Between each course water and towels were again passed about, and the guests washed their hands. Finally for dessert there was brought on a great quantity of curious pastry--artificial oysters and thrushes filled with dried grapes and almonds; and a great dish whereon stood an image, made of baked dough, of the orchard god Vertumnus, holding a pastry apron full of fruits, while heaped around his feet were sweet quinces stuck full of almonds, and melons cut into fantastic shapes.[54] [Illustration: DRINKING CUP.] =98. The Drinking Bout (_Comissatio_) after the Dinner.=--This concluded the regular dinner, but Calvus had invited his friends (since Manlius had much to talk about) to stay to a _comissatio_, a social drinking spell afterwards. The nine guests rose and adjourned to the host’s private baths, whence, after they had refreshed themselves and taken a turn around the colonnades in the peristylium, they returned to the triclinium to find that the slaves had changed all the couch covers and pillows, had swept the floor, and had actually brought in new tables. It was now quite dark, beautiful silver lamps gleamed on high against the fretwork of the ceiling and on the tall inlaid sideboard stood two great silver tankards; one was filled with snow;[55] the other had a charcoal brazier beneath it and steamed with hot water. If Calvus’s party had now been composed of younger merrymakers, some one would have called out, “Let’s drink in the ‘Greek style’ and elect a king”; and everybody would have joined in throwing dice to select the _rex_, or lord of the revels. That potentate would have been obligated to decide how much water was to be mixed with the wine, and how many cups must be drunk to the health of each feaster’s lady love, and to arrange the forfeits, riddles, and practical jokes inseparable from a jolly evening. If the party had been still more uproarious, Spanish dancing girls might have been provided by the host, or a corps of pantomimes, acrobats, or farce players, and the whole scene could have ended in a very coarse orgy. In the present case Calvus had decided to let his friends merely drink enough to loosen their tongues and to exchange their best wit and wisdom. The slaves, therefore, brought in with decent solemnity the little images of the family lares, and a small smoking brazier, and Calvus cast a trifle of meal and salt and a few drops of wine upon the fire. “The gods are propitious!” announced a slave in loud voice, after which the guests preserved a reverent silence for an instant, to be followed by vigorous conversation the moment the divine images were carried out.