The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-10-23
The Food of Primitive Man.


In the present state of research, the
earliest authentic traces of man on
earth go no further back than the age
of ice, so called, and the accompanying
or subsequent formation of the diluvium
or drift. The relics of man dating from
an earlier epoch, the upper miocene
formation, that is, the middle of the
tertiary group, which are said to have
been found in France, are at least very
questionable. But there have been pre-
served for us in cavern remains dating
from the ice age, which tells us of food
used by man in thosetime Man then in
herited Central Europe in company with
| the reindeer, cave bear, and the MAN.
moth. He was exclusively hunter and
fisher, as is shown by the bones of ami
mails found in his cave dwellings. The
mlocene formation, which abounded in
arborea1 vegetation, had disappeared
during the long period of the subse
quent pliocene formations, the climate
of Central Europe, meanwhile, having
gradually become colder. Nature sup
piled no fruit for the food of man.
What food he got by hunting and fish
ing was precarious, and there we're in
tervals of famine for fortune does not
always smile On the hunter, and the
beasts of the forest are not always equally
numerous. The fool, too, was uniform,
and not altogether ADAPTED for man, for
the flesh of wild animals lacks fat. The
man of those times had not enough of
the heat producers in his food and
that he felt this want, we learn from his
taste for the marrow of bones. All the
long bones of animals that are found in
caved dwellings are cracked open
lengthwise, in order to get out the mar
row. Now, this insufficient, uniform
food has its counterpart in the low
grade of culture which then prevailed,
as evidenced by the mode of life, the
weapons, and the tools. Man then
lived isolated, without social organiza-
tion; he dwelt in caverns, and his only
protection against cold was the skins of
animals AMI the fire on the hearth. His
tools were of stone, unpublished, I'M
adorned so rudely fashioned that only
the eye of the connoisseur can recog-
nize in them mans handiwork.
A Tyro's Experience Eating Macaroni.
A contributor to the Arcadian thus
describes his experience in eating mac
aroni
know men who have been for years
under italian tutorship in this city try
ing to learn how to swallow the food of
sunny Italy with ease and grace. But,
after all their efforts, they remind you
of an anaconda swallowing his blanket.
remember my own attempt not long
ago, in the company of Signors Muzio
and Strakosch. The delicious vernicu-
lar food came in coils one hundred feet
long. stuck my knife into it, cut off
section and swallowedit. Horror seized
upon my companions.
"Corpo di Bachhi !" exclaimed Mu-
zio. Placidamenti fzz-z dam
It is sacre !-sacrileegeT
As for Strakosch, he was petrifed
with grief and indignation. "Mein
Gott !" he exclaimed finally, "you muss
not coot him"
I leaned back in despair, looked at
the interminable food, and watched my
friends dispose of it. They reeled it on
their forks, put one end of the glutin-
GUS cable in their mouths, and paid it
out in their stomach without a bite.
The operation was a beautiful one.
It was not so much like eating as it was
like taking in stern line; but it was a
marvel of skill. tried it. / felt the
tender serpent sliding greasily down
my throat and coiling into my stomach
in contentric rings. The sensation mad
dened me. It seemed to me that [ was
eating a stomach pump. A horrible
idea seized me. What if Ishould cough
or choke with the line only half PLAYED
of it in nay stomach and part
of it on my plate-and anchored thus?
I knew that not an italian would dare
to lift sacrilegious knife and cut me
loose. Strakosch, knew, would dance
around me and warn everybody not to
coot him.
do not hesitate to say that when I |
could stand it no longer 1 fed, paying |
out as I vanished, and leaving wake of |
not unlike the tail of a comet. |