Precious Meals

Almost auy dish which had to recommend it rarity, costliness, indigestibility, and, to our way of thinking, nastiness, was sure to take with the Roman epicure. And if he were unable to make it costly any other way he would add powdered precious stones or gold dust. Nero dined on one occasion from a peacock which was sprinkled with diamond dust, and specimens of that bird dressedwith gold orwith crushed pearls were by no means a rarity at the triclinia of the moneyed Romans. A dish of parrots' tongues was a great delicacy. But a dish of parrots' tongues which had been capable, when in their proper place, of framing words, was of almost incalculable valué, which increased in a direct ratio with the vocabularies of the defunct parrots. Another bird for which the Roman epicure was in the habit of paying fabulous prices was the phenecoptrix, which is believed to have been the ptarmigan. It had its home in the most northerly parts of Scotland and Norway, and as this made it hard to get at the Romans appreciated it all the more and put it in the same rank with ostriches, buzzards and peacocks. The tongues of these birds were specially prepared, together with the brains, and took the place which a hors d'ceuvre would iiow