The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-04-02

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.
English epicures consider the john
dory q 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
patronage.
In former times the Creoles and Indl-
ans of South America looked with horror
upon turtle, and yet in the United
States none but the rich enjoy the fare.
But, when we come to consider the IN
sect races, we find that they furnish
more food delicacies than is generally
supposed. The grub of the palm weev1
is considered as something delicious In
the West Indies, in Surinam, and the
Island of AIauritius the larvae of the
cocoanut beetles are enjoyed by the
inhabitants of British Guiana, and In
South America and Western Africa GER
tain mammoth beetles are eagerly de-
!
former years, have been sold for
English cabinets at the rate of ESQ; in
Australia, many worms. bred in decayed
wood, are collected for human food va
rious members of the locust family are
now, and have been from time imnemo-
rial, employed as food in various parts of
the world, and, as they live on vegetable
food, it is difficult to understand why q
mess of grasshoppers may not be as pala-
table as dish of shrimps q curry of ants
eggs Is deemed 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 article in the
list of Bushmen's dainties in South At
rica, and roasted spiders are spoken of
as enjoyed by the people of New Gale
donia-Lalande, the French astronomer,
having been fond of them-and Hum
boldt tells us he has seen the centipede
eagerly devoured by the children in
South America.
In Italy cockchafers 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 " one mans meat is another man s
j poison" In very 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 and rats are favorite articles OF
food with them, As for pork, it Is on
/ religious grounds that the Jews and Mo.
/ harnmedans abstain from it, as the Hin
/ of the East seem to have nearly an equa
! aversion to it and the like prevailed
until lately in Scotland.
Maize or Indian corn has been intro
duced into New Zealand by the mission
| aries, and the people cultivate and highly
esteem it. But their mode of preparing
it for food is, to civilized people, mos
disgusting. They steep it in water unit
it is putrid, and then make it into kint
of porlidge which emits an intolerablt
stencil.
4 Human flesh has been and still is eater
III many parts of the world, and that b,
the people considerably above the loves
rank of Savages, such as those in tn
the Batta, who are said to have a writer
language. And even in cannibalisn
there are great diversities nation
eat their enemies and some their friends
Herodotus relates that Persian Kin,
asked the Indian soldiers that were il
his service what reward would induc
them to burn the dead bodies of thei
friends instead of eating them. The,
replied by entreating him not to mention
I anything so shocking.
On the other hand, the New Zealand
ers-before their conversion, who scenes
to have considered that the proper die
of mankind is man-were once in tn
habit of eating only their enemies.
Among the Australian savages it
said that if mother finds young bab,
troublesome to carry about, she will ca
it (although she will not allow any on
else to do SOY, under the full persuasion
) that she merely deferred its birth, an
that the next child she bears will be
reappearance of the eaten one. Whel
demonstrated with she will reply: ts Oh
massa, he plenty come again!'
By some Arctic travellers it has bee
asserted that the EsquimaT1x have bee
known to eat their sledges when presse,
with hunger but when we remembe
that these sledges are made of troze
salmon, with skins sewed over them
our wonder is modified. and, IN an ez
tremity, a piece of one sledge, washes
8 down with whale oil, might not be sue
dreadful tit-bit.