Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-05-28

/
What has been said in regard to birds
is quite as applicable to the fishes
of the rivers and the sea, and there is
nothing very curious or alarming in en-
ploying any of them for food, not even
excepting the varieties of shell fish.
That some few of them are poisonous
cannot be doubted, but these are such
awfully queer looking creatures, are
known by such outlandish names, and
are so rare, that they may be permitted
to pass on their way rejoicing. In the
Shetland Islands Holsters and crabs
abound, which the people catch for the
London market, but refuse to eat even
when half starved. T H-..l
English epicures consider the john
dory delicacy, but the inhabitants of
Devonshire, in England, and of Ireland
never touch them. In Scotland an eel
is rejected as if it were snake. Along
the coast of New England the sword-fish
is heartily enjoyed, but in the markets
of New York it meets with little patron
age. In FORMER times the Creoles and
Indians of South America looked with
horror upon turtle, and yet in the Uni
ted States none but the rich enjoy the
fare. aif s-l.1s ..a' 6tsl5-
4 But when we come to consider the
insect races, we find that they furnish
more food delicacies than is generally
supposed, The grub of the palm weevil
is considered as something delicious in
West Indies, in Surinam, and the island
of Mauritius; the larvae of the cocoanut
beetles are enjoyed by the inhabitants
of British Guiana, and in South Ameri-
ca and Western Africa certain mammoth
beetles are eagerly devoured, some speci-
mems of which, in former years have
been sold for English cabinets at the rate
of fifty pounds sterling; in Aus tralia
many worms, bred in decayed wood,
are collected for human food; various
members of the locust family are now,
and have been from time immemorial,
employed as food in various parts of
the world, and as they liveon vegetable
food it is difficult to understand why a
mess of grasshoppers may not be as
palatable as a dish of shrimps; curry
of ants eggs is deemed a luxury in Siam;
various kinds of water bugs are eaten
in Mexico; butterflies in Australia are
more highly esteemed for their flavor
than their beauty; spiders form an ar
ticle in the list of the bushman's dain-
ties in South Africa, and roasted spiders
are spoken of as enjoyed by the people
of New Caledonia-Lalande, the French
astronomer, having been fond of them;
and Humboldt tells us that he has seen
the centipede eagerly devoured by chill
dren in South America. In Italy cock
chafers are candied and served up with
other confectionery, and in Austria large
wood ants are served up and eaten alive,
The diversity of tastes prevailing in
different parts of the world in regard to
food would seem to confirm the proverb
that zone mans meat is another mans
poison" Invery many instances, what
is highly esteemed in one country is alb
horred in another.
Milk as an article of food Except for
sucking babies) is loathed by the South
Sea Islanders. Goats have been intro
duced into several of the islands; but
the people deride the settlers with using
the milk, and ask them why they do not
milk their sows. On the other hand,
dogs andrats are favorite articles of food
with them. AS for pork, it is on relig-
ious grounds that the Jews and Moham-
medans abstain from it, as the Hindoos
do from beef But the Christians of the
East seem to have nearly an equal aver
sion of it; and the like prevailed until
lately in Scotland.
Maj ~, T,J,o,, ao,,,, Io1 bo,,,
duced into New Zealand by the mission
aries, and the people cultivate and high
ly esteem it. But their mode of pre-
pairing it for food is to civilized people
most disgusting. They steep it in water
till it is putrid, and then make it into
kind of porridge which emits an intoler-
able stencil.
Human flesh has been and still is eat
en- in many parts. of the world, and that
by people considerably above the lowest
rank of savages, such as those in the
Feiee Islands and an Indian people
called the Batta, who are said to have
written language. And even in canni-
balism there are great diversities-some
nations eat their enemies and some their
friends. 4I
Herodotus relates that Persian king
asked the Indian soldiers that were in
his service what reward would induce
them to burn the dead bodies of their
friends instead of eating them. They,
replied by entreating him not to mention
anything so shocking. stat5a
On the other hand, the New Zealand
ers-betore their conversion, who seemed
to have considered that the proper diet
of mankind is man-were once in the
habit of eating only their enemies.
Among the Australian savages it is
said that if a mother finds a young baby
troublesome to carry about she will eat
it (although she would not allow any
one else to do SOY, under the full persua-
sion that she has merely deferred its
birth, and that the next child she bears
will be reappearance of the eaten one.
When demonstrated with she will reply:
"Oh massa. he plenty come again.
By some Arctic travellers it has been
asserted that the Esquimaux have been
known to eat their sledges when pressed
by hunger but when we remember that
these sledges are sometimes made of
frozen salmon, with skins sewed over
them, our wonder.is modified, and, in an
extremity, piece of ones sledge,
washed down with whale oil, might not
be such a dreadful tid-bit. ~
But enough 1t is time tor US to
drop this subject, as we would not whet
the appetite of our readers for luxuries
that cannot be obtained. nor cause the
over-sensitive to sup full of horrors.
The facts here chronicled will suffice to
show that man is very singular crea-
ture himself, and is in the habit of de-