ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING.

In Vol. ii., p. 286., an allusion is made by a correspondent to the following verses of the comic poet Crobylus, in reference to the antiquity of smoking:

Α. "Ἐγὼ δὲ πρὸς τὰ θερμὰ ταῦθ' ὑπερβολῇ

Τοὺς δακτύλους δήπουθεν ἰδαίους ἔχω,

Καὶ τὸν λάρυγγ' ἥδιστα πυριῶ τεμαχίοις.

Β. "Κάμινος, οὺκ ἄνθρωπος."

Athen I. p. 5. F.

The two last verses are thus rendered in the passage referred to:

"And I will sweetly burn my throat with cuttings;

A chimney, not a man."

Athenæus is describing the fondness of the ancient gourmands for eating their food extremely hot. As they had no forks, but, like the modern Orientals, carried their food to their mouth with their fingers, one Pithyllus used gloves in order to avoid burning his fingers. (Ib. I. p. 6. D.)

In the second line there is a pun upon the word ἰδαῖος which is explained to mean "cold"—the allusion being to the Idæan Dactyli. (See Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gr., vol. iv. p. 568. Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 1181.) The passage is to be translated thus:

A. My fingers are fire-proof against these exceedingly hot morsels, and I delight in burning my throat with slices of fish.

B. "A furnace, not a man."

In v. 3. πυριῶ is the word properly applied to steaming in a vapour-bath; and τέμαχος or τεμάχων is a slice or cutlet of fish. (See Aristoph. Nub. 339.) In v. 4. κάμινος must not be rendered "chimney". It is a furnace or oven, and not even a stove or hearth, as Scott and Liddell remark in v. The ancient Greeks, and probably the Romans likewise, were unacquainted with chimneys. (See Beckmann, Hist. of Inventions, art. "Chimneys," and Smith's Dict. of Greek and Rom. Ant., art. "House".) The meanings of the Latin word caminus are explained by Beckmann (Ib., vol. i. p. 301. ed. Bohn). The short poem of κάμινος ἢ κεραμίς, attributed to Homer (Epig. 14.), illustrates the meaning of the word κάμινος. In these verses it is a furnace used for baking pottery.

Crobylus was not earlier than Olymp. 114. B. C. 324. (See Meineke, Ib., vol. i. p. 490.)