At some distance from the culinary autocrat, on the opposite side, an
immense iron grate,[XXII_52] carefully supplied with wood,[XXII_53] which an unhappy slave unceasingly blows with his breath into a flame,[XXII_54] throws around its lurid glare. The Lares, grotesque figures, roughly carved in stone, protect this spot. A cock is sacrificed to them in the month of December.[XXII_55]
Some learned men have supposed that the Greeks and Romans had no chimneys; it is, however, easy to prove the contrary. Philocleo, a character in the comedy of the “Wasps” of Aristophanes, hides himself in a chimney. A slave who hears him, cries out, “What a noise there is in the pipe of this chimney!” Philocleo, being discovered, exclaims, “I am the smoke, and I am trying to escape.”[XXII_56]
Appian, speaking of the proscriptions of the triumvirs, relates that several citizens fled into the pipes of the chimneys.[XXII_57]
These two examples will preclude the necessity of more ample citations.
A vast cauldron of brass from Argos,[XXII_58] or Dodona,[XXII_59] placed on a tripod above the fireplace, furnishes the hot water required for the service of the kitchen. The frying-pan, beside it, serves in the cooking of certain delicate cakes or fish.[XXII_60]
The magiric laboratory, to which the reader is invited, is very nicely decorated with a profusion of utensils similar in every respect to our own in point of shape—such as gridirons, cullenders, dripping-pans, and tart dishes. These objects are of tolerably thick bronze, plated with fine silver.[XXII_61] Charming shells of the same metal, serve to mould the pastry,[XXII_62] which is afterwards disposed with order on the shelves of a country oven,[XXII_63] or in the upper part of the authepsa,—a kind of saucepan of Corinthian brass, of considerable value, and made with such art that its contents cook instantly and almost without fire.[XXII_64] This simple and ingenious vessel possesses a double-bottom; the uppermost one holds
DESCRIPTION OF [PLATE No. XII.]