Dealers in anchovies, dealers in wine;
Dealers in figs, and dealers in hides;
Dealers in meal, and dealers in spoons (μυστριοπώλης);
Dealers in books, and dealers in sieves;
Dealers in cheesecakes, and dealers in seeds:

For who can the μυστριοπῶλαι be, but the men who sell μύστρα? So learning from them, my fine Syrian-Atticist, the use of the spoon, pray eat your groats, that you may not say—

But I am languid, weak for want of food.

101. And I have been surprised at your not asking where

[[209]]the word χόνδρος, groats, comes from. Whether it is a Megarian word, or whether it comes from Thessaly, as Myrtilus does. And Ulpian said,—I will stop eating if you will tell me by whom these Megarian, or Thessalian groats are spoken of. And Æmilianus said,—But I will not refuse you; for seeing a very splendid preparation for supper, I wish that you should arm yourself for the fray, being filled with barley like a game cock; and I wish you to instruct us about the dishes which we are going to partake of. And he, getting out of temper, said,—Whence do you get this word ἐδέσματα? for one has no breathing time allowed one while constantly forced to ask these questions of these late-learned sophists. But, says Æmilianus, I can easily answer you this question; but I will first speak of the word χόνδρος, quoting you these lines of Antiphanes, out of his Antea,—

A.What have you in your baskets there, my friend?
B.In three of them I've good Megarian groats.
A.Do they not say Thessalian are the best?
B.I also have some similago fetch'd
From the far distant land Phœnicia.

But the same play is also attributed to Alexis, though in some few places the text is a little different. And, again, Alexis says, in his play called The Wicked Woman—

There's a large parcel of Thessalian groats.

But Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis, calls soup χόνδρος, saying—

He would boil soup, and then put in a fly,
And so would give it you to drink.