_A._ Well, that idea of shads is not a bad one. _B._ Then, if a Byzantine should be your guest, Steep all you offer such a man in wormwood. And let your dishes taste of salt and garlic. For fish are all so plenty in their country, That the men all are full of rheum and phlegm. And Menander says, in his Trophonius-- _A._ This feast is for a guest's reception. _B._ What guest? whence comes he? for those points, believe me, Do make a mighty difference to the cook. For instance, if some guests from the islands come Who always feed on fish of every sort Fresh from the sea, such men like not salt dishes, But think them make-shifts. Give such men their food Well-season'd, forced, and stuff'd with choicest spices. But if you ask a guest from Arcady He is a stranger to the sea, and loves Limpets and shell-fish;--but the rich Ionian Will look at nought but Lydian luxuries, Rich, stimulating, amatory meats. 10. The ancients used food calculated to provoke the appetite, as for instance salt olives, which they call colymbades: and accordingly Aristophanes says, in his Old Age-- Old man, do you like flabby courtesans, Or tender maidens, firm as well-cured olives? And Philemon, in his Follower, or Sauce, says-- _A._ What did you think, I pray, of that boil'd fish? _B._ He was but small; do'st hear me? And the pickle Was white, and much too thick; there was no smell Of any spice or seasoning at all, So that the guests cried out,--How pure your brine is! They also eat common grasshoppers and the monkey grasshopper as procreatives of the appetite. Aristophanes says, in his Anagyrus-- How can you, in God's name, like grasshoppers, Catching them with a reed, and cercopes?[218:1] But the cercope is a little animal like a grasshopper or prickly roach, as Speusippus tells us in the fourth book of his Similitudes; and Epilycus mentions them in his Coraliscus. And Alexis says in his Thrason-- I never saw, not even a cercope A greater chatterer than you, O woman, Nor jay, or nightingale, or dove, or grasshopper. And Nicostratus says, in his Abra-- The first, a mighty dish shall lead the way, Holding an urchin, and some sauce and capers, A cheesecake, fish, and onions in rich stuffing. 11. And that they used to eat, for the sake of encouraging the appetite, rape dressed with vinegar and mustard, is plainly stated by Nicander, in the second book of his Georgics, where he says--