ber, purslain, &c.

Salt, which from the remotest periods was the condiment _par excellence_,
and the trade in which had been free up to the fourteenth century, became,
from that period, the subject of repeated taxation. The levying of these
taxes was a frequent cause of tumult amongst the people, who saw with
marked displeasure the exigencies of the excise gradually raising the
price of an article of primary necessity. We have already mentioned times
during which the price of salt was so exorbitant that the rich alone could
put it in their bread. Thus, in the reign of Francis I., it was almost as
dear as Indian spices.

Sweet Dishes, Desserts, &c.--In the fourteenth century, the first courses
of a repast were called _mets_ or _assiettes_; the last, "_entremets,
dorures, issue de table, desserte_, and _boule-hors_."

The dessert consisted generally of baked pears, medlars, pealed walnuts,
figs, dates, peaches, grapes, filberts, spices, and white or red
sugar-plums.

At the _issue de table_ wafers or some other light pastry were introduced,
which were eaten with the hypocras wine. The _boute-hors,_ which was
served when the guests, after having washed their hands and said grace,
had passed into the drawing-room, consisted of spices, different from
those which had appeared at dessert, and intended specially to assist the
digestion; and for this object they must have been much needed,
considering that a repast lasted several hours. Whilst eating these spices
they drank Grenache, Malmsey, or aromatic wines (Fig. 123).

It was only at the banquets and great repeats that sweet dishes and
_dorures_ appeared, and they seem to have been introduced for the purpose
of exhibiting the power of the imagination and the talent in execution of
the master-cook.

The _dorures_ consisted of jellies of all sorts and colours; swans,
peacocks, bitterns, and herons, on gala feasts, were served in full
feather on a raised platform in the middle of the table, and hence the
name of "raised dishes." As for the side-dishes, properly so called, the
long list collected in the "Menagier" shows us that they were served at
table indiscriminately, for stuffed chickens at times followed hashed
porpoise in sauce, lark pies succeeded lamb sausages, and pike's-eggs
fritters appeared after orange preserve.

At a later period the luxury of side-dishes consisted in the quantity and
in the variety of the pastry; Rabelais names sixteen different sorts at