fruit, so they hastened to consecrate it to him,[XIV-14] and the “nuts
of Jupiter” were cultivated with honour in the whole of Greece.[XIV-15]
Italy received the walnut tree from Attica, and, by degrees, the
conquerors of the world introduced it to the different countries of
Europe.
The Romans, imitators of the piety of the Greeks, placed this tree also
under the protection of the most powerful of their gods. One of their
most whimsical customs, perhaps, owed its origin to this consecration,
which will serve to explain it:--
After the wedding feast the bridegroom strewed in the nuptial chamber,
at night, several baskets of walnuts, which children hastened to pick
up.[XIV-16] This was, they said, a kind of offering to Jupiter, and thus
he was entreated to grant his supreme patronage to the husband, and to
adorn the wife with the virtues of Juno.[XIV-17] The god could not have
failed to smile at this part of the request of blind mortals, and it is
asserted that, at times, he condescended not to grant it.
Others have given a different interpretation. According to them, the
walnut, being covered with a double envelope when fresh, became a
presage of abundance and prosperity.[XIV-18]
It would be too tedious to relate all the singular opinions to which
this ceremony gave rise. The most reasonable appears to be that adopted
by certain commentators:--Walnuts, say they, served as playthings for
children, and, by throwing them on the ground the day of his wedding,
the bridegroom made it understood that he and his companion renounced
the frivolities of youth, henceforth to devote themselves to the serious
exigencies of a family.[XIV-19]
This fruit was considered astringent,[XIV-20] stomachic, and proper to
facilitate digestion.[XIV-21] It was made into preserve, and eaten in
small quantity, mixed with figs. In this manner paralysis of the tongue
was avoided--an effect to which it was believed those who partook of
them to excess were exposed.[XIV-22] Green walnuts were much esteemed;
they were served at dessert,[XIV-23] notwithstanding the opinion of
Heraclides, of Tarentum, who looked upon them as a stimulant to the
appetite, and advised a trial of them at the beginning of a
repast.[XIV-24]
When Pompey had made himself master of the palace of Mithridates, he had
search made everywhere for the recipe of the famous antidote against
poison used by that king. At length it was found; it was very simple:
however, we offer it to the curious:--
Pound, with care, two walnuts, two dried figs, twenty leaves of rue, and
a grain of salt.[XIV-25] Swallow this mixture--precipitate it by the
assistance of a little wine, and you have nothing to fear from the most
active poison for the space of twenty-four hours.
NUT TREE.
The Greeks gave hazel nuts the name of “Pontic Nuts,” and Theophrastus
calls them “Nuts of Heraclea,” because the territory of that capital of
the kingdom of Pontus produced the best.[XIV-26]
The Latins, at first, retained the same designation for this fruit, but
afterwards, the environs of Præneste and Avellinum supplying them with a
great quantity of excellent nuts, they gave them the name of those two
cities.[XIV-27] They employed also a diminitive[XIV-28] to indicate
those which came from the first of these localities. The French
_Aveline_ (filbert), and _Noisette_ (hazel nuts), are evidently borrowed
from the Roman vocabulary.
The inhabitants of Præneste raised the nut tree to a sort of religious
worship. This tree had preserved them from famine during the time
Hannibal besieged their city,[XIV-29] and since that memorable epoch it
had enriched them, for the ancients preferred hazel nuts to all other
shell fruit, as possessing most wholesome and nourishing
qualities.[XIV-30]
It was the custom in France, some centuries ago, at the time of the
summer solstice (Midsummer eve), to take all the kitchen utensils and
make the most frightful clatter by knocking them one against another.
The simpletons of those times imagined that there were no better means
of preventing the rain, which, in their opinion, was detrimental to
filberts and hazel nuts.[XIV-31] Hospinian, who relates this ridiculous
custom, does not tell us what results they obtained by all their racket.
PISTACHIO TREE.
This tree, esteemed by the Romans,[XIV-32] is a native of India.[XIV-33]
Lucius Vitellius brought some plants of it from Syria to Rome, under the
reign of Tiberius; a little time subsequently, a knight, named Flaccus
Pompeius, introduced it also into Spain.[XIV-34]
Galen doubted whether pistachio nuts were good for the stomach.[XIV-35]
Avicenna proved the contrary;[XIV-36] and several centuries before the
Arabian physician, Roman epicures had courageously demonstrated that
this fruit never does harm in whatever form it may be presented, whether
raw or roasted, alone or accompanied with garum and salt.
CHESNUT TREE.
According to some writers the chesnut tree owes its name to the city of
Castana, in Thessaly, where they maintained it originated. On the
contrary, it comes from Sardis, in Lydia, if we are to believe the
physician, Diphilus, who calls chesnuts, acorns of Sardis, and says they
are nourishing, but indigestible.[XIV-37]
Amaryllis was fond of this fruit;[XIV-38] but Amaryllis was only a
shepherdess, and her beauty did not prevent her from having rather
rustic tastes. The Roman ladies abandoned the chesnut to that low class
of citizens whose palates, incapable of improvement, remain always
stationary in the midst of the incessant progress of cookery; sad
example of invincible frugality, which the most exciting _fumets_ fail
to arouse.
Nevertheless, there was a soft and tender species of chesnut, _Castaneæ
molles_,[XIV-39] which were allowed on some of the tables of the higher
class of citizens, and recommended themselves by their delicate pulp to
the attention of the guests;[XIV-40] perhaps oil of chesnuts was
obtained from this particular kind.[XIV-41]
To render the chesnuts more agreeable and wholesome they must be pealed
of their skins, which is very tough; put into boiling water, it
penetrates and softens the bitter pellicle (the tan) covering them, and
facilitates its removal from the floury substance. When the chesnuts can
be easily stripped of this pellicle by the pressure of the fingers, take
the jar from the fire; shake them well on all sides. The tan will soon
detach itself from their surface, and be altogether removed; then take
them out, and after they have been shaken in a sieve made purposely,
they are washed in cold water, to take away, with what remains of the
tan, the bitter water they may have preserved; they are then cooked
without water, in a well-covered vessel, and upon a moderate fire.
“To eat chesnuts green all the year, boil them in water for fifteen or
twenty minutes; put them afterwards in a common oven, one hour after the
bread has been taken out. By this double operation the chesnuts acquire
a degree of cooking and desiccation, by which they can be preserved a
very long time, provided they are kept in a dry place. They can be used
afterwards by putting them to warm in a _bain-marie_.”--DUTOUR.
POMEGRANATE.
Ceres, disconsolate on account of the loss of her daughter, to whom
Pluto destined the sceptre of Hell, implored the ruler of Olympus to
restore Proserpine. Jupiter promised that the favour should be granted,
provided that she had not partaken of anything in the infernal regions.
Now, she had eaten some grains of a pomegranate; very few indeed; some
serious authors have said three; others, quite as respectable, say nine.
The fact is, however, Proserpine had broken her fast; therefore she
might think herself fortunate in being allowed to pass six months on
earth and six months in the abode of darkness.[XIV-42]
This little mythologic story informs us that the pomegranate tree was
known to antiquity, and that the garden of the Elysian fields contained
most excellent fruit for the use of its melancholy inhabitants.
The pomegranate, whose acidulated flavour is so pleasing to the
inhabitants of hot climates, was first cultivated in the east, then in
Africa, but especially in the environs of Carthage, from whence the
Romans brought it into Italy, where it was commonly called the
Carthaginian apple;[XIV-43] it was also named _Granatum_, on account of
the number of its seeds.[XIV-44]
Pliny distinguishes five different species of promegranate;[XIV-45]
Columella teaches the way to rear this tree;[XIV-46] and Apicius treats
of the preservation of its fruit, to do which it is only necessary to
plunge it in boiling water, take it out immediately, and suspend it from
the ceiling.[XIV-47]
The Greeks were very fond of pomegranates. The finest came from Attica,
so celebrated by the genius of its inhabitants; and from
Bœotia,[XIV-48] that privileged soil, where agriculture and stupidity
flourished together.[XIV-49]
XV.
ANIMAL FOOD.
Bread, vegetables, and fruit for a long time provided man with a
sufficient and easy alimentation.[XV-1] Wandering with his flocks in
search of cool pasture, he only exacted their wool wherewith to make the
clothing requisite for his migratory life;[XV-2] their services to
assist him in hollowing a difficult furrow;[XV-3] and their first-born
as a most agreeable offering to the all-powerful master of heaven and
earth.[XV-4] We may also suppose that, in the pastoral ages, the
wandering tribes of Asia added to their vegetable food the milk of their
ewes, goats, or cows, although it is not mentioned in the Book of
Genesis[XV-5] at a very early period, it is true, but which forms a
nourishment nature seems to point out as proper to infancy and old
age;[XV-6] mankind, therefore, abstained from animal food during many
centuries.[XV-7] Ecclesiastical and profane writers seem to agree on
this point.[XV-8] Habit had not yet produced disgust, and curiosity, the
fatal mother of experience and sensuality. To eat was for them the most
natural and simple action of life. The art of cookery tries, makes
choice, and improves: that art did not exist.
The frightful cataclysm which overthrew the world, and of which the
history of every nation gives proofs more or less confused, came to
modify this state of things. “Men were obliged to be fed with more
substantial food,”[XV-9] and our forefathers were allowed to add to
vegetables and the herbs of the country, “animated beings, and all that
which had life and motion.”[XV-10]
The magiric science, therefore, began in the year of the world 1656.
From that period, indeed, the cooking of meat, however little
complicated it may have been, required an attention, care, and study,
which prepared the development of that marvellous faculty to which no
possible limit can be assigned--the last to disappear, and to which, in
fact, are related nearly all the actions of human life--_the sense of
taste_.
Heathen authors, guided by the lights of reason, some gleams of
tradition, and perhaps not absolutely strangers to the writings of
Moses, agree pretty well on the diet of the Golden Age;[XV-11] that age
of innocence, acorns, and happiness,[XV-12] when everywhere were seen
streams of milk, and nectar, and honey, flowing from the hollow oaks and
other trees of the forests.[XV-13]
But when the question is to point out the time at which the use of
animal food was introduced, ideas become clouded, and highly intelligent
minds, bewildered by the obscurity which envelops the subject, have
frequently appealed to absurd legends and ridiculous fables, invoking
the aid of their false and contested authority.
Xenocrates pretends that Triptolemus forbad the Athenians to eat
animals.[XV-14] Man must, then, have been still frugivorous for four
centuries after the Deluge.
This opinion found contradictors, who maintained that man contented
himself with fruit only because fire was wanting to cook meat; but
Prometheus came, and taught him how to draw the useful element from the
flint which concealed it, and was the first to venture on the sacrifice
of an ox.[XV-15] This happened in the year of the world 2412.[XV-16]
All this is a mistake, say other and very sensible writers; here is the
truth on this difficult point: The goddess Ceres had sown a field, and
the wheat came up as desired, when a pig entered, tumbled about, and
caused considerable damage, which so irritated the lady that she
punished him with death. Now, as a pig is good for nothing except to
eat, this one was eaten; and from that day, so fatal to the swinish
race, mankind learnt to appreciate the flesh of animals.[XV-17]
At the same time, Bacchus killed a goat he found nibbling at the
tendrils of his darling vines;[XV-18] and Hyberbius, son of Mars, and a
slasher, like his father, amused himself by killing another, in order to
become familiar thus early with scenes of combat.[XV-19] These goats
were roasted; and as experience had as yet furnished no rule of
comparison, and formed no taste--that exquisite sentiment of the
beautiful in the plastic arts, and of the good in the culinary
science--it was decided that this dish was very tolerable.
Hitherto the bovine race had only lost one individual: its sad destiny
began in the year 1506, before our era, under the reign of the fourth
king of Athens, Erichtonius, on a day of great solemnity, when an ox,
pressed probably by hunger, came near the altar, and devoured one of the
sacred cakes which heathen piety had dedicated to Jupiter. The zealous
Diomus rushed forward, and pierced the heart of the sacrilegious
quadruped.
It might be supposed that the anger of the god was immediately appeased;
but no! the terrible Jupiter knitted his brows; Olympus was in great
agitation; and pestilence came, and spread its ravages amongst the
Athenians.
“All did not die, but all were struck;”[XV-20] and, to propitiate the
implacable scourge, they thought of nothing better than to institute the
Buphonic Feast, which happily re-established their health, and which
they continued to celebrate every year. They sacrificed an ox,[XV-21]
offered a piece to Jupiter, and the faithful divided the rest among
themselves.
At Tyre, in Phœnicia, meat was consumed on the altar, but the gods
had the profit of it, and nobody else. Some fruit and a few vegetables
were sufficient for the frugality of people enjoying innocent and
primitive customs. But it happened, in the time of Pygmalion,[XV-22]
that a young sacrificer having perceived that a piece of the victim had
fallen, hastened to pick it up and replace it carefully on the fire of
the altar. In the performance of this operation he burned his fingers,
and instantly put them into his mouth, to lessen the pain. As he could
not help tasting the fat with which they were covered, the greedy young
man experienced a new sensation, which tempted him to swallow a
mouthful--then a second--a portion of the victim was eaten; he put
another piece under his cloak, and, with his wife, made the finest
supper in his life. All went on very well until the prince, being
informed of this profanation, loaded them with reproaches, and condemned
both to the punishment of death.
Gluttony, however, is rash: other sacrificers ate--at first in
secret--of this forbidden food; then they were imitated; and, at last,
by degrees meat passed from the altar of the gods, who did not taste it,
to the tables of mortals, who feasted upon it.[XV-23] People may or may
not believe this anecdote, which informs us in so satisfactory a manner
of the epoch at which man, from being frugivorous, became carnivorous;
but one thing is certain, that in the time of Homer (there is only
eighty years between him and Pygmalion), the flesh of animals was then
much in fashion, for we read of his giving to his heroes, as their
principal food, a whole hog, three years old, and oxen roasted--not even
jointed.[XV-24]
Some ideologists and dreamers have risen against the use of meat; their
declamations, often very eloquent, have been read; but, from Pythagoras,
a sublime and honest enthusiast, down to the whimsical J. J.
Rousseau--who, by-the-by, was very fond of mutton chops and _bœuf à
la mode_, although he exclaimed against the cruelty of mankind, whose
hands were stained with the blood of animals--no nation has yet
determined to adopt the patriarchal diet of the first ages of the world.
Plutarch was a vegetarian; and we possess one of his treatises, in which
he endeavours to prove that flesh is not the natural food of man.[XV-25]
As a conclusive answer--meat was eaten. So, when an ancient philosopher
one day denied the movement of matter, a person reduced him to silence
by walking.
But, if animal diet has, from time to time, met with a small number of
detractors, what an immense crowd of apologists and adepts has it not
also found! It would signify nothing to name individuals; let us point
out whole nations. Who is not acquainted with the delicacy and luxury of
the Assyrians and Persians? Who is not aware that the genius of the
Greeks improved the culinary art, and that their cooks were famous in
history? What of the Syracusans, whose dainty and curious ideas passed
as a proverb; and of the Athenians, who were so passionately fond of the
pleasures of the table; or of Naples, Tarentum, and Sybaris, so
celebrated for their good cheer? The Romans surpassed even these
refinements and sumptuous repasts: theirs is the honour of the pontiffs’
feasts, the excesses of Capreæ, the profusions of Vitellius, of Galba,
Nero, and Caligula. They have the honour of the banquet of Geta, which
lasted three days, and ended by exhausting the alphabetic list of all
the dishes that the universe could supply.
May heaven preserve us from imitating such prodigies of intemperance and
gluttonous folly; but let us, at least, be allowed to use with
moderation the good that Providence has granted us, and which it has not
forbidden us to make agreeable and savoury. The inhabitants of the air,
earth, and water, entered within our domains, as well as the fruits of
the fields, on the day when the Creator condescended to say to his
creature:
“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green
herb have I given you all things.”[XV-26]
REARING OF CATTLE.
All ancient legislators have bestowed the most serious attention to the
rearing and preservation of cattle. The Mosaic law, in this respect,
enters into details which reveal the most profound wisdom, a delicate
and minute research which cannot be too much admired.
More attentive to propagate useful animals than to flatter the
sensuality of nations, this law forbids their being mutilated;[XV-27] it
requires the Hebrews to treat with generosity the companions of their
labour;[XV-28] that they shall interest themselves in the preservation
of their brother’s, and even of their enemies’ oxen;[XV-29] that
different species of unequal strength shall not be yoked together to the
plough;[XV-30] and, in order that the cattle may not suffer from an
excess of hard and constant labour, Moses assures to them at least one
day of rest in a week.[XV-31]
It is well known with what care the patriarchs surrounded their flocks;
for them they wandered from region to region, and only stopped where
pasture was abundant.[XV-32] In imitation of those fathers of nations,
the princes of the East, and the Grecian chiefs, were at first
shepherds;[XV-33] and were, perhaps, indebted to the innocent
occupations of the fields for the sweet and sacred title of pastors of
man.[XV-34]
The founder of Rome did not forget the flocks and herds, in those famous
laws which were to assure the prosperity of his rising city;[XV-35] one
of them allowed the possessor of an estate to take up the acorns which
might fall into his field from his neighbour’s property,[XV-36] and to
divide them among the cattle he is rearing.
Under the republic, it was severely forbidden to ill-use beasts of
burthen and others. By the Licinian law, each farmer was required to
proportion the number of his sheep and oxen to the extent of his
land;[XV-37] the Thorian law contains very wise regulations relative to
the quality and keeping up of pasture.[XV-38] Moreover, it is to be
remarked, that the Romans never fixed the limits of a rural property,
nor formed a new colony, without giving their first care to the spots
appointed to feed their flocks,[XV-39] the quiet possession of which was
assured by the Emperors. Adrian, among others, did not encourage
thieves. This prince ordered that whoever carried away cattle grazing in
meadows should be condemned to work in the mines; that those who should
have been convicted of robbery several times should be beheaded; and
that thieves found with arms in their hands should become the prey of
wild beasts.[XV-40]
Illustrious families by birth often added to their name a sort of
epithet, originating either from bulls, goats, or sheep, which were
brought up on the land of their villas. This singular custom proves the
extraordinary attachment which the Romans had for their flocks. One of
these enthusiasts, Tremellius Scrofa,[XV-41] had written a treatise on
the art of assorting and feeding cattle.[XV-42] Greek and Latin
geoponics have also transmitted to us some details full of interest, and
which often contain most useful information upon the various species of
animals which the ancients preferred, and the particular care they took
in the preservation and development of various breeds.[XV-43] Pagan
theology reckoned among its thirty thousand gods[XV-44] some few
protective divinities of flocks. The shepherds invoked Pales[XV-45] and
Anna Perenna;[XV-46] dealers of oxen offered sacrifices to
Bubona,[XV-47] whose special care it was to see that they were fat and
healthy.
The animals chosen to be fattened were put under the protection of this
deity, and were fed in the following manner:
The first day they had given to them cabbages, soaked in vinegar; then,
for five days, straw, mixed with wheat bran; from the seventh day they
had nothing but bruised barley, which was gradually and judiciously
increased till the twelfth day. These oxen were fed at midnight, at
break of day, at twelve o’clock, and at three in the afternoon. They
were allowed to drink only twice--that is, after the third and fourth
meal.[XV-48] On the thirteenth day they were led to market.
MARKETS.
The Hebrews held their cattle market at the gates of their cities; and
from this circumstance, perhaps, is derived those expressions so
frequent in the sacred writings: “The gates of the flocks,” “The sheep’s
gate,” &c.,[XV-49] which no doubt designated the different quarters of
Jerusalem where shepherds and cattle dealers were accustomed to
congregate.
Among the Greeks, vast, airy, public places, used to receive, under the
orders, and with the authorisation of the _Epimeletes_, or curators, the
animals and meat necessary for the subsistence of the citizens.
At Rome, the horned cattle market was situated in the eighth region,
behind the Capitoline Mount.[XV-50] It was a magnificent place,
surrounded with beautiful galleries, in the midst of which stood on its
pedestal, a gigantic brazen bull, at a little distance from the temple
of Hercules--a round, mean edifice[XV-51]--where dealers and their
customers went to adore this god, the patron of butchers.
The way to reach the pig market was by going round the Quirinal Mount,
near the bronze horses of Tyridates, in the seventh region of the
town.[XV-52] This market was the most important of all, on account of
the immense consumption of pork by the Romans.
As soon as the officer of the Roman præfect appeared, the principal
butchers gathered round him; he examined the cattle, regulated the sale,
and fixed a price on the meat, from which they were not allowed to
deviate,[XV-53] and then only was the market open.
BUTCHERS.