Part 17

A demi-god, Aristæus, the son of Apollo, and King of Arcadia, invented cheese,[XVIII-39] and the whole of Greece welcomed with gratitude this royal and almost divine present. Sober individuals willingly ate some at their meals;[XVIII-40] gluttons perceived that it sharpened the appetite; and great drinkers that it provoked copious libations. Thus the aged Nestor, wise as he was, brought wine to Machaon, who had just been wounded in the right arm, and did not fail to add to it goat cheese and an onion, to force him to drink more.[XVIII-41]

This food was also well known to the Hebrews, and the holy writings sometimes mention it.[XVIII-42]

Mare’s milk, or that of the ass, makes an excellent cheese, but much inferior to that procured from the camel, for which an epicure could not pay too dearly. Cow-milk cheese, although more fat and unctuous, was only considered as third-rate.[XVIII-43]

The Phrygians made exquisite cheese by artistically mixing the milk of asses and mares. The Scythians only employed the former; the Greeks imitated them.[XVIII-44] The Sicilians also mixed the milk of goats and ewes.[XVIII-45]

The Romans smoked their cheeses, to give them a sharp taste; they possessed public places expressly for this use, and subject to police regulations which no one could evade.[XVIII-46]

In the time of Pliny, little goat cheeses, which were much esteemed, were sent every morning to the market for the sale of dainties, from the environs of Rome.[XVIII-47] With the addition of a little bread, they formed the breakfast of sober and delicate persons. Asia Minor, Tuscany, the Alps, Gaul, and Nîmes especially, furnished very good ones for the tables of the Romans,[XVIII-48] who sought in preference certain sweet and soft qualities. The greater part of barbarous nations esteemed only the strong cheese.[XVIII-49]

The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, always kept some of these last for the provision of their armies, and it was among them a military aliment.[XVIII-50] The Athenians fed their wrestlers with it,[XVIII-51] and it was the sole treat of the shepherds of Italy.[XVIII-52]

The lower classes and country people prepared with cheese and various salted substances a dish they thought most relishing, and which epicureans only mentioned with horror. This was called _tyrotarichus_, and Cicero often employs this word to designate a frugal style of cookery.[XVIII-53]

Besides those countries celebrated for the goodness of cheeses already mentioned, there is Tromelia, in Achaia,[XVIII-54] and the Island of Cythnus, where they represented their cheeses on their money, an ingenious manner of making them known, which succeeded wonderfully well; and lastly, Salonia, a city of Bithynia, renowned for its rich pastures, where numerous herds of cows were kept, and whose milk furnished an exquisite kind known by the name of Salonite cheese.[XVIII-55] It appears to have been often served to the Emperor Augustus, who ate it with brown bread, little fish, and fresh figs.[XVIII-56]

The art of giving a relish to the cheese, by mixing with it odoriferous herbs, is said to be more than nine hundred years old. This operation was designated _persiller_, showing that originally parsley was introduced.[XVIII-57] We cannot say whether the Romans made use of this plant to give a pungency to their cheese, but it is certain that they often mixed some herbs with it.[XVIII-58] Thus Columella informs us that sometimes the leaves and small branches of the fig tree were used to communicate an agreeable flavour.[XVIII-59] The same writer has transmitted to us a very simple process, much in use in his time, for preserving cheese. They first covered it with brine, and then dried it in a thick smoke obtained from straw or green wood.[XVIII-60]

The following are some of the dishes of which cheese served as the basis:--

_Salad of Cheese à la Bithynienne._--Cut some slices of excellent bread; leave them for some time in vinegar and water; then make a mixture of this bread with pepper, mint, garlic, and green coriander; throw on it a good quantity of cow’s cheese salted; add water, oil, and wine.[XVIII-61]

_Dish of Tromelian Cheese._--Take fresh cheese; mix it well with pepper, alisander, dried mint, pine nuts, sun raisins, and dates; then add honey, vinegar, and afterwards, garum, oil, wine, and cooked wine.[XVIII-62]

The celebrated cheese of Rouergue, known under the name of “Roquefort cheese,” was made, in the 17th century as follows--we cite from Marcorelle:--

“The curd employed is made from sheep’s milk, mixed with a little goat’s milk. It is broken as small as possible. When it is taken from the moulds, it is bound with a linen band and taken to the drying room; then to the caves, where it is rubbed with salt on the two flat sides of the surface. The downy substance which subsequently covers the crust is frequently scraped off; after which, it is left to ripen on tablets exposed to currents of air which proceed from the interstices of the rocks in which the caves are formed.”

Besides salt, employed as a seasoning and condiment for cheeses, they contain in their composition different substances which give rise to an infinite variety of odours, taste, and colour. In the Vosges, for example, they mix with the cheese of Gerardmer seeds of plants belonging to the family of umbellifers; in the country of Limburg, they incorporate chopped parsley, scallions, and tarragon; the Italians make use of saffron to colour the Parmesan cheese, and the English of roucou for the Cheshire cheese. Others are in the habit of cutting away a portion of the middle of the cheese, and filling the cavity with Malaga or Canary wine.[XVIII-63]

EGGS.

Orpheus, Pythagoras, and their sectators--good and humane people as ever lived--unceasingly recommended in their discourses to abstain from eggs, in order not to destroy a germ which nature had destined for the production of chicken.[XVIII-64] Many allowed themselves to be persuaded, and would have believed it an unpardonable crime if they had eaten a tiny _omelette_, or boiled eggs.

Many of the most learned philosophers held eggs in a kind of respect approaching to veneration, because they saw in them the emblem of the world and the four elements. The shell, they said, represented the earth; the white, water; the yolk, fire; and air was found under the shell.[XVIII-65]

In India and Syria, there was less scruple about swallowing a few eggs; but the hens were devoutly worshipped, because the world is indebted to them for chickens.[XVIII-66]

The Greeks and Romans, although more reasonable, felt, however, for eggs a trifling weakness not exempt from superstition. They already made use of them in their sacrifices, and carried them with great pomp in the festivals of Ceres.[XVIII-67] For them it was also a symbol of the universe, and an expiation would not have been complete if some eggs had not been broken on the altar of the irritated gods.[XVIII-68]

Magicians and sorcerers, who abounded in Rome, established singular fables with regard to eggs. Livia, the happy consort of Nero, being _enceinte_, consulted a sorceress, who said to her, “warm in your bosom a new laid egg until hatched; if a male chicken comes forth, thank the gods, who will grant you a son.” The empress followed this advice; a cock chick came, and the princess gave birth to Tiberius.[XVIII-69] This anecdote circulated in Rome, and all ladies in the same interesting situation, imitating Livia, amused themselves with hatching chickens.

It appears that the egg played also a most important part in dreams. A man having dreamed that he had eaten one, went to consult a soothsayer, who told him that the white signified he would soon have silver, and the yolk that he would receive gold. The fortunate dreamer really received very soon afterwards a legacy partly consisting of those two precious metals. He hastened to thank the diviner, and offered him a piece of silver. “This is very well for the white,” said the latter, “but is there nought for the yolk?”[XVIII-70] It is not known whether the heir was generous enough to understand this _bon mot_.

All these pagan follies are to be accounted for by the doctrine of the poet Orpheus, who first taught the Greeks that a primitive egg had produced all other beings;[XVIII-71] a very ancient idea, no doubt, transmitted to them by the Egyptians, who, as well as the Phœnicians, Persians, and Chaldeans, represented the world by that symbol.

It is now time to describe eggs as an aliment.

The shepherds of Egypt had a singular manner of cooking them without the aid of fire: they placed them in a sling, which they turned so rapidly that the friction of the air heated them to the exact point required for use.[XVIII-72]

In Rome and in Greece, new-laid eggs were served at the beginning of a repast;[XVIII-73] and the Roman gourmets asserted that, to maintain oneself in health, “it was necessary to remain at table from the egg to the apple.”[XVIII-74] We have adopted the half of that proverb, and we say every day, this story must be taken up _ab ovo_.

The Romans did not confine themselves to hens’ eggs, of which they preferred the long ones;[XVIII-75] they sought those of the partridge and pheasant, which Galen considered the most delicate.[XVIII-76] They also thought much of peacocks’ eggs. It was Quintus Hortensius who set the example of this luxury,[XVIII-77] which, however, was discarded by degrees when the precious fecundity of the hens of Adria began to be appreciated.[XVIII-78]

The ancients appear to have been very partial to soft-boiled eggs, which may be sucked at once. Nicomachus mentions them: “My father,” says he, “had left me a poor little estate; in a few months I made it as round as an egg; then, breaking the shell, I made but one gulp of it.”[XVIII-79]

At Rome, this aliment was prepared in twenty different manners; they pickled it,[XVIII-80] cooked it in water, on hot ashes, on charcoal, and in the fryingpan. Eggs eaten in the shell, however, were thought the most wholesome.[XVIII-81]

_Eggs à la Romaine._--Cook some eggs; cut them, and throw over a seasoning composed in the following manner. Bruise some pepper, alisander, coriander, and rue, to which add garum, honey, and a little oil.[XVIII-82]

_Hard Eggs à l’Athénienne._--Cut each egg in four, and sprinkle over garum, oil, and wine.[XVIII-83]

_Fried Eggs à l’Epænète._--Fry some eggs; place them in a dish, and season with a mixture of pepper, alisander, pine nuts, garum, benzoin, and pepper.[XVIII-84]

_Egyptian Egg Pudding._--Take the yolks of a good number of hard eggs; reduce them to a paste with crushed pine nuts, an onion, a leek, some gravy, and pepper; add a little wine and garum. Stuff an intestine with this pulp, and cook.[XVIII-85]

_Dish of Eggs à la Macédonienne._--Put in a mortar some pepper, mint, parsley, pennyroyal, cheese, and pine nuts; when this is well crushed, add honey, vinegar, fresh water, and garum; then a large number of yolks of eggs; mix well with the rest; throw the whole into a saucepan; add bread soaked in vinegar and water,--which, however, must be well squeezed out--with fresh cow’s-milk cheese, cucumbers, almonds, chopped onions, fowls’ livers, and garum.[XVIII-86]

_Lesbian Eggs aux Roses._--Pluck the leaves of some roses; take only the whitest part, and put them into a mortar with garum. Stir a long time; add half a small glass of gravy; stir and strain; put into this liquor the brains of four fowls and eight scruples of ground pepper; stir a long time; add to it eight eggs, half a small glass of wine, and as much cooked wine, and, lastly, a little oil. Grease well the inside of a dish, pour the whole into it, and place it over a very slow charcoal fire. Cook, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVIII-87]

It was a custom, common to every agricultural population throughout Europe and Asia, to celebrate the new year by eating eggs; and they formed a part of the presents made on that day. Care was taken to dye them different colours, particularly red--the favourite colour of the ancients, and of the Celts in particular.[XVIII-88]

It appears that, formerly, people consumed an astonishing number of eggs in England on Easter Sunday. We find the following article in an account of expenses for the king’s household (Edward I.) on the occasion of this festival:--

“For four hundred and a half of eggs, eighteen pence.”[XVIII-89] At that epoch eggs were not so dear in England as they are now; nor did kings fail to eat more of them.

In 1533, a bishop of Paris, authorised by a bull from the Pope, Julius III., being disposed to permit the use of eggs during Lent, the parliament took offence, and prevented the execution of the episcopal mandate. It is this severe abstinence from eggs during Lent which gave rise to the custom of having a great number of them blessed on Easter eve, to be distributed among friends on Easter Sunday; whence comes the expression, “to give Easter eggs.” Pyramids of them were carried into the king’s cabinet after the high mass. They were gilded, or admirably painted, and the prince made presents of them to his courtiers.[XVIII-90]

XIX.

HUNTING.

From the first ages of the world man has passionately loved the exercise of hunting; the dangers he then encountered inflamed his courage. It was glorious to struggle with the terrible inhabitants of the forest or the desert; to conquer them; to bring home their bleeding spoils; to furnish an heroic name for the songs of poets, and the admiration of posterity.

The sacred writings have handed down to us the name of the first mighty hunter before the Lord;[XIX-1] they inform us that Ishmael, in the solitude of Arabia, became skilful in drawing the bow;[XIX-2] and that David, when yet young, dared to fight with lions and bears.[XIX-3]

Fable, that veiled light of truth, through which it sometimes glimmers, caused Hercules to be ranked with the gods when he had overthrown the lion of Nemæa, the hydra of Lerna, and the wild boar of Erymanthus.[XIX-4]

Diana descended to the earth, and pursued in the forests the timid stag.[XIX-5] The Greeks raised altars to her, and the centaur Chiron learned of her the noble art of venery, which he, in his turn, taught to illustrious disciples, among whom are mentioned Æsculapius, Nestor, Theseus, Ulysses, and Achilles.[XIX-6]

Pollux trained the first hunting dogs, and Castor accustomed horses to follow the track of wild beasts.[XIX-7] From that time, heroes, when resting from real conquests, sought diversion in games nearly as formidable, and imitative of their combats, which often placed their lives in danger. Ulysses, for example, always bore the scar of a wound inflicted by a wild boar.[XIX-8]

The most grave philosophers, and the most illustrious poets have bestowed praises on the chase.

Aristotle advised young men to apply themselves to it early.[XIX-9] Plato finds in it something divine,[XIX-10] Horace looks upon it as healthful exercise, strengthening to the body, and preparing the way for glory;[XIX-11] and indeed, this heroic and royal exercise[XIX-12] always possessed irresistible attraction for the greatest men of antiquity.

The warriors of Homer,[XIX-13] Pelopidas,[XIX-14] Alexander of Macedon,[XIX-15] Philopœmen,[XIX-16] seemed to derive from it fresh warlike ardour.

The ancients hunted in the open country, in forests, and in parks. Mounted on fiery steeds, armed with javelins and long cutlasses, or with swords and lances,[XIX-17] they excited their indefatigable hounds, and promised to consecrate to Diana the stag’s horns, or the tusks of the boar,[XIX-18] which might become their prey.

The Greeks and Romans reared hunting dogs with extreme care, and they began to make use of them from the age of eight or ten months.[XIX-19] These animals had names, short, sonorous, and easy to be pronounced, such as Lance, Flower, Blade, Strength, Ardent, &c.[XIX-20]

The strongest and most courageous came from England and Scotland;[XIX-21] Crete, Tuscany, and Umbria were the nurseries of the most expert.[XIX-22] The Gallic dogs surpassed all others by their agility and astonishing swiftness.[XIX-23]

Females were generally preferred to the males,[XIX-24] either because they were more docile, or pursued the game with more ardour and persistence. It may be as well to remark, too, in this place, that the Greeks thought much more of mares than of horses for chariot racing.[XIX-25]

The dogs were always chained. Their liberty was only given them at the moment of starting for the chase.[XIX-26] Their fire and ferocity were then incredible. They dashed off with fury, and when they succeeded in coming up with their prey, some would suffer their legs to be cut off rather than loose their hold. The Indian dogs, trained for lion hunting, often gave this proof of obstinate and implacable rage.[XIX-27]

The ancients also took game by means of pits covered over with brushwood, in snares,[XIX-28] with traps,[XIX-29] and with nets;[XIX-30] moreover, they often made use of bows and arrows, and understood the art of training falcons and hawks.[XIX-31]

Eastern princes amused themselves by hunting in parks where a great number of wild beasts were kept.[XIX-32] The Romans had too much taste and money, and too great a desire to spend it, not to imitate this expensive and royal luxury. Fulvius Hirpinus possessed a park of forty acres near Viterbo, in Tuscany. Lucius Lucullus, and Quintus Hortensius hastened to create more beautiful ones, and they did not fail to have a host of imitators.[XIX-33]

By the Roman law, hunting was unrestricted:[XIX-34] only, no person could pursue game on another’s land without the owner’s permission.[XIX-35]

Besides the pleasure which this amusement afforded, the ancients, like ourselves, discovered profit in it; and the produce of their chase became one of the finest ornaments of their feasts. Isaac ordered his son Esau to go out with his weapons, his quiver and bow, and to prepare for him savoury meat, such as he loved (venison).[XIX-36] Solomon had stags, roebucks, and wild oxen served on his table every day.[XIX-37]

Cyrus, King of Persia, ordered that venison should never be wanting at his repasts.[XIX-38] Is it necessary to add that it was the delight of two nations the most gastronomic in the world?--of the effeminate Greeks, and more especially those Romans for whom the animals of the earth, ocean, and air were only to be valued in proportion to the impossibility of obtaining them in Europe, Asia, and Africa; an immense inheritance, conquered by noble ancestors, and which their degenerated sons ransacked for their satisfaction and insatiable gluttony.[XIX-39]

The English have always loved hunting--the favourite pastime of their kings.

Alfred the Great was not twelve years old when he had acquired the reputation of being a skilful and indefatigable hunter.[XIX-40]

The noble and the wealthy differed from the serfs by their singular taste for this royal diversion; and, in their pursuit of it, they spared neither pains nor expense in procuring those famous dogs of pure race which the ancient Greeks and Romans prized so highly. When Athelstan, Alfred’s grandson, had subdued Constantine King of Wales, he imposed an annual tribute. The vanquished monarch had to give him gold, silver, cattle, and, which is remarkable, a certain number of hawks, and dogs possessing a quick scent, and capable of unkenneling wild beasts.[XIX-41] Edgar, the successor of Athelstan, changed the tribute of money into an annual tribute of three hundred wolves’ skins.[XIX-42]

Notwithstanding his great piety, and the extreme reserve of his habits, Edward the Confessor took great delight in following the hounds, and exciting their ardour by his cries.[XIX-43]

King Harold never appeared anywhere without his favourite hawk on his hand; neither was the approach of the British Nimrod announced otherwise than by the joyous barking of the royal pack.[XIX-44] Indeed, at that epoch, every person of distinction took the prince as his model, and gave himself up, heart and soul, to what people are pleased to call “the noble exercise of hunting.”

This aristocratic taste became so extremely prevalent under the domination of the Norman kings, that a writer of the twelfth century has judged it with great severity. “In our time,” he says, “hunting is considered as the most honourable occupation, the most excellent virtue. Our nobility show more solicitude, sacrifice more money, and make a greater parade in favour of it, than they would if the question were war. They are more furious in the pursuit of wild beasts, than they would be if they had to conquer the enemies of Great Britain. As a necessary consequence, they no longer retain any sentiment of humanity; they have descended almost to the level of the savage animals they are in the daily habit of tracking and unkenneling.”[XIX-45]

These uncomplimentary observations of John of Salisbury did not prevent James I. from pursuing the cherished diversion of his predecessors. That prince being one day at the hunt in the environs of Bury St. Edmunds, remarked, among the persons composing his suite, an opulent citizen magnificently dressed, whose rich costume eclipsed that of the lords the most renowned at court for the elegance of their attire. The king asked who the hunter was. Some one replied that it was Lamb. “Lamb, say you?” rejoined the king, laughing; “I don’t know what sort of a lamb that may be; but what I know well is, that he has got a superb fleece on his back.”[XIX-46]

THE STAG.

Roman ladies of the highest distinction, arrived at that age when, in making an estimate of life, it is found that the largest portion belongs to the past--these ladies, we say, failed not to have the flesh of this animal served on their tables, and to eat as much of it as possible. Perchance it had but a slight attraction for the worthy matrons, and yet they preferred it to every other, for this reason, that the stag being free from maladies and infirmities--at least so it was thought--prolongs its existence far beyond the bounds which nature has assigned to other beings.[XIX-47] The noble patrician ladies would not have been sorry to survive their great-grandchildren, and they took the means which appeared to them most likely to ensure longevity.[XIX-48]

If the celebrated Galen had lived in their time, he would have told those credulous Roman ladies, that this kind of food could not fail to be hurtful to them; that this indigestible and heating meat is more likely to provoke disease than to destroy its germ; and that, consequently, death finds in it an auxiliary rather than an enemy.[XIX-49]

True, the oracle of Pergama wrote nearly all this a century later, and yet his medical authority was powerless to persuade, although it may have convinced the obstinate epicureans of his period.

In point of fact, whatever Galen may say, what dreadful accidents can a piece of stag properly cooked produce? Moses, so attentive to the health of his people, allows them the use of it;[XIX-50] Solomon, the wisest of men, ate it every day.[XIX-51] Do we find that the Jewish monarch and his people were any the worse for preferring this food?

At Athens, at Rome, and in all Italy, whoever possessed the intelligence of appreciating good cheer, took care to offer to his friends the shoulder or fillet of stag.[XIX-52] Nevertheless, gastronomists by profession, who so generously devoted their fortunes to the service of the culinary art, abandoned the whole animal to their slaves, and only reserved for themselves the most tender shoots of the horns. These were for a long time boiled, then cut into very small pieces, and this strange dish, seasoned with a mixture of pepper, cummin, savory, rue, parsley, bay leaves, fat, and pine nuts, sprinkled with vinegar, and fried, passed for an exquisite and dainty treat, worthy of the most flattering praises.[XIX-53]