[367] “Il est peu de poissons et même d’animaux qui aient été, pour les premiers peuples civilisés de l’Europe, l’objet de plus de recherches, d’attention, et d’éloges que le Scare” (Lacépède). On the family of the _Labridæ_ (of which the _Scarus_ forms a genus) the same author asserts that Nature has not conferred either strength or power, but they have received as their share of her favours, agreeable proportions, great activity of fin, and adornment with all the colours of the rainbow. Of the two cousins of the _Scarus_, the _Turdus_ and the _Julis_, his eulogy can not be omitted: “Le feu du diamant, du rubis, de la topaz, de l’émeraude, du saphir, de l’améthyste, du grenat scintille sur leures écailles polies: et brille sur leure surface en gouttes, en croissants, en raies, en bandes, en anneaux, en ceintures, en zones, en ondes; il se mêle à l’éclat de l’or et d’argent qui y resplendit sur de grandes places, les teintes obscures, les aires pâles, et pour ainsi dire décolorées.” Nicander of Thyatira (_cp._ Athen. 7, 113) states that there were two kinds of _Scarus_, one αἰόλος of many diverse colours, the other ὀνίας of a dull grey tint. [368] Pliny, IX. 79. [369] See J. B. Du Halde, _Description géographique ... de l’Empire de la Chine_.... (Paris, 1735), vol. i. p. 36. [370] Petron., _Sat._, 93, 2. [371] Archestratus is constantly quoted and always praised by Athenæus as “excellent,” “experienced,” etc. Archestratus the Syracusan in his work—variously termed “Gastronomy,” “Hedypathy,” “Deipnology,” “Cookery”—begins his epic poem, “Here to all Greece I open wisdom’s store”! (Yonge’s trans.). From delivering his precepts in the style and with the gravity of the old gnomic poets, Archestratus was dubbed “the Hesiod or Theognis of opsophagists.” The comic poets have many a gibe at him, _e.g._ Dionysius of Sinope sums up the author of _Gastronomy_, τὰ πολλὰ δ’ ἠγνόηκε, κοὐδὲ ἒν λέγει (_Thesmophorus_, _frag._ I. 26, Meineke)! Before publishing this work, the author travelled far and wide to make himself master of every dish that could be served at table. Known to us almost entirely as a supreme _bon vivant_, and as the earliest (except Terpsion) and certainly greatest _Mrs. Glasse_ of the Greeks, his accuracy of description of the various fishes used for the table was so consistent, that we find even so high an authority as Aristotle making use of it in his Natural History. Archestratus in his travels concerned himself not at all as to the manners or morals of the countries visited, “as it is impossible to change these,” and held little or no intercourse with any but those, _e.g. chefs_, who could advance the pleasures of taste. Whatever the cause, whether too many sauces or too little nutritive food, he was so small and lean that the scales are supposed to have returned his weight as not even one obol! (Cf. Hayward, _The Art of Dining_). Hayward himself must have appreciated the limitation of guests, which Archestratus imposes for a