"I say nothing about choosing oils, or fat, because the cooking-books give sufficient information on that head. Don't forget, however, when you have any of those trout, weighing scarcely more than a quarter of a pound, and fetched from streams that murmur far from the capital-don't forget, I say, to fry them in the very finest olive-oil you have. This simple dish, properly served up with slices of lemon, is worthy of a cardinal.*

66

'In exactly the same way you should treat smelts, of which adepts think so much. The smelt

is amongst the fish what the fig-pecker is amongst the birds the same in size, the same in flavour, the same in excellence.

"You have taken charge of my lower regions, and you had the glory of first presenting to an astonished universe a huge turbot fried. That day there was amongst the elect a great jubilation.

"Go then, and bestow pains upon your duties, never forgetting that from the moment the guests step over my threshold, it is we who are responsible for their happiness."

* One day M. Aulissin, a Neapolitan lawyer, dining with me, exclaimed, as he ate of something that was quite to his taste, "Questo è un vero boccone di cardinale!" "For a cardinal!" I replied; "why don't you say for a king, as we do?" "My dear sir," answered the gastronome, we Italians think that kings cannot appreciate good living, because their repasts are too hurried and formal; but the cardinals-eh!" with a peculiar chuckle, "ho! ho!"

66

VIII.

ON THIRST.

We believe that the seat of the feeling of thirst is the digestive system generally. When one is thirsty -as we have often been when hunting-there is a well-defined feeling throughout all the absorbing parts of the mouth, throat, and stomach.

So keen is the sensation of thirst, that, in nearly every language, the word is used to express an excessive longing or eager desire; thus, we have a thirst for power, wealth, vengeance, etc.

Thirst kills much more quickly than hunger. We have examples of men who have survived for eight days without eating, because they had water, whilst those who are absolutely deprived of anything to drink never pass the fifth day. The difference is explained by the fact, that the latter die simply of exhaustion and weakness, whilst the former are seized by a fever, which burns them up, and keeps increasing in malignancy.

Sometimes thirst causes death in even a shorter time. In 1787, there was an instance of this in the death of one of the Swiss bodyguard of Louis XVI., caused by remaining only twenty-four hours without

drinking. He had been drinking with some companions, and because one of them blamed him for filling his glass oftener than the others, saying he could not do without drinking for even the shortest time, he laid a wager of ten bottles of wine that he would remain twenty-four hours without drinking. He kept his word; the night he passed without difficulty, but at daybreak he found it rather hard to do without his customary dram, and throughout the forenoon he was restless and uneasy, going and coming, rising up and sitting down, in a purposeless fashion, with the air of not knowing what to do. About one o'clock he went to bed, thinking he would be more at his ease; he felt in pain, and was really ill, but it was in vain for those about him to ask him to drink something—he declared he should manage all right till the evening. Besides a desire to win the wager, there was no doubt some soldierly pride which prevented him from giving way to pain. He kept up in this way till seven o'clock, but at half-past he became worse, turned himself to die, and breathed his last without being able to taste a glass of wine which was offered him.

All these details were told me the same evening by their bandmaster, Herr Schneider, at whose house I lived when in Versailles.

Bodily exertion increases thirst; hence, when a

thirst.

proprietor employs workmen, he provides a supply Causes of of something stronger than water-the proverb being, "The wine that fetches the best price, is that which is given to the labourers." Dancing increases thirst; hence the number of strengthening or refreshing drinks which always accompany balls and hops. Public speaking increases thirst; hence the glass of water which lecturers study to drink with grace, and which we shall soon see on the edge of the pulpit. Singing increases thirst; hence the universal reputation which musicians have of being indefatigable drinkers. A musician myself, I rise to oppose this prejudiced statement, as being devoid both of wit and truth.

Another active cause of thirst is the exposure to a rapid current of air; a fact which I shall illustrate by the following incident.

One day, when about to commence quail-shooting with some friends on a hill near Nantua, a north wind sprang up, and before we had been a quarter of an hour afield, every one of us was thirsty, and after a consultation it was decided that we should have something to drink every quarter of an hour. Our thirst, however, was invincible; neither wine, nor brandy, nor wine mixed with water, nor water mixed with brandy, was of the slightest use. We were thirsty even when drinking, and felt uncom

fortable throughout the whole day; whereas, on the following day, the wind having fallen during the night, we hunted a great part of the day without being inconvenienced by the thirst, though the sun's heat was quite as strong, or even stronger.

But that was not the worst of it; our flasks, though well and prudently filled on leaving home, had been so often laid under requisition the first day, that now they were as useless as bodies without souls, and we had to fall back upon what the country inns afforded. There was no help for it, yet we groaned; and it was with no gentle anathema that I apostrophized the parching wind when I saw that regal dish, épinards à la graisse de cailles, about to be washed down with a wine almost as poor as Surêne.*

*Surêne, a pleasant village on the Seine, to the west of Paris, famous for its poor wine. The saying is that it needs three men to drink a glass of Surêne wine, one to swallow, and two assistants, to keep him up and prevent him from losing heart.'

Our author has himself already spoken of it proverbially, in the second chapter, as being the greatest possible contrast to Chambertin.

It was a joke of Henry IV. to talk of his good wine of Surêne.