ondent "R.O." having inquired after the author of the
conjecture that the Lacedaemonian Black Broth was composed wholly, or in
part, of coffee, such an idea appearing to me to have arisen principally
from a presumed identity of colour between the two, and to have no
foundation in fact, I have endeavoured to combat it, in the first
instance by raising the question, whether it was black or not?

This has brought us to the main point, what the [Greek: zomos melas]
really was. And here "R.O." appears to rest content upon the probablity
of coffee having been an ingredient. Permit me to assign some additional
reasons for entertaining a different opinion.

We read nothing in native writers of anything like coffee in Greece,
indigenous or imported; and how in the world was it to get into Laconia,
inhabited, as it is well known to have been, by a race of men the least
prone of any to change their customs, and the least accessible to
strangers. Lycurgus, we are told, forbade his people to be sailors, or
to contend at sea[6], so that they had no means of importing it
themselves; and what foreign merchant would sell it to them, who had
only iron money to pay withal, and dealt, moreover, as much as possible
by way of barter?[7]

But it may be said they cultivated the plant themselves; that is, in
other words, that the Helots raised it for them. If so, how happens it
that all mention of the berry is omitted in the catalogue of their
monthly contributions to the Phiditia, which are said to have consisted
of meal, wine, cheese, figs, and a very little money?[8] and when the
king of Pontus[9] indulged in the expensive fancy of buying to himself
(not hiring, let it be recollected) a cook, to make that famous broth
which Dionysius found so detestable, how came he not at the same time to
think of buying a pound of coffee also? Moreover, if we consider its
universal popularity at present, it is hardly to be supposed that, in
ancient times, coffee would have suited no palate except that of a
Lacedaemonian.

With respect to the colour of the broth, I am reminded of my own
reference to _Pollux_, lib. vi. who is represented by your correspondent
to say that the [Greek: melas zomos] was also called [Greek: aimatia], a
word which Messrs. Scott and Liddell interpret to {301} denote "blood
broth," and go on to state, upon the authority of Manso, that blood was
a principal ingredient in this celebrated Lacedaemonian dish. Certainly,
if the case