than by their lords. The only person I know
of as having believed she had succeeded in
cultivating truffles is a female horticulturist,
as you shall hear by-and-by. I once saw
in the streets of a town that stands in the
centre of a truffle-growing district, a truffle-
hunter arrive one blazing afternoon, with his
bag of treasure-trove hanging over his
shoulder, followed by his pert little truffle-
dog and his attendant humble comrade,
carrying the long-handled stub or spade
wherewith the cryptogamic nuggets had been
brought to light and to kitchen glory. The
landlord of the hotel where I stayed (a cook
worthy of apotheosis after death, which I
hope won't take place till I have had the
opportunity of eating a few more of his
dinners) caught sight of him, and laid hands
upon his bag.

"How much the pound?" he asked, in a
quarter of a syllable and an eighth of a breath.

"Five francs," said the fungus-finder,
indifferently.

"I will take them all," slowly and solemnly
interposed from behind a richly-dressed, hat-
wearing lady of fifty. "Follow me to the
house, young man."

There was determination in her eye and
command in her voice.

"But, madame, I—- " protested the
landlord-cook.

"Certainly, if monsieur absolutely cannot
do without," rejoined the decided dame; till
a contest of politeness rose as to who should
yield the truffle of discord. She was so
excessively polite, so thoroughly resolved not
to vex and annoy M. Mayonnaise by
robbing his table d'hôte of its handsomest
dish, that the poor Frenchman had no help
for it. She sailed away with the truffle-
hunter, the wiry little dog, the spade-bearing
Pylades, and the whole bag of truffles,
driving them before her for safety's sake. We
had no truffles for dinner that day.

Are truffles invigorating, restorative, and
exciting meats ? French popular literature
sets up an unanimous shout in the affirmative;
and yet the matter is far from clear.
About truffles there is nothing proved nor
certain; they are the Cynthias of the minute
whom you must catch in a cloud, and do the
best you can with them afterwards. My
own medical attendant, whom I have
confidentially consulted as to the constitutional
effects of truffles, says: As restoratives,
truffles are almost always taken in combination
with Tokay, Burgundy, and other
powerful wines; it may, therefore, be the
wine alone which produces the beneficial
effect, if any. They are not in themselves at
all exciting, any more than mushrooms,
morels, laver, cheese-mould, fern-root, bird's-
nest soup, or any other cryptogamous condiment
—and yet they are. You never dream
of eating truffles when you are quietly
supping or dining alone or in family. When
you eat truffles, it is always at a grand
entertainment, with abundance of succulent and
high-seasoned dishes, with extra wine both
in quantity and quality, and under the mental
spur applied by cheerful, witty, and imaginative
conversation. I therefore do think that
after you have been feasting on truffles, it
will be only prudent to exercise all the self-
control and circumspection you can. But he
did not hint a single word about repudiating
truffles, friendly dinners, or little suppers to
a moderate amount.

My gentle readers will now perceive that
there is more in truffles than they expected to
find beneath their dingy warty skin. Well
might the Messieurs Moynier fire up
indignantly in the preface to their complete
Treatise on the Truffle (only four hundred octavo
pages): Many persons with whom we have
conversed about our work, have held this language
to us. But there can't be much to say about
such a limited subject, can there ? Observations
like that caused us to re-read our
manuscript several times; and we searched hard
to discover lengthinesses and superfluities
which required to be cut out or abbreviated.
But we have found nothing of the kind. We
have judged it indispensable to say all and
to print all. In France, the influential
effects of truffles spread like oil over the
waters of society. They have even given
their name to an epoch: Villèle's ministry
was called the ministère truffé. A truffled
pâté or a truffled fowl will suffice to soothe
an angry friend, to open the doors of a future
father-in-law, and even to turn the key
inside the lock of official gateways. Turkeys
in their natural state are a source of immense
revenue. By their aid, many a farmer pays
his rent, many a farmer's daughter saves her
dowry. But in the mere financial view of
the question, truffled turkeys claim special
notice. Thirty years ago it was calculated
that from the beginning of November to the
end of February there were consumed in
Paris three hundred truffled turkeys per
day, or a total of thirty-six thousand. The
average price of every turkey so prepared
was at least twenty francs, or seven hundred
and twenty thousand francs in all—a pretty
tolerable sum to be put in circulation by the
partnership between a single species of bird
and fungus. An equal amount of money
was assumed to be laid out in the purchase
of the truffled fowls, pheasants, chickens, and
partridges which tantalise the appetites of
francless men from the windows of restaurants,
roasters, and charcutiers. The latter's
displays have often caused me to observe that
the close relations between truffles and pigs
are both curious, retributive, and reciprocal.
Piggy was the first to discover the truffle for
his own private eating; man took the truffle
away, and ate it himself; and man's dog
pushed the pig on one side, and helped his
master in truffle-hunting instead. The pork-
butcher now unites the two old acquaintances
in one common grave—the pâté, sausage,