The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1854-08-03

scul pturcd with designs by the finest ar
fists. He wore diadem Of precious
stones that lie might resemble a beautiful
woman. lie is said to have been the
first Roman who wore robes of entire
silk. lie never, it is said, wore ring
for more than one day, or twice put on
the same shoes.
In his more refined and elegant luxu-
ries he was the rival of the ancient Dem
ctrius Poliocrctcs. He had beds and
couches of roses, and walked amongst
lilies, volets, hyacinths and narcissuses.
When he wished to add the piquant fla
yor Of cruelty to his eJoyments, ne would
stihe courtier to death in a bed af flow
ers. He swan in water pcrfumed with
saffron mad precious unguents; and wine
and aromatics were poured into his fish
ponds and his baths.
In eating and drinking he appears not
so much as a glutton, but as the chief of
all royal cpicures; the equal in gastrou-
omic science Of the renowned Apicus. He
joined with all who studied the pleasure
of the palate in admiration of the dish
which the Romans made of the tcats Of
new farrowed pig; the mostscelebrated of
ancient luxuries. After the example Of
Apicus he INDUCED in dishes made of
tender parts Of the hell Of the camel, and
of combs torn from the heads of living
cocks. This latter delicacy, Cassaubon
in his commentary on the passage in the
Augustan historian in which it is refer
red to, tells Us, is at this day-that is
his day, two hundred years ago-passion-
sionately sought after by men of learned
paates. Like ViteIlius he seems to have
had his appetite whetted by the expcn-
siveness of the dishes which he procured;
and like him he took pleasure in sac
rifcing the rare and most beautiful birds
for the sake of eating their heads their
brains, or their tongues. At one enter
tainment he displayed on his table the
heads of six hundred ostriches, whose
brains, as well as those of the famiugo
and thrush, were amongst his favorite re
pasts lie also INDUCED in the tongues
Of peacocks and nightingales, believing
that they had medical virtue in avert
ing epilepsy lie also made dishes Of
the entrials and sometimes Of the beads
of the mullet, Of the eggs Of ratridges,
and the herds Of pheasants, Peacocks and
parrots. We wonder at the destruction
of creatures 50 lovely to the sight as the
peacock, the hamingo and the pheasant,
for the particle of delicate eating to be
got from them; but epicurism and glut
tony consume and destroy all other
tastes.
The Able Dubois, in his curious work
on India notices with regret that the
prospect Of the immense influence over
the minds of the Hindus which they
would have acquired if they would only
have consented to abstain from one single
article of food-the flesh of the COW; the
representative on earth of the goddess
Bhayant, would not restrain the English
from horrifying the heather by eating
that one article, even in the unsavory
condition in which it is found in India
A devout Danish missionary, of the Nor
vaian sect, is still more severe on the same
subject. He tells us that when an Eng
lish child is shown any pretty bird or
fish, It's first question about it is: Is 1t
good for eating?'
We presume that Ueliogabalus knew
the rich merits Of the goose's liver, tho
he may have been ignorant of that ter
rible cruelty which Christian cooks, in
modern times, are fully of practising to
please Christian paates in the prepara-
ton of the celebrated fat liver; but it is
recorded of him that while he put grapes
into his horses managers and fatteued his
lions on parrots and pheasants, he fed his
dogs with the livers of geese.
The genius of IIeliogabalus shone par
ticularly bright in the cooking of fish,
In this department he is said to have In
vented new modes unknown to Apicius:-
but with refined hatred of things com.
mon and cheap, he would never taste fish
at all when near the sea, but always toof
delight in them when far removed from
water, Just as he took a fancy to have
snow brought to him in midsummer. HC
offered rewards for the discoveries Of new
dishes of exquisite flavor, and he had
numerous way of stimulating the inven
ton of those around him in this science
When a courter, after cxcrting his best
skill to please him, produced a dish which
he did not relish, he made the ingeniou
artist himself eat of that dish, and moth
ing else, till his faculties, sharpened b,
disgust, enabled him to find out some
thing superior for his master.
Like Nero and Caligula, Heliogabalu
had his jocularitios-generally practica
ones-something merely absured, some
thing Enthusiastically cruel. His mos
harmless entertainments in this way con
sisted of the suppers which he would Civ
one night to eight men all of them bin
Of one eye, something to eight bald, some
{ thing to eight afflicted with gout, then t.
: eight lean men, eight black men, elgh
! tall men, and eight fat men. lie keP
lions aud leopards, which lay at the ta6'
) with him, in order to trighten his friends
\, He would get company filled with drink
and after locking them up for the nigh
! would let loose amongst them lions, leop