place for small boiled meats, and a
boiling-house for the great boiler. In private houses the
culinary arrangements were no doubt different; for Du Cange
mentions a little kitchen with a chamber, even in a solarium, or
upper floor.

63. THE SIMPLICITY OF THE PRIMITIVE AGES has frequently been an object
of poetical admiration, and it delights the imagination to picture men
living upon such fruits as spring spontaneously from the earth, and
desiring no other beverages to slake their thirst, but such as fountains
and rivers supply. Thus we are told, that the ancient inhabitants of
Argos lived principally on pears; that the Arcadians revelled in acorns,
and the Athenians in figs. This, of course, was in the golden age,
before ploughing began, and when mankind enjoyed all kinds of plenty
without having to earn their bread "by the sweat of their brow." This
delightful period, however, could not last for ever, and the earth
became barren, and continued unfruitful till Ceres came and taught the
art of sowing, with several other useful inventions. The first whom she
taught to till the ground was Triptolemus, who communicated his
instructions to his countrymen the Athenians. Thence the art was carried
into Achaia, and thence into Arcadia. Barley was the first grain that
was used, and the invention of bread-making is ascribed to Pan.

The use of fire, as an instrument of cookery, must have been
coeval with this invention of bread, which, being the most
necessary of all kinds of food, was frequently used in a sense
so comprehensive as to include both meat and drink. It was, by
the Greeks, baked under the ashes.

64. IN THE PRIMARY AGES it was deemed unlawful to eat flesh, and when
mankind began to depart from their primitive habits, the flesh of swine
was the first that was eaten. For several ages, it was pronounced
unlawful to slaughter oxen, from an estimate of their great value in
assisting men to cultivate the ground; nor was it usual to kill young
animals, from a sentiment which considered it cruel to take away the
life of those that had scarcely tasted the joys of existence.

At this period no cooks were kept, and we know from Homer that
his ancient heroes prepared and dressed their victuals with
their own hands. Ulysses, for example, we are told, like a
modern charwoman, excelled at lighting a fire, whilst Achilles
was an adept at turning a spit. Subsequently, heral