The brine most sought after was that of Antibes, of Thurium, and of Dalmatia.[XXIII_15] It was prepared with the blood and other juices which, after death, escaped from the tunny fish,[XXIII_16] mixed with garum, which rendered it more fluid and less expensive.
At the end of the repast, enigmas were often proposed to the guests. Some delicious dish served as a reward to those who were fortunate enough to guess them; the others were compelled to pour muria into their drink, and swallow a cup-full without taking breath.[XXIII_17]
DIGESTIVE SALTS.
The Romans were enormous eaters. Apicius, who was better aware of it than any one, imagined providing against those accidents to which his countrymen did not fear to expose themselves once every day, by offering to them a preparation which our habits of sobriety would, doubtless, render useless at the present day; but which the curious will not be sorry to discover in these sketches of antique gastrophagy. Take a pound of common salt, which torrefy and pulverize; mix it with three ounces of white pepper, two ounces of ginger, an ounce of lamoni, an ounce and a half of thyme, as much of celery seed, three ounces of wild marjoram, an ounce and a-half of rocket seed, three ounces of black pepper, an ounce and a-half of holy thistle, two ounces of hyssop, two ounces of spikenard, two ounces of parsley, and two ounces of anise-seed.[XXIII_18]
Take a small quantity of these salts after a too plentiful dinner; and the stomach will immediately defy the most imminent indigestion.
GARUM.
When we have read all that has been written by the ancients on this famous preparation, we become convinced, in spite of the obscurities and continual contradictions of commentators, that if garum is no longer manufactured in the present day, it is not on account of the impossibility we find in discovering the recipe of the Greeks and Latins, but solely because this rather strange brine has not the same charm for us that it had for them. Let us, however, scan the authorities.
The Greeks called the shrimp garos, the Romans garus: it may hence be supposed that garum had originally for basis the flesh of shrimps, if Pliny had not taken the trouble to inform us of the fact.[XXIII_19] It was afterwards composed of other fish, but it always retained the name which recalled its origin.[XXIII_20] In like manner the signification of certain words is now applied to things quite different from the original type: chicory, or succory, is received under the mask of coffee: a certain pottage boldly usurps the honours due exclusively to turtle soup. Nothing more easy than to multiply these examples of catachreses: there are few figures which have become so common.