We have heard of nests of eggs cooked by the heat of the sun in South Africa, whilst in Iceland and some other countries it is possible to cook by means of the boiling springs.

We are apt to experience a feeling of disgust in reading of the Eskimo crowded in their snow houses, regaling themselves with great pieces of seal-blubber, and washing down the feast with train oil, but we do not consider the disadvantages under which these poor people labour in a country where it would be impossible to indulge in gastronomic luxuries, not only on account of the scarcity of food, but also because of the scarcity of fuel, their only cooking apparatus consisting of that simple oil lamp, which serves the treble purpose of fire, candle, and cooking-stove. Yet French and Italian cooks achieve most of their culinary triumphs by the aid of a cooking-stove only once removed from that of the Eskimo, being heated by charcoal only. Luxury has now taken such hold upon us that we wonder how it could ever have been possible to eat comfortably without silver forks, yet our grandmothers knew them not, but used forks of steel, at first with only two tines or prongs, which they managed as deftly as the Chinese do their chop-sticks, although they did not scruple to put the knife in the mouth on occasion, and, in fact, the knives were made rounded at the end for that purpose. Forks, indeed, are but a late invention, and our Saxon ancestors cut their meat from the spit with their hunting knives, not only when engaged in the chase, but when seated at table in their great banqueting halls, as witness a curious old drawing in the Cotton Manuscript, in which two serving-men or cooks are represented kneeling holding a spit in one hand and a platter in the other, whilst three guests - seated at a table covered with a heavy cloth, upon which are various dishes, and cakes of bread marked with a cross - cut from the spit presented to them such meat as they please, apparently letting it fall into the platter held to receive it. Yet we are told that the Anglo-Saxons possessed forks, some having been found with coins of Caenwulf, King of Mercia and Athelstan,* but these are supposed to have been mere toys, for forks certainly did not come into general use in England before the end of the seventeenth century, although they appear to have been used in Italy at an earlier date. They have now penetrated into the heart of savage Africa, and Mr. A. A. Anderson * describes an interview with Lo Bengula, in which 'a little Mashona boy brought, on a piece of grass matting, four large pieces of bullock's lights, that had been broiled over a fire, and a fork; advancing on hands and knees to his dreaded master, he placed them on the grass in front of his majesty, who took the fork, and transfixing one after the other they disappeared from sight in his capacious mouth.'

* See Chambers's 'Book of Days.'

The table appointments of ancient Egypt are familiar to us from the paintings. We see the guests seated at table in gala dress, be-wigged and be-jewelled, holding the lotus-lily in their hands by way of nosegay, whilst attendants in the very scantiest of attire, naked except for a girdle and a necklace to show that they are slaves, serve them with meat and wine, evidently in too great profusion, for that disgusting practice, which prevailed also among the epicures and gluttons of ancient Rome, of taking emetics when satiated + in order to be able to renew the feast, is most realistically depicted.

That which is remarkable in these Egyptian feasts is the preponderance of women represented. It is evident that in those remote times ladies were not consigned to the galleries to look on whilst their lords and masters enjoyed the good things provided by Egyptian cooks, but were allowed their full share both of the comestibles and of the table talk.

* 'Twenty-five Years in a Waggon.'

+ It may be of interest here to give the receipt of Apicius for digestive salts from Soyer's 'History of Food : ' - take I lb. of common salt pulverised, mix with 3 oz. white pepper, 2 oz. ginger, 1 oz. lamoni, 1 1/2 oz. thyme, 1 1/2 oz. celery seed, 2 oz. wild marjoram, 1 1/2 oz. rocket seed, 3 oz. black pepper, 1 1/2 oz. holy thistle, 2 oz. hyssop, 2 oz. spikenard, 2 oz. parsley, 2 oz. aniseed. Take a small quantity after a too plentiful dinner.

The ancient Greeks were studiously simple in their habits, and their cookery in early times appears to have partaken of this simplicity. The famous black broth of the Spartans, which was the national dish, and of which they were so fond that they seldom ate anything else, appears to have been a horrible compound of pork broth, with vinegar and salt. Of this dish it is related, that Dionysius, the elder, having had it carefully prepared by a Lacedaemonian slave, just tasted it and threw it from him in disgust, demanding of the slave whether that was the broth of which the Spartans were so found - 'No,' replied the slave, 'it lacks one ingredient, that of violent exercise before partaking of it.'

In Attica the common people lived almost entirely upon vegetables, but among the wealthy there was great profusion as soon as luxuries began to be introduced from abroad. At entertainments a king of the feast was chosen by lot, whose duty it was to fix the quantity of wine to be drunk by the guests, and to determine in what manner they were to pass the evening; this was often by music and singing patriotic songs, although the king of the feast frequently proposed a subject which all present were expected to discuss. The guests at the dinner parties of the Athenians seem to have been limited to nine, for it was an Athenian saying that a convivial meeting should not consist of fewer than the Graces or more than the Muses, and before sitting down they were accustomed to use the warm bath, and to anoint themselves with oil.

The institution of ' King of the Feast' appears to have descended to the Romans, for this functionary is mentioned with approbation both by Plutarch and Cato. His office somewhat resembled that of the chairman or president of to-day, although he would appear to have had more to do with the general conduct of the feast, regulating the quantity of wine to be drunk, and who should sing or tell a story, or in any other way amuse the guests.

The Romans in Republican times were as frugal in their diet as the Spartans, seldom tasting meat, but living chiefly upon milk, eggs, and vegetables, and a kind of pudding somewhat resembling our batter pudding; but this simple mode of life was quickly abandoned, and the luxury of the wealthy Romans exceeded anything known in the present day. Nero's banqueting-room was wainscotted with ivory, and the panels were so constructed as to turn on pivots and shower down flowers and perfumes on the guests, whilst the circular roof imitated the movements of the spheres, representing a different season of the year as each course was placed on the table. 'The supper-rooms of Elagabalus,' we are told, 'were hung with cloth of gold and silver, enriched with jewellery; the frames of the couches were of massive silver, with mattresses covered with the richest embroidery; and the tables and table services were of pure gold;* whilst even of private individuals Horace writes 'Where ivory couches overspread With Tyrian carpets glowing, fed The dazzled eye.'

* 'Sketches of Manners and Institutions of the Romans,' p. 164.

The guests reposed upon elegant couches placed round the tables, and only sat in sign of mourning; each was provided with a special robe, generally white, by the host, a custom alluded to in the New Testament; whilst a bill of fare, or, as we should say now, a menu was placed before every guest. As for plate, Crassus is said to have possessed some, of which the workmanship alone cost about fifty-two shillings the ounce. Sylla had silver dishes of sixteen hundred ounces; and a freedman of the Emperor Claudius had one which weighed five hundred pounds, forming the centre dish of eight others, each weighing fifty pounds. But in the midst of all this luxury it is amusing to read that every guest was expected to bring his own napkin, which he generally sent home by a slave filled with some of the good things from the table* - a custom which, perhaps, some of us would not be sorry to see revived.

Small figures of Mercury, Hercules, and the penates were placed on the table, and libations were poured to them at the beginning and end of a feast; whilst the salt placed beside them was regarded as sacred. We find, too, the superstitions regarding the spilling of salt, and the unlucky number thirteen, in full force among the Romans. Pliny says the purchase of a cook cost as much as the expense of a triumph, and no mortal was so valued as the slave who was most expert in the art of ruining his master. Hosts seemed to vie with each other in the costliness of feasts, and of Apicius it is related that, after having wasted half a million sterling on the pleasures of the table, he committed suicide because, having only eighty thousand pounds left, he could not continue his extravagances.

* 'Sketches of Manners and Institutions of the Romans,' p. 164.

And yet, during the early part of the Empire, sumptuary laws were in force regulating the expenses to be incurred at banquets, and even the number of dishes, and it is said that Julius Caesar frequently sent lictors to suspected houses, and had the dishes carried off from the tables if they exceeded the number permitted by law; whilst Augustus decreed that an ordinary repast should not cost more than 200 sesterces (about Li, 12s. 6d.), or 300 on feasts or days of solemnity, and 1000 at a wedding. If we compare this with the luxury of Nero and Elagabalus and later emperors, when a single fish cost fifty guineas, when pearls were dissolved in vinegar and drunk, not for pleasure, but only to add to the cost of a feast; and when the senate was convened to consult as to the best manner of dressing a turbot for the emperor's table, we shall hardly be surprised at the decline and fall of Rome.

Yet this excess of luxury was a great incentive to commerce, for merchants who scoured the seas for things rare and costly were sure of a market on their return; whilst they carried with them in their wanderings to distant shores not only many useful wares by way of barter, but also those germs of civilisation, destined to grow up and bear fruit when the pomp of the Roman emperors which had caused their transplantation had withered and fallen into an untimely grave.