And Menander says, in his Trophonius—

A.This feast is for a guest's reception.
B.What guest? whence comes he? for those points, believe me,
Do make a mighty difference to the cook.
For instance, if some guests from the islands come
Who always feed on fish of every sort
Fresh from the sea, such men like not salt dishes,
But think them make-shifts. Give such men their food
Well-season'd, forced, and stuff'd with choicest spices.
But if you ask a guest from Arcady
[[218]] He is a stranger to the sea, and loves
Limpets and shell-fish;—but the rich Ionian
Will look at nought but Lydian luxuries,
Rich, stimulating, amatory meats.

10. The ancients used food calculated to provoke the appetite, as for instance salt olives, which they call colymbades: and accordingly Aristophanes says, in his Old Age—

Old man, do you like flabby courtesans,
Or tender maidens, firm as well-cured olives?

And Philemon, in his Follower, or Sauce, says—

A.What did you think, I pray, of that boil'd fish?
B.He was but small; do'st hear me? And the pickle
Was white, and much too thick; there was no smell
Of any spice or seasoning at all,
So that the guests cried out,—How pure your brine is!

They also eat common grasshoppers and the monkey grasshopper as procreatives of the appetite. Aristophanes says, in his Anagyrus—

How can you, in God's name, like grasshoppers,
Catching them with a reed, and cercopes?[218:1]

But the cercope is a little animal like a grasshopper or prickly roach, as Speusippus tells us in the fourth book of his Similitudes; and Epilycus mentions them in his Coraliscus. And Alexis says in his Thrason—

I never saw, not even a cercope
A greater chatterer than you, O woman,
Nor jay, or nightingale, or dove, or grasshopper.