t, quiet and unassuming throughout. The bill of fare of one
of these suppers has been preserved, and here we give it:

_First Course._--Sea urchins. Raw oysters at discretion. _Pelorides_ or
palourdes (a sort of shell-fish now found on the coasts of Poitou in
France). Thorny shelled oysters; larks; a hen pullet with asparagus;
stewed oysters and mussels; white and black sea-tulips.

_Second Course._--_Spondulae_, a variety of oyster; sweet water mussels;
sea nettles; becaficoes; cutlets of kid and boar's meat; chicken pie;
becaficoes again, but differently prepared, with an asparagus sauce;
_murex_ and purple fish. The latter were but different kinds of
shell-fish.

_Third Course._--The teats of a sow _au naturel_; they were cut as soon
as the animal had littered; wild boar's head (this was the main dish);
sow's teats in a ragout; the breasts and necks of roast ducks;
fricasseed wild duck; roast hare, a great delicacy; roasted Phrygian
chickens; starch cream; cakes from Vicenza.

All this was washed down with the light Pompeian wine, which was not
bad, and could be kept for ten years, if boiled. The wine of Vesuvius,
once highly esteemed, has lost its reputation, owing to the concoctions
now sold to travellers under the label of _Lachrymae Christi_. The
vintages of the volcano must have been more honestly prepared at the
period when they were sung by Martial. Every day there is found in the
cellars of Pompeii some short-necked, full-bodied, and elongated
_amphora_, terminating in a point so as to stick upright in the ground,
and nearly all are marked with an inscription stating the age and origin
of the liquor they contained. The names of the consuls usually
designated the year of the vintage. The further back the consul, the
more respectable the wine. A Roman, in the days of the Empire, having
been asked under what consul his wine dated, boldly replied, "Under
none!" thereby proclaiming that his cellar had been stocked under the
earliest kings of Rome.

These inscriptions on the amphorae make us acquainted with an old
Vesuvian wine called _picatum_, or, in other words, with a taste of
pitch; _fundanum_, or Fondi wine, much esteemed, and many others. In
fine, let us not forget the famous growth of Falernus, sung by the
poets, which did not disappear until the time of Theodoric.

But besides the amphorae, how much other testimony there still remains of
the olden libations,--those rich _craterae_, or broad, shallow