The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-11
TIE FoOD OF THE ANCIENrs.

Not one of us but has felt strong ouri-
osity about the food of the ancients Do
dorus Siculus says that the first men ranged
over the fields and woods in search of food,
like the beasts, eating every wild herb they
could find and such food as the trees pro-
duced An ancient writer affrms that the
diet of the primeval race differed according
to the productions of their respective coun-
tries; The Arcadians having lived on acorns,
the Argives on pears, the Athenians on figs,
etc. Plutarch relates that the Argives, led by
Inachus, searched the woods for wild pears to
support them. Pliny laments the savage con-
dition. of the first ages, (Which subsisted on
acorns.' Galen not only thinks these ac-
counts are true, but he tells us that "acorns
afford as good nourishment as many sorts of
grain; that in ancient times men lived on
acorns alone, and that the Arcadians con-
tinued to eat them, long after the rest of
Greece had made use of bread corn" Hero
dotus relates that upen the death of Lycur-
gus the Lacedemonines meditating the con-
quest of Arcadia, were told by the oracle
that there we're among them the best acorn
eaters, who would repel them, in case they
attempted to carry their arms thither, as
afterward happened. Is it not strange with
what perverse hallucination philosophers
and poets have ever spoken of these periods
in the history of the race as the 'golden
ages 2" At length, by what steps we
cannot know, agriculture, doubtless in
simplest, rudest FORMS began. Hesio-
dus ascribes this invention to Ceres
and admonishes the husbandman to pray to
Jupiter and TO her before he enters upon his
labors. Pliny attributes still further the in
vention of the plough, grinding corn, and
making bread to Ceres, and adds that ''Divine
honors were paid her in Attica, Italy, and
Sicily, on this account" At leugth, as the
wonderful story goes, the Creator gave man
permission TO eat the bodies of animals This
is said to have been given first to Noah in the
following words:-'' Every moving thing that
hveth shall be meat for you, even as the
green herb have given you all things" And,
immediately, another addition was made to
mans stomach indulgences. ''Noah began to
be husbandman, and he planted a vineyard,
and he drank of the wine and was drunken "
OF course he could not permit his family to
indulge in wine, until he had first fully
tested it upon himself. Might it not be poi
son ? Might it not kill? With that self -sacri-
fcing spirit so characteristic Of man, Noah
first tried it fully upon himself. Beer was dis
covered not long after. Herodotus informs
us that in the corn province of Egypt where
no vines grew, the people drank a sort of
wine made of barley. This, it is thought, is
the strong drink mentioned, together with
wine, in many places in the Old Testament
1t is thought by those who have given most
attention to the food of the original race
that different foods were introduced, much in
the following order, viz. fruits, seeds,
herbs bread milk, fish, flesh, wine, and ale:
to which may be added butter, honey. eggs,
olive oil, and cheese. '-Di0 Le,0is' Talks
About PeCp.e's Stomachs.