s were brought on with
quails and thrushes. There were innumerable dishes of fish, reminding
the Greeks of the viands of their native land, and between mouthfuls
they discussed the glauci from Megara, the eels from Scione, and breams
and xiphiae from the coasts of Phalerum and from the Hellespont.

Each guest chose his favorite food from among the different dishes, and
regaled his friends with it, presents being carried by slaves from one
end of the table to the other. More wines, in sealed and dusty amphorae,
were brought up from the cellars, and overflowed the festal goblets.
Wine from Chios, rare and costly, mingled with those from Caecubum, from
Falerno, and from Massico, in Italy, and those from Laurona and from the
Saguntine domain. To the bouquet of these liquids was added the aroma of
the sauces, into which entered, following the complicated recipes of the
Grecian cuisine, silphium, parsley, sesame, fennel, cumin, and garlic.

Sonnica barely touched her food; she neglected the successive plates,
heaped with presents from her guests, to smile at Actaeon.

"I love you," she whispered. "I feel as if a Thessalian magus had cast a
spell over me. My whole being responds to the throb of love. Do you see
these fishes? I am afraid to eat them; I feel that I would be committing
a sacrilege, because roses and fishes are dedicated to Venus, the mother
of our joy. I only wish to drink--to drink profoundly. I feel within me
a fire which caresses, yet consumes me."

The guests gormandized, rendering tribute to Sonnica's cook, an Asiatic,
purchased in Athens by one of her navigators. He had cost her almost the
price of a villa; but they considered the money well spent, and they
admired the art with which his meditations in a corner of the kitchen
produced these astonishing combinations, afterward executed by the other
slaves--above all that happy invention of a mild sauce of dates and
honey for the roasts. With such a slave it were possible to enjoy one's
food throughout the whole of life and to ward off death for many years.

The second course had ended. The guests were lying surfeited on their
couches, loosening their garments. The slaves served them with wine in
horn-shaped flagons of alabaster, which permitted a slender stream to
gurgle from its spout, so that they need not lift themselves to drink.
The purple drapery of the couches was stained with wine. The great
lampadaries in the corners, with their tapers of perfume