This was so much the case in antient times that the floor of the dining room was generally covered with scobs or sawdust to absorb what Seneca calls the purgamenta et jactus cænantium, the “excretions and discharges of the guests." The scobs became at length a point of luxury. Heliogabalus ordered the portico to be strewed in lieu of scobs with gold and silver dust, and lamented that he could not find amber enough for that purpose.