Note 523 — Chapter III · FOOD OF HOMERIC TIMES—MEAT, FISH, ETC.

Paus. viii. 1. 6. Pliny observes that the fruit of the fagus is sweet “dulcissima omnium glans fagi.” Hist. Nat. xvii. 6. Cf. Lucian. Amor. § 33. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 8, 2. This Arcadian dainty is still eaten in Spain. “In some parts (of Navarre) the mountains are girt at their base by forests of chestnut trees or of the Spanish oak called encina, whose acorn roasted, is as palatable as the chestnut.” (A Campaign with Zumalacarregui, i. 40.) The same writer observes, that the fruit of the ever-green arbutus, in shape like a cherry, though insipid and intoxicating in its effects, is also eaten by the omniverous Spaniards, p. 51. See also Laborde’s Itinerary of Spain, iv. 80, and Capell Brooke’s Travels, ii. 72.