. Six and one abroad. ere in waiting inthe parlor, there are skeletons of tiny chicks, of mice, of cowsand swine, and snakes and tortoises, each a rattling good clewto the mystery of Pompeiian life, which by the way, withthese revelations is not such a mystery after all. That they had cooks in those days wdio were equal to thedemands of the most fastidious epicures is proven by a certainfine plump cake that found its way into the Museum from thedining room of a Pompeiian merchant. What a fine specimenof culinary skill it is? Exactly of similar shape and size tothose our best cooks prepare, sev
. Six and one abroad. ere in waiting inthe parlor, there are skeletons of tiny chicks, of mice, of cowsand swine, and snakes and tortoises, each a rattling good clewto the mystery of Pompeiian life, which by the way, withthese revelations is not such a mystery after all. That they had cooks in those days wdio were equal to thedemands of the most fastidious epicures is proven by a certainfine plump cake that found its way into the Museum from thedining room of a Pompeiian merchant. What a fine specimenof culinary skill it is? Exactly of similar shape and size tothose our best cooks prepare, several strata high, bulging watlileaven, covered with icing and bearing the mark of some orna-ment on its top, a slice missing out of a triangular section ofits side, crumbs on the plate and the very knife at hand thatproduced them, this cake comes as near actually speaking tous of the domestic life of those early days and of the hurry andalarm which followed the eruption as any of the dumb relics 176 Six and One Abroad. Pompeii 177 of that remarkable morgue. It should be added, though, thatit is black with age and hard as sandstone now, and doubt-less as unpalatable. Then, there is flour, and a kind of grits, and nuts inabundance, salt and spices and sundry indispensibles of thepantry, each black with carbonization but maintaining itsoriginal shape and easily identified from its similarity to cor-responding articles of the present time. But by far the most interesting feature of Pompeii is thehuman beings that have been dug from the ashes. Only alittle over half of the city appears to have been exhumed andyet, it is officially asserted, more than six hundred humanskeletons have been found. An account of the pressing cir-cumstances that delayed these unfortunates until it was toolate to escape would make an interesting story if we but knewit. But in lieu of the written story, thanks to a lucky dis-covery, we are enabled to guess quite accurately, we think,the tragic circumstances
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