINGDOM" OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
+
+
+The vegetable kingdom of ancient Egypt may be roughly divided into four
+great classes--trees and shrubs, esculent plants, grains and artificial
+grasses.
+
+Of the first named, the most important food providing trees were the
+doom and date palms, the sycamore, tamarisk and mokhayp or _myxa_.
+
+The doom palm (_Cucifera Thebaica_) grows abundantly throughout all
+upper Egypt. It is a very picturesque tree which, unlike its
+date-bearing sister, spreads out into numerous limbs or branches,
+reaching an elevation of about thirty feet. Its wood is more solid than
+that of the date tree, and was found to be very serviceable for the
+building of boats, etc.
+
+The blossoms are of two kinds, male and female. The fruit, which is
+developed from the female blossom, grows in large clusters, each fruit
+attaining the size of a goose's egg, although the nut within the fibrous
+external envelope is not much bigger than a large almond. The flavor of
+the nut is peculiarly sweet, resembling our ginger bread. It was eaten
+both in a ripe and unripe condition--in the latter it has about the
+texture of cartilage; in the former it is harder, and has been compared
+to the edible portion of the cocoanut.
+
+The date palm is too well known to need any general description. Two
+kinds, however, flourished--the wild and the cultivated. The wild
+variety grew from seeds, and often bore an enormous quantity of fruit.
+Sir G. Wilkinson is authority for the statement that a single bunch has
+been known to contain between 6,000 and 7,000 dates, and as it is a
+common thing for a tree to bear from five to twenty-two bunches, the
+average total is often from 30,000 to 100,000 dates per tree. The fruit
+is, though, small and of poor quality, and consequently it is not often
+gathered.
+
+The cultivated variety was grown from off-shoots selected with care,
+planted out at regular intervals and abundantly irrigated (Ibid.). It
+began to bear in five or six years and continued productive for sixty or
+seventy.
+
+Besides the amount of nourishing food furnished and the value of the
+wood of the date palm, an exhilarating drink was made from its sap and
+brandy or _lowbgeh_, date wine and vinegar from the fruit without much
+difficulty.
+
+The fruit of the sycamore (_Ficus sycamorus_) ripens in June. Although
+it was much esteemed by the ancients, it has been denounced by moderns
+as insipid.
+
+The mokhayt (_Cardia myxa_) grows to the height of about thirty feet,
+commencing to branch out at a distance of twelve feet from the ground,
+with a diameter at the base of about three feet. Its fruit is of a pale
+yellow color, inclosed in two skins. Its texture is viscous and its
+taste not very agreeable. It was used extensively as a medicine, and was
+also, according to Pliny, made into a fermented liquor ("Ex myxis in
+Aegypto et vina fiunt").
+
+Among other fruit trees and shrubs may be mentioned the fig,
+pomegranate, vine, olive, peach, pear, plum, apple, carob or locust
+(_Ceratonia siliqua_), persea, palma, christi or castor oil plant, nebk
+(_Rhamnus Nabeca_), and the prickly pear or _shok_.
+
+The persea (_Balanite Aegyptiaca_) is a bushy tree or shrub which under
+favorable circumstances reaches an altitude of eighteen or twenty feet.
+Its bark is of whitish color, its branches gracefully curved, its
+foliage of an ashy gray hue. Its lower branches are supplied with long
+thorns; on its upper branches grows the fruit, which resembles a small
+date in general character. Its exterior consists of a pulpy substance
+of subacid flavor; its stone is large for the size of the fruit, and
+incloses a kernel of yellowish-white color and an oily, rather bitter
+flavor. Both the exterior and the kernel were eaten.
+
+The nebk or _sidr_ is another fruit of the date variety. It was eaten
+raw, or the flesh, detached from the stone, was dried in the sun. It
+enjoyed the reputation of being a sustaining as well as agreeable
+article.
+
+The most common fig was that known to the Romans as "cottana," and by
+the modern Arabs as "qottaya."
+
+The olives grown were large and fleshy, but contained little oil.
+
+Vines were undoubtedly much cultivated, in spite of the assertion of
+Herodotus to the contrary. The bunches of grapes, when intended for
+immediate consumption, were, after being gathered, placed in flat open
+baskets. When intended for the wine press they were closely packed in
+deep baskets or hampers, which were carried to the shed or storehouse on
+men's heads or by means of shoulder yokes. The juice was extracted by
+treading or squeezing in a bag.
+
+The juice of the grape was sometimes drunk in its fresh condition
+(Genesis), but fermentation was usually awaited, and the wine was then
+stored away in vases or amphorae of elegant shape, closed with stoppers
+and hermetically sealed with moist clay, pitch, gypsum or other similar
+substances.
+
+The best brands came from Anthylla (Athenaeus), Marestis (Pliny and
+Strabo), and the tract about Lake Marea. Sebennytic, Thebaid and Coptos
+also produced light, wholesome wines.
+
+The esculent plants consisted of both wild and cultivated varieties.
+Those most in demand were the byblus or papyrus, the Nymphaea lotus,
+lotus coerulea and the Nymphaea nelumbo (called by Pliny "colocasia" and
+also "cyamon").
+
+The papyrus grew luxuriantly in ancient Egypt, especially in the marshy
+districts of the Delta, although it is no longer found in the country.
+The pith of the upper and middle portions of the tall, smooth,
+triangular-shaped reed was used for paper, but that of the lower portion
+and the root were regarded as an edible delicacy. According to
+Herodotus, it was prepared for the table by being baked in a closed
+vessel.
+
+The Nymphaea lotus, which resembles our white water lily, was also a
+product of the lowlands. The seed vessels were collected and dried, to
+be afterward crushed and made into cakes. The rest of the plant was also
+eaten cooked or raw, and was said to be of a "pleasant sweet taste," but
+nineteenth century palates declare it to be no better than a bad
+truffle. The lotus coerulea was merely another variety of the same
+plant.
+
+The Nymphaea nelumbo, which is, by the way, no longer found in Africa,
+was called by the Greeks and Romans the "Egyptian bean," and was
+regarded by those races as emblematic of Egypt. It did not differ from
+the ordinary lotus except in the large dimensions of the leaves and the
+size and loveliness of its blossoms. The leaf of the flower varied from
+one to one and a half feet in diameter. It had two rows of petals six
+inches in length, of a crimson or rose-colored purple, and inside of
+these was a dense fringe of stamens surrounding and protecting the
+ovary. The fruit developed into a sweet, wholesome nut or almond,
+divided into two lobes by a bitter green leaf or corculum (removed
+before eating), with a shell shaped like the rose of a watering pot and
+studded with seeds (about the size of small acorns and to the number of
+twenty or thirty), which projected from the upper surface in a circle
+about three inches in diameter. Both the nuts and roots were eaten by
+the poorer classes.
+
+Wheat and barley were grown in all the provinces in the valley of the
+Nile, as were also, though to a lesser extent, rice, millet, pulse,
+peas, beans, lentils, hommos (_Cicer arietinum_), gilban (_Lathyrus
+sativus_), carthamus, lupins, bamia, jigl (_Raphanus sativus_--Linn.,
+Herodot., Pliny), simsin, indigo, cassia, senna, colocynth, cummin (the
+seeds of which were used for bread), durrha, coriander, cucurbitae,
+onions, cucumbers, leeks, etc.
+
+The onions were mild and of an excellent flavor. Nicerates quotes Homer
+as authority for the statement that they were much relished when eaten
+with wine.
+
+According to Diodorus, children and even some grown persons lived at
+that time solely on roots and esculent herbs, eating them both raw and
+cooked.
+
+The bread or cake used in the homes of the wealthy was made from wheaten
+flour; those one degree lower in the social scale made use of barley
+meal, and the poorer classes ate bread of the durrha (Holcus sorghum)
+flour.
+
+
+
+
+GREECE BEFORE THE AGE OF LUXURY.
+
+
+It is impossible within these pages to tabulate with absolute
+correctness any hard and fast menu as the diet of the ancient Greeks, as
+it varied greatly according to the products of the several parts of the
+diversified country over which they ruled, but one can by the process of
+elimination arrive at fairly satisfactory generalities.
+
+The principal food of the poorer classes was bread. It was not a very
+appetizing kind, however, as it usually consisted of a simple dough of
+barley meal moistened with water, or, occasionally, poor wine. It was
+eaten without cooking or any further preparation. This was the universal
+food of the Spartans.
+
+The middle and wealthy classes partook, though, of baked wheaten bread,
+which was called by Homer "the strength of life."
+
+All other kinds of food, with the exception of sweet cakes, cheese and a
+few vegetables and fruits, were at first considered (save by the
+inhabitants of the cities) as luxuries--somewhat as even now amongst
+old-fashioned people in Scotland, the term "kitchen" is applied to all
+edible articles other than dry bread.
+
+Of sweet cakes there were many kinds. They were flavored with various
+seeds and sweetened with honey. Sugar, though, if known at all, was used
+only for its medicinal properties.
+
+Cheese was eaten mixed with wine or honey and salt.
+
+Dried figs and grapes were much liked, especially by the Athenians, and
+olives were even then pickled for a relish.
+
+The vegetables that were formerly cultivated are not easily
+distinguished by the names applied to them by different writers, but it
+is certain that lettuce, cabbage, peas, beans, vetches, leeks, onions,
+parsley and thyme were grown, as well as truffles and mushrooms.
+Vegetables were eaten in the form of soup, served on hot dishes with
+sauce or dressed as salad.
+
+In the numerous towns large quantities of fish were sold. The salt water
+were more generally preferred than the fresh water varieties, although
+especial favor was bestowed on the eels that were obtained from Lake
+Copais in Boeotia. There grew up early in history a heavy trade in fish
+from the Black Sea and even from the coasts of Spain.
+
+Although frequent mention is made of fish, cheese and vegetable markets,
+a meat market seems to have been almost unknown. From this and also from
+the fact that the word which designated butchers' meat also signified
+"victim," it may be concluded that oxen were primarily slaughtered only
+at sacrificial feasts.
+
+The flesh of the hare was more highly esteemed than that of any other
+kind of four-footed game. Of wild birds the thrush was most relished.
+
+Pheasants and woodcock were plentiful, and quails were made to act as
+combatants for the edification of the Grecian youth.
+
+Domestic fowls and eggs were common.
+
+Butter was seldom made, as it was considered unwholesome, olive oil (as
+at the present time) being used in its place.
+
+Although the Greeks were fond of water as a beverage, the difficulty of
+obtaining it of good quality, combined with the tremendous production of
+wine, made the latter the national drink. It was, however, seldom drank
+in an undiluted condition, and the Northerners, who were in the habit of
+drinking it neat, were denounced as unappreciative barbarians. But this
+is not very strange, as the large amount of fir resin which is still
+added to most Greek wines, makes them too strong and bitter for the
+civilized palate to drink unless tempered by water.
+
+The first juice extracted from the press before treading was set apart
+as choice wine, the pressed grapes being then used for the making of the
+commoner variety or vinegar.
+
+The wine was often boiled and mixed with salt for exportation, and
+aromatic herbs and berries were added to impart different flavors. It
+was then placed in earthenware jars sealed with pitch.
+
+The various kinds may be roughly classed by colors. The black was the
+strongest and sweetest; the white was the weakest, and that of golden
+color was dry and very fine in flavor.
+
+The wines grown in the districts of Lesbos, Chios, Sikyon, and Phlios
+were the most esteemed. Age was considered when estimating the value of
+wine, but the preference for any special year of vintage seems to have
+been unknown.
+
+Even in those early days epicures whenever possible cooled their jars
+with snow before pouring out the wine.
+
+Cow's milk was not liked, but the first milk of goats and sheep was
+often drank, although more generally used for the manufacture of cheese.
+
+The morning meal seldom consisted of more than bread dipped in wine and
+water, resembling closely the morning coffee of the Continent. The
+principal meal of the very early Grecians, as in the case of nearly all
+young nations, was served about noon, but as civilization advanced, the
+hour grew later, until 5 o'clock became most popular, a light luncheon
+then being served in the middle of the day.
+
+Although Homer represents his chiefs as being always ready to sit down
+and gorge themselves with meat, the Grecian gentleman was not a disciple
+of "high living" or indolence. He desired and appreciated the charm of
+sober conversation and intellectual stimulus. Homer recognized this when
+he said, "Nor did the mind of any stand in want of an equal feast."
+
+The social instincts and the warmth of feeling amongst the Hellenic race
+made dinners and festival events of every day occurrence, and caused
+them to fill a prominent part in the lives of all, but the diet of the
+Homeric age was wonderfully simple (in those early days the most
+elaborate dinners consisted of only two courses--the first of meat,
+usually roasted sheep, oxen or pigs, and vegetables; the second of
+cakes, sweetened with the honey of Hymettus, and dried and fresh
+fruits), for appetites were held subordinate to the love of music and
+the dance.
+
+
+               "* * * Nor can I deem
+     Aught more delightful than the general joy
+     Of a whole people, when the assembled guests,
+     Seated in order in the royal hall,
+     Are listening to the minstrel, while the board
+     Is spread with bread and meats, and from the jars
+     The cup-bearer draws wine and fills the cups.
+     To me there is no more delightful sight."
+
+     (Plato.)
+
+
+Invitations were generally given a few days in advance by the host in
+person in the market or any other place of common sojourn.
+
+Unlike the Egyptians, the Grecians made their toilets and anointed
+themselves before arriving at their host's house.
+
+But before eating,
+
+
+                 "* * * In a bowl
+     Of silver, from a shapely ewer of gold,
+     A maid poured water o'er the hands and set
+     A polished table near them."
+
+
+Then, if any had traveled from a distance, their feet were bathed in
+perfumed water and wine.
+
+Meanwhile the male attendants were not idle--
+
+
+             "* * * Some in the bowls
+     Tempered the wine with water, some cleansed
+     The table with light sponges and set
+     The banquet forth and carved the meats for all."
+
+
+A separate table was in those days usually provided for each guest,
+though the rule was not strictly observed.
+
+In some cases, diners-out were accompanied and attended by their own
+servants. In a few districts in modern Greece this is still habitual.
+
+Chairs and stools were generally used as seats, the custom of reclining
+on couches not being introduced until a later date.
+
+As napkins were then unknown, the guests wiped their fingers on towels
+and in pieces of specially prepared dough, which were thrown under the
+table after being used.
+
+There were spoons (of metal, often of gold--Athenaeus), but hollow
+pieces of bread were generally used in their stead.
+
+The carver presided at a table and cut the meats into small pieces, as
+individual forks and knives were then unknown. The portions were usually
+of uniform size, although any very honored person was presented with
+larger or choicer morsels.
+
+The diluted wine was then transferred by ladles to the drinking cups or
+beakers, to be distributed by boy servants. The first cup was handed
+from one to another of the guests untouched as a sort of salutation.
+
+It was not customary to drink before the meal had been served.
+
+Bread was handed round in little baskets woven from slips of ivory.
+
+Moderation was universally observed. It was deemed gluttonous to linger
+long over a repast, and contemptible to imbibe too freely of wine.
+
+
+           "* * * When the calls of thirst
+     And hunger were appeased, the diners thought
+     Of other things that well become a feast.
+     Song and the dance."
+
+
+But here again all ribaldry was debarred. Tender hymns and rhapsodies
+were sung to the accompaniment of the harp by trained singers, who were
+seated at special tables on silver-mounted thrones.
+
+Games of various kinds usually followed, and with conversation filled
+out the time until the gathering dispersed.
+
+House picnics were much in vogue:
+
+
+                       "* * * * Meantime came
+     Those who prepared the banquets to the halls
+     Of the great monarch. Bringing sheep
+     And strengthening wine they came. Their wives, who on their brows
+     Wore snowy fillets, brought the bread, and thus
+     Within the halls of Menelaus all
+     Was bustle setting forth the evening meal."
+
+
+Among the dining room utensils should be mentioned the various baskets
+of copper, silver, gold and ivory wire; vessels for mixing wine, usually
+of silver, but sometimes of the more precious metal, and cups of
+elaborate design and costly workmanship.
+
+[Illustration: Drinking vessels: Bowls, beakers and rhyta.]
+
+The cups were of various shapes and sizes. The "depas" had two handles
+and was made of wood, thickly covered with gold studs. Another, the
+"kypellon," was broad and shallow, made of various metals, usually gold.
+The "phiate" was very similar in appearance to the kypellon. The
+"kotyle" was so small as to merely hold "a scanty draught, which only
+wet the lips, but not the palate."
+
+The "sykphos" and "kissybion" were simple wooden cups in use amongst the
+peasantry. They were usually made of the wood of the cypress.
+
+Skilled cooks were seldom regularly employed on the domestic staff. They
+usually congregated in the market places and when any particular
+occasion necessitated their services they were hired by the day. As also
+nowadays they generally represented several nations, and they gained in
+social importance as the love of luxury gradually overcame the custom of
+simple fare.
+
+The regular staff of household servants, slaves in fact, were under the
+management of a general steward, himself a slave, who attended
+personally to the buying and superintended the details of all the other
+departments.
+
+[Illustration: Wine jugs or oinochoai.]
+
+But besides these private dinners, occasion often brought about banquets
+on a much larger scale, sometimes in honor of religion or of death.
+
+
+         "* * * There upon the ocean's side
+     They found the people offering coal black steers
+     To dark haired Neptune. On nine seats they sat,
+     Five hundred on each seat; nine steers were slain
+     For each five hundred there."
+
+
+There was also a great difference between the foods of the ordinary
+people and that of the heroes described in the classics. According to
+Homer, who was probably guilty of exaggeration, the athletes consumed
+enormous quantities of various meats (roasted or broiled, by the
+way--never boiled), which comprised their entire diet with the exception
+of wine and bread. Beef, mutton, venison, and especially pork, were
+mentioned.
+
+
+     "He spake and girt his tunic round his loins
+     And hastened to the sties in which the herds
+     Of swine were lying. Thence he took out two
+     And slaughtered them and scraped them, sliced the flesh
+     And fried it upon spits and when the whole
+     Was roasted, brought and placed it reeking hot,
+     Still in the spits and sprinkled with white meal."
+
+
+Fish and cheese were only considered worthy of the athletic when animal
+flesh was scarce. Nor were these giants possessed of very fastidious
+palates.
+
+
+               "* * * * At the fire
+     Already lie the paunches of two goats
+     Preparing for our evening meal, and both
+     Are filled with fat and blood."
+
+         "* * * * As one turns and turns
+     The stomach of a bullock filled with fat
+     And blood before a fiercely blazing fire
+     And wishes it were done * * * *."
+
+
+The hospitality of the early Grecians was unbounded. The high moral and
+social standard of the masses of the people rendered it possible to
+extend greater courtesy towards strangers than would have been deemed
+prudent in later days. Every stranger or traveller who knocked at the
+door of a residence was sure of a welcome. No questions were asked him
+until he had been generously entertained in every feasible manner, for
+he stood under the protection of Zeus Xenios, guardian of the guest.
+
+This lavish friendliness was probably caused by, or was perhaps itself
+the cause of, the scarcity of hostelries of reputable character. A
+spirit of compassion also existed, as it was then considered an ill
+fortune that made one journey far from home.
+
+As the centuries of increasing wealth and power relaxed the rigidity of
+the morals of these ancient inhabitants of Greece, the love of luxury
+gradually supplanted the absorbing desire for intellectual enjoyment
+which had at first raised them so far above the people of the
+neighboring territories. Gluttonous devotion to the table, in
+conjunction with numerous vices, undermined the physical as well as the
+moral constitution, and the country which had astounded the ages with
+the valor of its sons, which had proved invulnerable to numerous martial
+forces, succumbed to the influence of sensual tastes and passions,
+suggested by the idleness of worldly success. And as their worship of
+their palates grew, the trained cook obtained an even greater influence
+until his position became one of extreme importance, and was so recorded
+by the poets and dramatists of the time.
+
+Little difference, in fact, was there between the habits of the latter
+day Greeks and the Romans in the days of their great wealth, for Grecian
+luxuries and Grecian habits were the models that Rome took as its
+models, so we will pass on to the next chapter, inferentially describing
+the former while depicting the latter.
+
+
+
+
+ROME IN THE DAYS OF HER GREATEST PROSPERITY.
+
+
+The food of the early Romans resembled to a great extent that of the
+Greek heroes (their national dish was pulmentarium, a porridge made of
+pulse), but to avoid repetitions we will pass over the first centuries
+of Roman history, choosing as our subject Rome in the days of
+prosperity.
+
+It should, however, be mentioned that Greece never attained such
+enormous wealth as Rome, and that even in her greatest recklessness she
+was more refined. Goethe said that in the days of their highest
+civilization the Romans remained parvenus; that they did not know how to
+live, that they wasted their riches in tasteless extravagance and vulgar
+ostentation--but it must be remembered that, whereas the civilization of
+the nineteenth century is industrial, that of Rome was militant, and to
+that should be attributed the fact that some of the simplest means of
+comfort were then unknown.
+
+Many moderns are inclined to doubt the assertions made concerning the
+countless riches and marvellous expenditures of those days. They read
+with skepticism the writings of Juvenal, Seneca and the elder Pliny.
+But, though in some cases exaggeration was doubtless resorted to,
+sufficient proof remains to convince the observing mind that the wealth
+of the Roman far surpassed the wildest dreams of the richest man of the
+present day. The ruins of the Colosseum and of the baths of Caracalla,
+two structures raised solely for pleasure, impress us with their
+stupendous magnificence, and even the twentieth century has failed to
+equal the palaces of the nobles.
+
+Moreover, it must be remembered that the wealthy Roman owned many
+mansions. Each of the larger ones was a miniature city, sheltering a
+small army of slaves. The buildings were surrounded by parks, vineyards,
+woods and artificial lakes. The atria and peristyles were embellished
+with valuable paintings and statues. The walls and ceilings of the
+chambers were decorated with gold and precious stones. Nowhere else,
+recorded in the history of the world, with the possible exception of the
+palaces of the Incas, has gold ever been so lavishly used. On the
+furniture and ornaments alone, millions were expended. A single cup of
+murra brought 1,000,000 sesterces ($40,000). A small citrus wood table
+cost a similar sum--yet Seneca owned 500 of them, an outlay on that
+class of furniture alone of $20,000,000.
+
+All Italy was covered with the country residences of the patricians.
+They were found in numbers on the coast of Campania, the Sabine hills
+and the lakes of the North.
+
+The most esteemed members of the household staff were the coqui (cooks)
+and the pistores (fancy bakers). They often amassed large fortunes from
+their salaries and the many presents they received. All the other
+servants (who were usually slaves) were under the jurisdiction of a
+headman, an _atriensis_.
+
+The first meal (_ientaculum_) was light, consisting ordinarily of bread
+and wine with honey, dates, olives or cheese. At the prandium (their
+_déjeuner à la fourchette_, which took the place of their noon dinner of
+former days), meats, vegetables, fruits, bread and wine were provided.
+After the second meal, the meridiato (or in modern language, the siesta)
+was enjoyed, as it is in the Italy of this century--although, unlike the
+sleepy town we know, business Rome then never slept.
+
+After the short midday rest came games and exercises. The youth betook
+themselves to Campus Martius. The older members of the family made use
+of the sphaeristerium, a private gymnasium and ball room, which was
+found in every house. With it were connected the private baths.
+
+The cena, the principal meal, commenced at 3, 4 or 5 o'clock in the
+afternoon. Seldom less than four hours were spent at table. Pliny, the
+elder, who was considered a very abstemious man, sat down to his meal at
+4 o'clock, and remained there "until it began to grow dark in summer and
+soon after night in winter," at least three hours. The amount of food
+consumed would be incredible were it not for the explanation recorded by
+Seneca, "Edunt ut vomant; vomant ut edunt."
+
+The dinner menu given below was of a very ordinary affair:
+
+
+     _Gustus._
+
+     Sorrel
+     Lettuce
+     Pickled Cabbage and Gherkins
+     Radishes, Mushrooms, etc.
+     Oysters
+     Sardines
+     Eggs
+
+
+     _First Course._
+
+     Conger Eels
+     Oysters
+     Two kinds of Mussels
+     Thrushes on Asparagus
+     Fat Fowls
+     Ragout of Oysters and other Shellfish with black and white Maroons.
+
+
+     _Second Course._
+
+     Shellfish and other Marine Products
+     Beccaficos
+     Haunches of Venison
+     Wild Boar
+     Pastry of Beccaficos and other Birds.
+
+
+     _Third Course._
+
+     Sow's Udder
+     Boar's Head
+     Fricassee of Fish
+     Fricassee of Sow's Udders
+     Various kinds of ducks
+     Roast Fowl
+     Hares
+     Sausages
+     Roast Pig
+     Peacocks
+
+
+     _Fourth Course._
+
+     Pastry in wonderfully elaborate forms and colors
+     Pirentine bread
+
+
+     _Fifth Course._
+
+     Fruits and wines.
+
+
+The "gustus," or appetizer, was also variously known as the "gustatio."
+A favorite drink served with it was a mulsum of Hymetian honey and
+Falernian wine.
+
+Toothpicks made from the leaves of the mastich pistachio were in common
+use.
+
+All the dishes were carved at the sideboards by expert carvers who were
+trained in schools by practice on jointed wooden models.
+
+Salt was much used in the flavoring of dishes and also to mingle with
+sacrifices.
+
+[Illustration: A Roman bakery.]
+
+Fowls were fattened in the dark. Ducks and geese were fed on figs and
+dates. Pigs were cooked in fifty different ways. Boars were cooked
+whole; peacocks with their tails. Sausages were imported from Gaul.
+
+Vitellius and Apicius feasted on the tongues of flamingoes, and
+Elagabalus on their brains.
+
+The greater the waste at a dinner, the more absurd the extravagance, the
+more successful it was deemed. This idea was carried out in every
+department. A mullet of ordinary size was cheap--one that was rather
+heavy easily brought 6,000 sesterces ($240.00).
+
+[Illustration: Frame work of a Roman dining couch.]
+
+In order to lengthen the time, jugglers, rope-dancers, buffoons and
+actors were introduced between courses. Beautiful Andalusian girls
+charmed the dinners with their voluptuous dances. Even gladiators were
+engaged. Games of chance concluded the entertainment when the condition
+of the revellers permitted.
+
+At any large affair, an archon, or toastmaster, was selected by ballot
+or acclamation. His duty it was to regulate the proportions of water and
+wine and the size of the cups in which it was served. It was usual to
+commence with the smallest and end with the largest.
+
+At the table, the somber togas were exchanged for gay-colored garments
+(_syntheses_), and the shoes for sandals. Some of the more ostentatious
+changed their costumes several times during the progress of a meal. The
+head and breast were sometimes wreathed with flowers and ornaments.
+
+The tables first used were of quadrangular shape--three sides being
+decorated for the guests and the fourth left vacant to facilitate the
+movements of the attendants. They, however, were soon supplanted by
+small tables of marble, bronze or citrus. These and a large sideboard
+supported an amount of heavy gold and silver utensils.
+
+The diners reclined on costly sofas, inlaid with tortoise shells and
+jewels, and the lower parts decked with embroidered gold. The pillows
+were stuffed with wool and covered with gorgeous purple. The cushions
+which supported the elbows were covered with silk stuffs, often marked
+to designate the places of the various guests.
+
+Three people occupied each sofa. The lowest place on the middle sofa was
+the seat of honor.
+
+The room or hall was illuminated by lamps and candles, set on individual
+and very expensive stands or massed in candelabras of great
+magnificence. The oils and fats used for illumination were diluted with
+substances which under the influence of heat gave forth odors of great
+fragrance.
+
+Each guest brought his own napkin.
+
+Ivory-handled knives were manufactured, but seldom used, as the
+reclining position rendered the spoons (_ligulae_) more convenient.
+
+The dessert was arranged on the sideboards under the supervision of the
+pistor and structor before the meal commenced.
+
+A nomenclator was the regular employe of every patrician. His sole
+office was to prompt his master on the names of his guests and clients,
+or hangers-on.
+
+Much care was devoted by the wealthy to their private stores of wines.
+They were sealed in jars or bottles of baked clay, with labels attached
+bearing the year of the consulship during which they were made. Some old
+wines were very expensive. That of Campania was considered the best. The
+Caecuban Falernian was very good. He was pitied who was forced to drink
+the Vatican!
+
+[Illustration: A banquet in the days of ancient Rome (original taken
+from a stone carving excavated from the site of Pompeii).]
+
+Greek wines were popular and were found in many Roman cellars.
+
+In winter, wine was heated with water, honey and spices in a caldarium,
+a vessel fitted with a small charcoal furnace, closely resembling the
+Russian samovar.
+
+Being unable to sensibly decrease their riches by ordinary methods, many
+novel ideas were put in use, often at great expense.
+
+Nero constructed in his golden house a vaulted ceiling which turned
+continuously on its axis.
+
+At a banquet given by Otho, tubes of gold and silver suddenly protruded
+from various parts of the hall and sprinkled perfumes on the assembly.
+
+Petronius describes a rather fanciful affair given by Trimalchio.
+
+After the company had taken their places and young Egyptian slave girls
+had bathed their hands and feet in scented snow water, there was placed
+on the table a gold salver, inlaid with tortoise shell, in the middle of
+which stood an ass of bronze bearing silver panniers, one filled with
+white and the other with black olives. On his back sat a Silenus pouring
+from a wineskin the favorite sauce the _garum_; at one side were
+sausages on a silver gridiron, under which were plums and red
+pomegranate kernels to represent glowing coals, and placed around were
+trays bearing vegetables, snails, oysters and other appetizers.
+
+When that course had been removed, another dish was brought in, of which
+the central feature was a hen of carved citrus wood with expanded wings,
+brooding over a nest of peafowls' eggs. These eggs were handed around on
+silver egg-spoons weighing each more than half a pound. When the shells
+were broken, some of the guests were horrified to find within them
+half-hatched chicks; but on closer inspection these proved to be
+beccaficos cooked in egg sauce.
+
+As the plates were being removed, a chorus of Oriental beauties chanted
+their strange songs. A slave by accident let fall a silver dish; he
+stooped to pick it up--the atriensis boxed his ears and bade him sweep
+it out with the other fragments.
+
+Wine of rare virtue and great age was then brought in and distributed
+with almost obtrusive extravagance.
+
+The first heavy course again surprised many of those who were present.
+It consisted apparently of the most ordinary dishes and joints. But
+these proved to be merely cleverly designed covers, which on being
+lifted, disclosed roasted pigs, field fares, capons, noble bartels and
+turbots. In the centre was a plump hare which, by the addition of a pair
+of wings, had been made to resemble a Pegasus. The carving was done in
+the presence of the diners and to the strains of slow music.
+
+Next came a huge boar roasted whole, with two palm twig baskets filled
+with dates, hanging from his tusks. By his side were eight small pigs,
+cleverly molded in paste, which were presented to guests as remembrances
+of the occasion.
+
+Following the boar was a large swine, also cooked whole. After much
+acclamation, the carver was about to do his work, when with a look of
+disgust he announced that it had not been disemboweled. The cook was
+called and severely chided. He feigned regret and made many excuses;
+then seizing a heavy knife, ripped the animal open, letting fall into
+the dish a mass of sausages and rich puddings.
+
+After the pig had been carried away and while the dessert was being
+placed on the table, the ceiling opened and a silver hoop descended
+bearing gold, silver and alabaster phials of essences, silver and jewel
+coronets and many other things of similar character.
+
+The pastry had been made to resemble shellfish, field fares, etc.
+Quinces were stuck full of almonds to imitate sea urchins.
+
+Surrounded by flowers was a figure of Vertumnus, with its bosom piled
+with fruits. The guests were invited to help themselves, and the
+pressure of their hands on the fruit caused a shower of the daintiest
+perfume.
+
+When all had partaken to repletion of the goods served, the spirit of
+Bacchus was given full sway, half nude dancers and singers threw off all
+restraint, and there were enacted scenes of riotous carousing for which
+Rome in its decadence became notorious.
+
+A weird dinner was once given by the Emperor Domitian. He invited a
+number of senators and knights to dine with him at a late hour. When
+they arrived they found that the banquet room had been draped in somber
+black. At each seat had been placed a tombstone bearing the inscription
+of a diner and naked black slaves danced weird dances and served up
+funeral viands on black dishes. When the company had been dismissed, its
+members found that all their slaves had disappeared and unknown bearers
+carried them to their homes. Each found on his return a message and a
+souvenir awaiting him--a silver tombstone bearing his name.
+
+
+
+
+THE ANCIENT JEWS.
+
+
+Readers will find recorded in this chapter many things which are matters
+of general knowledge, but this, they will readily understand, is
+unavoidable when treating on the customs of so well known a people as
+the Jews and drawing on the Bible for much of the information given. As
+the facts drawn from the Scriptures have though been supplemented by the
+results of the researches of many eminent travelers and writers, it is
+hoped that the combination will be found worthy of the time expended on
+its perusal.
+
+The Mosaic dietary laws which for more than three thousand years formed
+the text of important social and religious observances among the
+inhabitants of the chosen kingdom were the outcome of a comparison of
+the regulations and practices of contemporary nations. Whether the
+system was compiled in the interest of humanity or health, it remains
+true that it has proved itself to be one of the best economic regimes
+ever made public. If for no other reason, the life of the ancient Jew is
+especially interesting to those who study the foods of men, past and
+present--although it must be admitted that the precepts they compiled
+were more conducive to sound digestion than some of the practices they
+followed!
+
+The diet of the ancient Jews consisted at first, as did that of all the
+pioneers of the human race, of but a few articles of food. But, though
+meat was not consumed in large quantities, writers err when they
+describe the food of Orientals as being light and simple. Orientals did,
+and do, make use of an inordinate amount of grease in cooking. Eggs and
+rice were, whenever circumstances permitted, saturated with fat or oil
+and meats and vegetables were frequently simmered in fat before being
+stewed. It was not unusual for a family of six or seven persons to
+consume an average of two hundred pounds a year, and some of their
+compounds would have ill suited delicate stomachs.
+
+Bread, as in all ancient countries, constituted the greater part of the
+food of the middle and lower classes. In Leviticus, Psalms and Ezekiel,
+reference is made to the "staff of bread." It was most generally eaten
+after being dipped into cheap wine or weak gravy.
+
+The fresh green ears of wheat were often eaten without cooking, the
+husks being rubbed off by hand. The grain was, though, more usually
+roasted in a pan after being carefully sorted over, and it was sometimes
+bruised and dried in the sun, to be afterwards served with oil.
+
+"Kibbe" was a mixture composed of cracked wheat, boiled and dried,
+beaten up with meat, onions, spices and the nut of a species of pine.
+
+Wheat was also ground by women in hand mills formed of two stones, the
+under one fixed and the upper movable.
+
+The middle classes ate meat, vegetables, fruit or fish also, but always
+as supplementary dishes to the staple article, bread.
+
+Although in the earliest days the mistress and daughters of the house
+did the baking, female servants were later employed by the wealthier
+families. In Jerusalem indeed professional bakers, men, became so
+numerous that a section of the town bore the title of "Bakers' Street."
+
+The flour used in the manufacture of the common bread was mixed with
+water or milk and kneaded with the hands in a small wooden bowl or
+trough. Except in cases of great haste, leavening was then added. The
+dough was allowed to stand for several hours, sometimes for the whole
+night, in moderate heat. It was next rolled out and cut into circular
+pieces about eight inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in
+thickness. These were occasionally punctured and soaked with oil.
+
+[Illustration: A portable oven of the Jews and Egyptians.
+
+(From an old Egyptian drawing.)]
+
+A more delicate kind of bread was twice kneaded before baking, and
+stimulating seeds were added to it. Various varieties of thin cakes were
+also baked every day and biscuits of substantial character were
+furnished for travelers.
+
+The professional bakers did their work in fixed, specially constructed
+ovens, but portable ovens were usually found in private houses. They
+were in the shape of stone or metal jars about three feet in height, and
+were heated from the interior with wood, dried grass or flower stalks,
+the cakes being placed on the ashes or the exterior sides of the oven
+after the fire had burned down.
+
+In other cases, a hole dug in the ground formed the oven, the sides
+being covered with clay and the bottom with pebbles. Again, sometimes
+the cakes were cooked on heated stones or by the more primitive method
+of laying them directly on burning logs, or between two layers of dried
+dung (then lighted and burned).
+
+Some also baked the cakes in pans with oil and ate them whilst hot with
+honey, or cooked them in such thin layers that they crumbled in the
+fingers.
+
+Figs were eaten fresh and dried. Pomegranates, mulberries, sycamore
+figs, citrons and apples were widely cultivated. Grapes were eaten raw
+or made into fruit cake (which possessed distinctly stimulating
+qualities). Similar cakes were also made of raisins, dates and
+figs--which were compressed into bricks, and when hardened could be cut
+up only by the use of an axe!
+
+The bunches of grapes often attained a weight of twelve pounds.
+
+Walnuts were plentiful. Oranges were introduced at a later date.
+
+Among the vegetables grown were lentils (which were boiled and eaten
+with butter oil or fat and pepper), leeks, onions, beans, barley,
+lettuce, endive, purslane and other herbs. Vegetables were usually
+boiled as potage.
+
+The spices most in favor were cummin, dill, coriander, mint, mustard and
+salt. Cummin was threshed with a rod and with salt served as a sauce.
+
+Pistachio nuts and almonds were popular as whets.
+
+Salads were extensively known.
+
+Honey was used in some cakes as a substitute for sugar. It was also
+eaten raw or with other articles of food, even fish.
+
+Various artificial productions made from fruits and the exudations of
+trees and shrubs bore the title of honey, the best known of which was
+the boiled down juice of the grape, then called "d'bash," known to
+modern Arabs as "dibs."
+
+"Butter and honey" and "milk and honey" are in Biblical language
+synonyms of the diet of prosperity.
+
+The butter then used differed from our own product inasmuch as the hot
+sun to which the cream was exposed when being churned rendered the
+completed article more liquid. Even to-day in some parts of the Orient
+the butter served to visiting Europeans has to be manufactured
+especially for them from cold cream.
+
+Cheese consisted of coagulated buttermilk, dried until hard and then
+ground.
+
+Oil was made from various vegetables, but that of the olive was most
+esteemed.
+
+Wine and water were carried in vessels made of the skins of goats, kids
+or other clean animals. After the animal had been killed, the head, feet
+and tail were cut off and the body was drawn out of the skin, which was
+then tanned (acacia bark being sometimes called into service). The hairy
+part of the skin formed the exterior of the vessel, the legs and the end
+of the tail being sewn up. When filled, the neck was tied up.
+
+An ox skin was used to make a "gerba" which formed a storage chamber for
+large quantities of liquor. One of average size contained sixty gallons.
+
+The milk of cows, sheep, camels and goats was drank. When fresh it was
+known as "khalab," when sour as "khema." The latter was used in the
+composition of salads and for cooking meats, etc.
+
+A strengthening beverage was made by heating milk over a slow fire and
+then adding a small piece of old khema or other acid to make it
+coagulate. Much of this was bottled and kept for future use. It was the
+universal refreshment offered strangers and the ancient Jew, like the
+modern Arab, refused to accept payment for it.
+
+The other drinks of the people were barley water; sherbet (made by
+partially dissolving fig cake in water); pomegranate wine; beer made
+from barley with herbs such as the lupin and skirret; honey, date, fig,
+millet and grape wines and a drink made by placing raisins in jars of
+water and burying them until fermentation had taken place. Water was
+imbibed in large quantities after meals.
+
+Vinegar was made by mixing barley with wine, or soured wine was used.
+
+The prohibition expressed in the ninth chapter of Genesis against animal
+blood as an article of diet was repeated with detailed instructions in
+Leviticus. Instead of devoting a large amount of space to recounting the
+regulations there expressed, it will perhaps be better to make only a
+general classification of them.
+
+There were interdicted: _Sheretz haaretz_, creeping things; _sheretz
+haof_, winged insects, with the exception of the fully developed locust;
+of _sheretz hamayim_, creatures dwelling in water, those which were not
+provided with fins and scales; of the feathered species those which were
+not furnished by nature with the implements with which to clean
+themselves; of the quadrupeds and animals of the chase those that did
+not chew the cud or were not provided with split hoofs.
+
+The fat parts of animals were also reserved for the altar and temple
+offerings.
+
+Special interdictions were announced against dead or injured animals;
+though these did not extend to strangers. In the New Testament, these
+laws are also mentioned as applying to healthy animals that had been
+strangled or killed in any manner other than that prescribed.
+
+In a word, the Mosaic laws prohibited the use of any flesh that was
+diseased, bruised or rendered unwholesome by the presence of too much
+blood and also of the flesh of animals that were not cleanly in habits,
+diet or body.
+
+Oxen were not eaten when older than three years.
+
+It is not necessary to give here the oft-repeated methods of Jewish
+butchery, as they have been of late so frequently described--and highly
+endorsed--by medical and scientific men.
+
+Fresh fish (eaten generally broiled) appears to have been the principal
+article of diet in the environs of the Sea of Galilee. The Jews,
+however, were not well versed in the character of the different species.
+They roughly classed them as big, small, clean and unclean.
+
+Salt fish also was imported into Jerusalem.
+
+Locusts were considered to be but meagre fare, but they were eaten
+salted, dried and roasted with butter in a pan.
+
+An ordinary kitchen was equipped with a range, a heavy caldron, a large
+fork or flesh hook, a wide, open metal vessel for heating water, etc.,
+two or more earthenware pots and numerous dishes.
+
+The kid, lamb or calf, killed on the advent of a holiday or in honor of
+a guest, would sometimes be roasted or baked whole, but it was usually
+cut up and boiled in a caldron filled with water or milk and set over a
+wood fire, the scum being taken off from time to time and salt and
+spices added.
+
+The meat and broth were served up separately or together as desire might
+dictate.
+
+The principal meal was held in the early evening, although occasionally
+noon was chosen for a big banquet.
+
+The early Hebrews seated themselves on the ground when partaking of a
+meal; but their descendants soon succumbed to the example of the
+Egyptians and adopted the reclining couch, which was universally used in
+the time of Christ.
+
+The first reference we have to the change in custom is found in the book
+of Amos, where the prophet rebukes those who "lie upon beds of ivory."
+Ezekiel also inveighs against one who "sat on a stately bed with a table
+prepared before it."
+
+Each couch seated from three to five persons, and the women usually
+dined with the men.
+
+The meat and vegetables were sometimes served in one large dish, into
+which each in turn dipped his bread, but on other occasions portions
+were placed on individual plates.
+
+Many events were made excuses for festivals.
+
+The "mishteh" was a drinking party, which in the apostolic age was
+called a "komos" and was often the occasion of gross licentiousness.
+
+The cups used were modelled after those made by the Egyptians. The "cup
+bearer" or butler held a very important position in a rich man's
+household.
+
+During times of fasting or sorrow, all meats, wines, etc., were
+eschewed. They were called the "bread of desires."
+
+Prison fare consisted of bread or pulse and water.
+
+The vine or apples of Sodom, the "Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye,
+but turn to ashes on the lips" of which Josephus wrote and Moore and
+Byron sang, are worthy of more than passing notice. They have caused a
+great deal of discussion among scientists and travelers who have
+differed in their opinions as to the identity of the fruit or plant
+mentioned.
+
+[Illustration: The colocynth--"the Dead Sea fruits."]
+
+As the _ecbalium elaterium_, with variations in name, it has been
+described by Dioscorides, Theophrastus, Pliny, Celeius, Rosenmuller,
+Winner and Gesenius; as the _cucumbis prophetarium_, and _solanium
+sodomaeum_ by others; as the _asclepias procera_ by Burckhardt, Irby,
+Mangles and Dr. Robinson. Among still other disputing writers may be
+mentioned Pococke, Hasselquist, Seetzen, Elliot and Chateaubriand.
+
+Michaelis, Oedman, Dr. J. D. Hooker and the Rev. W. Houghton agree that
+Josephus referred to the fruit of the colocynth (_citrullus
+colocynthis_) which resembles an orange in appearance, and when dry will
+burst on pressure with a crashing noise.
+
+[Illustration: Tamarix Gallica--The Manna plant of the Scriptural
+desert.]
+
+The varying opinions may be ascribed to the fact that in the south of
+Palestine are found several members of the gourd tribe, as well as the
+fruits of several shrubs and trees, which under certain conditions
+answer very closely to the descriptions afforded us of the "Dead Sea
+Fruits," although the colocynth is the only one that answers them in
+every way.
+
+The palm tree, once so plentiful in Judaea, is now rare and in the
+vicinity of Jericho is extinct, the last one having died a few years
+ago.
+
+All readers of the Scriptures remember the important part which manna
+played in the history of the Jews. The manna which is at the present day
+known in the Arabian desert through which the Israelites passed is
+collected in June from the tarfa or tamarisk shrub (_Tamarix Gallica_).
+According to Burkhardt, it drops from the thorns on to the sticks and
+leaves which cover the ground and must be gathered early in the day or
+it will be melted by the heat of the sun. Its fall is said to be caused
+by the punctures made by insects. The Arabs cleanse, boil and strain it
+and put it up in leather bottles, and thus prepared it will retain its
+virtues for several years. It is used in the place of honey or
+butter--it is never eaten alone. It is abundant only in wet seasons, and
+in a very dry year it is not found at all. It is not exactly peculiar in
+character, as there are several shrubs in India and Syria.
+
+[Illustration: Salvadora--The arboreous Mustard Plant of Palestine.]
+
+Niebuhr discovered at Mardin, in Mesopotamia, on the leaves of a tree, a
+species of _capparis_, a kind of manna which appears during the months
+of July and August, being most plentiful in wet seasons. If shaken off
+before sunrise, it is pure white in color. If let remain, it collects
+until very thick, and the leaves are then gathered and steeped in
+boiling water until the manna floats to the top like oil. This is called
+by the natives _manna essemma_, heavenly manna.
+
+Burkhardt found in the valley of Jordan a similar gum on the leaves and
+branches of the tree gharrob (a species of oak), which fell to the
+ground in drops of brown-gray dew. Its taste at first was sweet, but
+after a day's exposure to the elements became acrid.
+
+The manna of European commerce is exported from Calabria and Sicily. It
+drops from punctures made in a species of ash by an insect resembling
+the locust. It is fluid at night, but begins to harden in the morning.
+
+The manna of Scripture, which was the sole support of the Israelites for
+forty years, must be regarded as miraculous, as (1) manna is under
+ordinary circumstances stimulating rather than sustaining, (2) the
+season in which it is found does not extend over a term of more than
+three or four months, (3) it is found only in small quantities compared
+to the enormous amount--15,000,000 pounds a week--which would have been
+necessary to provide each member of the Israelite camp with the rations
+mentioned, (4) a double quantity certainly does not fall on the day
+preceding the Sabbath and (5) no natural product ceases at once and
+forever.
+
+The mustard plant mentioned in the Gospels may have been either the
+common mustard plant which grows to a large size in the Orient, or it
+may have been the _Salvadora persica_, an arboreous plant of abundant
+foliage, the seeds and leaves of which have a distinct flavor of
+mustard.
+
+
+
+
+THE CHINESE.
+
+
+It would be foolish to publish any strict dietary code as descriptive of
+the food of the people of the vast region generally known as the Chinese
+Empire, for apart from the difference in the products of the various
+sections of that diversified country, it must be remembered that the
+numerous tribes, which when amalgamated centuries ago formed the Empire,
+have retained most of their original customs, owing partly to the
+paucity of transportation facilities and the consequent impediments to
+an interchange of ideas, partly to the conservative nature of the people
+and partly to the influence of climate and surroundings. Furthermore,
+as, excepting a few fruits which are of comparatively recent
+introduction, such as the pineapple, the foods of Chinamen to-day
+closely resemble the foods of Chinamen four thousand years ago, it will
+not be necessary in this volume to keep very strictly apart the past and
+the present.
+
+Until quite recently it was customary to regard the Chinese as
+uncivilized and degraded heathens who voraciously devoured all kinds of
+vermin and other miscellaneous tit-bits which to most people of the
+Western Hemisphere are repulsive even in suggestion, hence it may be
+well to repeat here that, although it remains true that cats, dogs and
+rats occasionally serve as articles of food, this happens only when
+provisions are scarce or among the very poor, who (as in all civilized
+countries), linger always on the threshold of starvation.
+
+The Chinese, in spite of the doleful tales of some writers, are on the
+whole a well fed race. Beef and mutton are not plentiful except in the
+north, but hogs, poultry and fish, with vegetables, fruits and rice are
+within the reach of a majority of the population. Wrote a Chinese sage:
+"The scholar forsakes not his books nor the poor man his pig."
+Furthermore, in the preparation of their national dishes the Chinese
+cooks (especially those in the cities and in the households of the rich)
+display a high degree of skill.
+
+Wheat, several varieties of rice and sweet potatoes are grown in all
+parts of the Empire, and barley, sorghum, cabbages, beans and other
+vegetables and sugar cane are also raised in large quantities.
+
+Rice is seldom ground except when made into cakes.
+
+The sorghum, or hauliang (extensively cultivated in the north), is not
+used as in America for the manufacture of sugar, but the seeds are
+ground and made into a coarse bread or used for the preparation of some
+brands of whiskey.
+
+Sweet potatoes are sliced into coarse strips and dried in the sun. It
+is, though, considered a sign of extreme poverty to be seen eating them
+at any meal other than a lunch or hurried repast.
+
+Of the vegetables, the petsae or white cabbage is the most widely
+cultivated.
+
+Beans grow luxuriantly. Fully one-half of the crop is crushed for the
+sake of the oil, the residue being pressed into bricks and used as a
+fertilizer.
+
+"Bean curds" is a very popular dish, especially for breakfast. The beans
+are ground to a flour, which is passed through three strainers of
+coarse, medium fine and very fine linen. This is boiled for an hour over
+a slow fire until the proper consistency is obtained.
+
+Salted beans form quite an important article of commerce. Four catties
+of beans are put in a jar with one catty of salt, half a catty of ginger
+and a few taels of almonds and spices. The jars are then sealed and left
+untouched for about a month.
+
+A more novel way is to put the beans in earthenware jars filled with
+very clear spring water, changing the water every four hours. In seven
+days tender shoots have appeared and the beans are then sold as a
+delicacy.
+
+Peanuts are grown for the sake of their oil.
+
+Hsiang-yu is a fragrant oil made from peanuts and beans, which is used
+for the toilet and by the poor for cooking. Castor oil answers the same
+purposes.
+
+The juice of the sugar cane is extracted by crushing the stalks in two
+perpendicular cylinders, kept in motion by a yoke of buffalos, the juice
+being received in a tub placed beneath. Lime is added to the juice and
+it is then immediately boiled.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese poulterer's shop.]
+
+Within the limits of Chinese territory are found almost all known
+varieties of fruits, some of which are indigenous to it.
+
+The whampee is a yellow skinned fruit about the size of a grape which
+hangs in clusters from the glossy-leaved trees which produce it. The
+flavor is tart and its three or four stones are of a greenish color.
+
+The li-chi has a rough red exterior. Inside is a white film which
+incloses a watery translucent pulp of a sweetish taste and a brownish
+black ovoid stone.
+
+The lo-quat is a species of medlar.
+
+Oranges, ginger, etc., are preserved in sugar.
+
+Ducks are raised in almost incredible numbers. Their eggs and those of
+fowls are frequently hatched by artificial heat.
+
+Eggs that have been preserved in lime for several, sometimes a great
+many, years are much esteemed. After a quarter of a century, the yellow
+assumes a dark brown color and the whites have the appearance of meat
+jelly--strange though it may seem, they are really excellent in that
+condition.
+
+All foods served at a genuine Chinese dinner are previously cut into
+minute particles. The large roast pieces which adorn the tables at
+dinners given in seaport towns to foreigners of note are placed there
+merely in deference to the customs of the guests.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese dinner party.]
+
+Rice and soup are brought on to the table in large vessels from which
+individual saucers are filled. Other dishes are partaken of by all
+present directly from the common bowl.
+
+It is considered a token of hospitality on the part of the host or
+friendliness on the part of an acquaintance to take an especially choice
+piece of meat or vegetable from the bowl and to place it on the plate or
+in the mouth of a fellow diner.
+
+The two chopsticks are both held in the right instead of separately in
+each hand as ordinarily believed. They are maintained by the thumb and
+ring finger and manipulated by the index and middle fingers. One stick
+remains motionless, the other is so manoeuvred as to entrap with ease a
+morsel of meat or even the smallest grain of rice.
+
+The sticks (square at the top and round for the rest of their length)
+are made of bamboo or more precious woods, ivory or silver. On the upper
+portions, poems and pictures are often engraved.
+
+Spoons are used for liquids.
+
+[Illustration: Chopsticks and bowl.]
+
+An ordinary meal among the middle classes consists of eight dishes--two
+vegetables, eggs, fish, shell fish, bird and two meats (pork and goat;
+or, in some parts of the north, mutton and beef).
+
+With this will be served a large tureen of soup with rice, the latter
+taking the place of bread.
+
+When eating rice, the bowl is raised by the left hand to a close
+proximity to the mouth and the rice is rather scooped than picked up.
+
+The importance which is attached to rice as a life-sustaining article
+may be judged from the exclamation of a Chinese sailor when he was
+informed that it was held in but secondary repute in America. Throwing
+up both hands with an expression in which were combined horror and pity,
+he cried: "Oh, the sterile region of barbarians which produces not the
+necessaries of life; strange that the inhabitants have not long ago died
+of hunger!"
+
+Two good meals a day, the customary number, and a light luncheon, will
+in the average native home represent the expenditure of about ten cents
+in American money.
+
+Wine is served only on special occasions.
+
+The hotels in the large cities are distinguished by titles as in this
+country, though the Chinese proprietor gives freer rein to his
+imagination, choosing such titles as "Cum Lee" (Golden Profits), "Cut
+Shing" (Rank Conferring Hotel), the "Cut Sing" (Fortunate Star), etc.
+They are often comparatively tall structures and are usually clustered
+together in one quarter of the town.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese distillery.]
+
+The ground floor of the ordinary hotel is reserved for the proprietor's
+apartments and the kitchen. The first floor contains one public and
+several private dining-rooms; and the second and upper floors are
+divided into sleeping apartments--the partitions of which are so thin
+that even a whispered conversation is intelligible to a party in the
+adjoining room.
+
+There is not much comfort to be obtained in the villages, and the
+accommodations are worse in the south and central districts than in the
+north and Mongolia.
+
+The country caravansary is built in the form of a quadrangle with the
+walls, in the North, of mud or clay.
+
+In the one public room, the traveler perforce mingles with cattle
+drovers and muleteers, but the private apartments are fairly
+comfortable.
+
+The stables are usually attached to the building, with large compounds
+for sheep or cattle. Some of the larger establishments boast separate
+quadrangle stables, while some of the smaller have none at all, the
+animals being hitched to troughs or racks in the centre of the
+quadrangle.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese restaurant.]
+
+The beds (_cangues_) are shaped like furnaces. The occupant, protected
+by a thick coverlet, reclines on the top of a stratum of chunam or
+asphalt, with an opening similar to the door of a furnace, in one of the
+perpendicular sides, by means of which a small fire is in cold weather
+built directly beneath the bed.
+
+The poorer travelers sleep in the public hall.
+
+In some cities are khans which act as depots for the goods of traveling
+merchants, who are boarded and lodged without charge until they have
+disposed of their stock, the landlord then receiving a small percentage
+of the sales.
+
+The proprietor of a public inn is compelled to furnish the authorities
+each month with a list of the persons whom he has lodged or fed, and
+women are not received at all in the public hotels in the South.
+
+The restaurants in the cities are often quite large, running to two and
+three stories in height.
+
+On the ground floor is the kitchen. On the first floor at the head of
+the first staircase is the public dining room where a good cheap meal
+can be obtained, and on the second and third floors are the private and
+more select chambers. In each room is a bill of fare.
+
+An ordinary first class restaurant dinner comprises from ten to thirty
+dishes, and for any special occasion a hundred or more are often served.
+
+Below is the menu of a dinner which, if served to eight or ten persons
+at a good public city restaurant, would cost about seventy-five cents
+per head.
+
+
+     Fried Ham
+     Gizzards
+     Grated meat Grilled
+     Dried shrimps
+     Preserved eggs
+
+     Four kinds of dried fruits
+     Four kinds of fresh fruits
+
+     Fat duck
+     Shark's fins
+     Swallowsnest soup
+     Meats
+
+     Salted chicken
+     Shellfish
+     Meats
+     Oysters
+
+     Mushroom morels (called "Ears of the Forest").
+     Rice of Immortals (a species of mushrooms).
+     Tender sprouts of bamboo
+
+     Fish
+     Meats
+
+
+The diners are usually seated at square tables in groups of eight.
+
+Chinese whiskey or wine is served in small double-handled cups, which
+are constantly replenished by the attendants from vessels resembling
+silver coffee pots. Pipes of tobacco are also passed around at
+intervals.
+
+Before eating, the host or most prominent guest pours out a libation.
+His table companions follow his example and all bow politely to each
+other.
+
+[Illustration: Chinaman spearing fresh water turtles.]
+
+Pastry is brought on between courses. If salt, a cup of chicken broth;
+if sweet, almond milk is furnished with it.
+
+No napkins are provided, pieces of coarse brown paper being used in
+their stead.
+
+The last is a sort of "trial of appetite" course. It consists of large
+dishes--sometimes eight or ten arranged in pyramid form--and the ever
+forthcoming refusal to partake of it announces the termination of the
+meal.
+
+The attendants then bring in towels and bowls of hot water. They immerse
+the towels in the water, and after wringing them out present them to the
+guests in the order of their importance.
+
+On special occasions the water is scented with otto of roses.
+
+One habit of the attendants which is especially surprising to the novice
+is that as their labors during the meal increase the temperature of
+their bodies, the waiters divest themselves of the greater part of their
+clothing!
+
+One restaurant in Canton which caters for the cheaper class of trade,
+feeds on an average five thousand persons daily. Each patron is served
+with portions of regular size, and allowance is made for any pieces
+which he may not eat.
+
+The tea saloons are divided into two large rooms furnished with stools
+and tables. Cakes, preserved fruits and tea are served. The cups are
+usually covered so as to prevent the aroma of the tea from evaporating.
+
+"Dog and cat" restaurants consist of one large public apartment, with
+the entrance to the dining room through the kitchen.
+
+Soup stalls are found on the street corners of the cities. They sell
+luncheons of fish, pork, soups, vegetables, fried locusts, etc., from
+one to two cents.
+
+The oven, or, to speak more accurately, the baking apparatus, of the
+average establishment is somewhat singular. It consists of a furnace
+resembling a copper in shape, built in the center of an outhouse. The
+hollow part (which is shallow) is filled with charcoal. A lid, which
+fits the aperture, is so suspended by chains from the beams above as to
+be capable of elevation or depression. Upon this lid, pastry and cakes
+are placed and kept directly above or at any distance from the fire,
+according to the heat desired.
+
+The bakers often manufacture their bread without the use of shortening
+of any description.
+
+A very popular cake consists partially of mincemeat. The baker before
+commencing to make it, places a pile of dough on one side and opposite
+it a heap of mincemeat--a mixture of pork, sugar, spices, etc. He then
+pulls off a piece of dough, rolls it into a ball, flattens it, covers it
+with the meat, rolls it into a ball again, shapes it into a ring and
+flattens it by a stroke of the hand into a cake of definite size and
+thickness.
+
+Among other dainty dishes of Chinaland are the "t'ien ya tzu," a species
+of delicately flavored fat duck; "feng chi," salted chicken; a dish of
+amber gelatine; a salad of bamboo shoots; "huo t'ui," a dainty ham of
+the appearance of veal; "yü ch'ih," shark's fins, and "hai li tzu,"
+devilled oysters with mushrooms.
+
+Other items are salted earthworms, pigeon's eggs, pounded shrimps;
+bird's nest soup, a gelatinous article; beches de mer (sea slugs), water
+beetles and silkworms, the last named fried in oil after they have made
+their cocoons.
+
+A much admired soup, prepared for an imperial feast, was of blood and
+mare's milk.
+
+Oysters are very cheap in winter, selling at from five to six cents per
+pound.
+
+The following receipts may be of interest as literal translations from a
+genuine Chinese cook book:
+
+
+     _Steamed Shark's Fins._
+
+     Take the sun-dried shark's fins, place in a cooking pan, add wood
+     ashes and boil in several waters. Then take out and scrape the
+     roughness from the fins. If not clean, boil again and scrape again
+     until clean. Then change the water and boil again. Take out and
+     remove the flesh, keeping only the fins themselves. Boil again and
+     put in spring water. The frequent changing of the water is
+     necessary to take out the lime taste. Put the fins into the soup
+     and stew until quite tender. Dish in a bowl, placing crab meat
+     below and a little ham on top.
+
+
+     _Chicken with the Liquor of Fermented Rice._
+
+     Bone a chicken and steam until just right; take out and let cool,
+     then cut into thin slices. Next, take gelatinous rice which has
+     been fermented with yeast and water; cook this for two hours, add a
+     little of the juice expressed from fresh ginger, soy, sesamum and
+     oil. Mix together with peanut oil. Dish and add fragrant herbs.
+
+
+     _Genii Ducks._
+
+     Take a fat duck; open and clean. Take two mace of salt, rub it both
+     outside and inside and put into an earthen dish. Take one cup of
+     fan spirits and put (the cup with the spirits) inside the
+     duck--only the vapor of the spirits is wanted. Steam over water
+     until quite tender, then lift out the wine cup and put the bird
+     into a bowl.
+
+
+The most common native liquor are "suee chow," a rice brandy; "shas
+chin," an impure alcohol made from kauliang or sorghum; "huary chin," a
+yellow wine made from millet, and various spirits extracted from plums,
+apples, pears, etc. All liquors are drunk hot, and some of them are
+steeped with spices or the leaves of flowers.
+
+Although spirits are plentiful and cheap, drunkenness is rare.
+
+Tea, of course, is consumed by all classes.
+
+A curious custom annually observed is the propitiatory offering to the
+God of the Kitchen, who is worshipped in all parts of China, and who is
+supposed to report his observations to the Pearly Emperor Supreme Ruler.
+
+[Illustration: Family Offering to the Kitchen God.]
+
+He is represented in each kitchen by a slip of white or red paper
+(changed each year as a rule) bearing his name and title and sometimes
+his portrait, pasted on the wall in some convenient part of the room.
+
+Among the better classes the kitchen god is also known as the
+superintendent or inspector of good and evil.
+
+On the evening of the twenty-third day of the twelfth month a special
+sacrifice is made in his honor by about sixty per cent. of the
+population. Meats, cakes, fruits and wines are offered with candles,
+incense, mock money, etc., and all members of the family then kneel
+reverently before his representation and bow their heads in homage.
+
+On the evening of the twenty-fourth those who have not participated in
+the ceremonies of the previous day, make a vegetable offering in a
+similar manner.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese kitchen boat.]
+
+Many of the wealthier classes make both offerings on the twenty-third.
+The poorest use only incense and candles.
+
+The numerous sailing vessels on the rivers and lakes are as well fitted
+to supply the wants of the traveler as the hotels on shore.
+
+The houseboats and some of the passenger boats rely for their meals on
+the kitchen boats, which are really admirably managed.
+
+The fishing boats make use of a very primitive heating apparatus--a
+large boiler in an earthenware furnace set in a part of the deck,
+serving as the general cook book.
+
+A great many pages might be covered by treating on the curious
+festivities which celebrate so many occasions, but they have been so
+often described in other works that a description of them here would
+perhaps savor too much of needless repetition.
+
+
+
+
+_Other Works from the Book Department of THE CATERER_
+
+
+Martyn's Menu Dictionary
+
+Price $1
+
+     (_130 pages, two columns to a page, cloth bound._)
+
+The most complete dictionary of menu, culinary and food terms ever
+published. More than _five thousand items_. In two sections:
+French-English and English-French. The first section includes also about
+600 wine names with brief descriptive notes and both parts list a number
+of German words with English and French translations.
+
+
+How to Make Money in a Country Hotel
+
+Price $2
+
+     (_200 pages, printed on the finest paper and handsomely bound)._
+     _Third edition._
+
+The reason for the great success of this work is probably to be found in
+the fact that the author does not content himself with merely advising
+"greater economy," or "better business methods"--instead he gets right
+down to a practical hold of the subject and shows _how_ to economize and
+how to increase one's trade.
+
+
+The Financial Side of Hotel Keeping
+
+Price $2
+
+     (_300 pages, handsomely printed and bound._) _Second Edition._
+
+This book is entirely different from any other work on the hotel
+business. The main "story" takes up the matter of location, investment,
+equipment, etc., the "financing" of the business after starting, and
+many points touching on policy, organization, etc., and the management
+of the back part of the house. Following this is a series of papers on
+the restaurant business.
+
+
+The Wine Steward's Manual
+
+Price $1
+
+     (_108 pages, illustrated, cloth bound._)
+
+A handy volume on the care and service of wines, with contributions from
+the highest authorities.
+
+
+Foods and Culinary Utensils of the Ancients
+
+Price 50 cents
+
+Compiled from standard historical works. Seventy-two pages, well
+illustrated.
+
+
+Dainty Dishes
+
+Price (cloth bound) $1
+
+     By Adolphe Meyer, author of "The Post-Graduate Cookery Book," "Eggs
+     and How to Use Them," etc.
+
+A book of specially "dainty dishes" which offers many opportunities to
+vary the daily bill of fare or the banquet or ball supper menu--usually
+without adding anything to the cost and sometimes at smaller expense.
+
+
+The Post-Graduate Cookery Book
+
+Price (cloth bound) $2
+
+     By Adolphe Meyer, for 11 years chef of the exclusive Union Club,
+     New York.
+
+     (_Nearly 300 pages. About 1,000 receipts._)
+
+"The Post-Graduate Cookery Book" is a work containing matter
+supplementary to, or in advance of, the regular standard works on
+cookery and kindred matters.
+
+It has a special intrinsic value to the purchaser, for it contains a
+large number of receipts for special dishes which have never appeared in
+print elsewhere. Some of these receipts are new, others are for special
+dishes which have helped to enhance the reputations of famous
+establishments both in Europe and this country.
+
+
+Eggs and How to Use Them
+
+Price $1
+
+     By Adolphe Meyer, Author of "The Post-Graduate Cookery Book," etc.
+     (_Third Edition._)
+
+     (_150 pages, cloth bound._)
+
+About 600 receipts, classified as "poached, shirred, molded, omelettes,
+etc., etc.," and with titles in both French and English.
+
+
+Fables of the Hotel Profession and Poems of Good Cheer
+
+Price 50 cts.
+
+     _A dainty little volume of 88 pages, bound in gilt lettered cloth._
+
+The "Fables" (by Charles Martyn) are little stories of the hotel
+business, which "hit off," in semi-humorous manner, many typical
+characters and conditions.
+
+"Poems of Good Cheer" (by Frank W. Doolittle) is a title made generously
+broad to cover a number of verses on the hotel business, those engaged
+in it and the good things dispensed.
+
+
+THE CATERER PUBLISHING CO.,
+Established 1893.      NEW YORK.
+
+Publishers of THE CATERER, the "monthly text book" of the hotel, club
+and high-class restaurant business. Subscription price, $2 a year; $1.25
+for six months.
+
+THE CATERER keeps its readers informed on everything that is new in the
+hotel, club and high-class restaurant business--new ideas in service,
+reports of special occasions (such as banquets, etc.), new items of
+equipment, new points in system, etc. Every issue also contains a
+variety of other matter of general interest, "what's happening among our
+subscribers," etc.--all written in entertaining style.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43643 ***