For, as we hear, the pupils of Pythagoras Eat no good meat nor any living thing, And they alone of men do drink no wine. But Epicharides will bitches eat; The only one of all the sect; but then He kills them first, and says they are not living. And proceeding a little farther, he says-- _A._ Shreds of Pythagoras and subtleties And well-fill'd thoughts are their sufficient food. Their daily meals are these--a simple loaf To every man, and a pure cup of water. And this is all. _B._ You speak of prison fare. _A._ This is the way that all the wise men live. These are the hardships that they all endure. _B._ Where do they live in such a way? _A._ Yet they procure Dainties after their sort for one another; Know you not Melanippides and Phaon, Phyromachus and Phanus are companions? And they together sup on each fifth day On one full cotyla of wheaten meal. And, in his Female Pythagorean, he says-- _A._ The banquet shall be figs and grapes and cheese, For these the victims are which the strict law Allows Pythagoras' sect to sacrifice. _B._ By Jove, as fine a sacrifice as possible. And a few lines afterwards, he says-- One must for a short time, my friend, endure Hunger, and dirt, and cold, and speechlessness, And sullen frowns, and an unwashen face. 53. But you, my philosophical friends, practise none of these things. But what is far worse than any of them, you talk about what you do not in the least understand; and, as if you were eating in an orderly manner, you take in mouthfuls like the man in that sweet poet Antiphanes; for he says, in his Runaway Slave-catcher-- Taking a moderate mouthful, small outside, But large within his hand, as women do. And in the same way you eat a great deal and eat very fast; when it is in your power, according to the words of the same poet which he uses in the Thombycius, "to buy for a single drachma food well suited to you, such as garlic, cheese, onions, and capers; for all these only cost a drachma." And Aristophanes says, in his Pythagoreans-- What? do we think, I ask you in God's name, That these philosophers of olden time, The pupils of Pythagoras, went thus In dirt and rags all of their own accord? I don't believe one word of such a thing. No; they were forced to do so, as they had not A single farthing to buy clothes or soap. And then they made a merit of economy, And laid down rules, most splendid rules for beggars. But only put before them fish or meat; And if they do not their own fingers bite For very eagerness, I will be bound To let you hang me ten times over.