There were chopping-blocks[511] both of wood and stone, mortars,[512] fish-kettles, frying-pans, and spits of all dimensions,[513] some being so diminutive that thrushes and other small birds could be roasted on them. Their ends in the heroic ages rested on stone hobs, but afterwards andirons were invented, probably of fanciful shape as in modern France. Occasionally they would appear to have been manufactured of lead. To these we may add the ovens, the bean and barley-roasters, the sieves of bronze and other materials, the wine-strainers in the form of colanders, the crate for earthern-ware, and the chafing-dish.[514] ----- Footnote 511: Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 319. Vesp. 238. κρεάγρα a flesh-hook. Sch. Eq. 769. Footnote 512: Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 924. Footnote 513: Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 179. Footnote 514: Aristoph. Acharn. 34. Cooks’ tables were made of wicker-work or olive-wood. Etym. Mag. 298. 36, seq. ----- CHAPTER III. FOOD OF HOMERIC TIMES—MEAT, FISH, ETC. Having described the implements with which a Greek meal was prepared, let us next inquire of what materials it consisted, and how it was eaten. There will be no occasion in pursuing this investigation to adhere to any very strict method. It will probably be sufficient to make a few broad divisions and a flexible outline which we can fill up as the materials fall in our way. What the original inhabitants of Hellas ate might no doubt be satisfactorily inferred from the accounts we possess of nations still existing in the same state of civilisation. But it is nevertheless curious to examine their traditions relating to the subject. Ælian, who has preserved many notices of remote antiquity, gives a list of various kinds of food, which, as he would appear to think, constituted the chief, if not the whole, sustenance of several ancient nations. The Arcadians lived, he says, upon acorns; the Argives upon pears, the Athenians upon figs;[515] the wild pear-tree furnished the Tirynthians with their favourite food; a sort of cane was the chief dainty of the Indians; of the Karamanians[516] the date; millet of the Mæotæ and Sauromatæ; while the Persians[517] delighted chiefly in cardamums and pistachio nuts.[518] ----- Footnote 515: Cf. Plut. Quæst. Græc. 51. Footnote 516: Cf. Dion. Perieg. 1082. Footnote 517: These people were great eaters, and held none in estimation but those who resembled them. Aristoph. Acharn. 74. sqq. Footnote 518: