THE ART OF CRAMMING POULTRY.--AVIARIES.
The people of Delos were the first to cram poultry, and to originate
that abominable mania for devouring fattened birds, larded with the
grease of their own bodies. I find in the ancient sumptuary regulations
as to banquets, that this was forbidden for the first time by a law of
the consul Caius Fannius, eleven years before the Third Punic War; by
which it was ordered that no bird should be served at table beyond a
single pullet, and that not fattened; an article which has since made
its appearance in all the sumptuary laws. A method, however, has been
devised of evading it, by feeding poultry upon food that has been soaked
in milk: prepared in this fashion, they are considered still more
delicate. Not all pullets are looked upon as equally good for the
purposes of fattening, but only those are selected which have a fatty
skin about the neck. Then come all the arts and affectations of the
kitchen--that the thighs may have a nice plump appearance, that the bird
may be properly divided down the back, and that poultry may be brought
to such a size that a single leg shall fill a whole platter. The
Parthians have taught their fashions to our cooks; yet after all, in
spite of their refinements in luxury, no article is found to please
equally in every part, for in one it is the thigh, and in another the
breast that is esteemed.
The first person who invented aviaries for the reception of all kinds of
birds was Marcus Lænius Strabo, a member of the equestrian order, who
resided at Brundisium. In his time we thus began to imprison animals to
which Nature had assigned the heavens as their element.
But more remarkable than anything else in this respect, is the story of
the dish of Clodius Æsopus, the tragic actor, which was valued at one
hundred thousand sesterces, and in which were served up nothing but
birds that had been remarkable for their song, or their imitation of the
human voice, and he purchased each of them at the price of six thousand
sesterces, being induced to this folly by no other pleasure than that in
these he might eat the closest imitators of man; never for a moment
reflecting that his own immense fortune had been acquired by the
advantages of his voice; a parent right worthy of the son of whom we
have already made mention as swallowing pearls. It would not be very
easy to decide which of the two was guilty of the greatest baseness,
unless, indeed, we admit that it was less unseemly to banquet upon the
most costly of all the productions of Nature, than to devour tongues
which had given utterance to the language of man.