The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1885-05-20
Curiosities of Omnivorous Mankind.

1
| From Land and Water.
There are numerOus-we had almOs
said numberless- euriosities in cOnnec
ton with eating and drinking, evel
although our observations are restricte,
to the human family. IL our natura
teeth are examined at maturity, the,
are found to point out their possessor "a
omnivorous, and if they did otherwise
We should in the face OF the following
facts, regard them as false indicators
or, i'm other words, fslse teeth. Bee
and bread are the typical foods in th,
British Isles, but nowhere else; almost
every country has its own typical foods
together with miscellaneous articles q
food Of all descriptions. Dogs's flesh
eats, monkeys, birds nests, are al
savory morsels of the Chinese. The
hedgehog is regarded Us dainty dish
TO set before a king" in Barbary, and j,
largely consumed in Spain and Germa
ny. Kangaroos are relished by the
aborigines of Australia. The opOssum
IL eaten i'm America, Australia, and the
Indian islands. The walrus is eaten by
the Esquimaux whilst whales flesh
is eaten almost by all who inhabit
regions far north or south, where
whales are found. Mice and rats are
considered delicate morsels i'm parts oI
Asia, Africa, Australia, and New
Zealand. Horseflesh is gradually find.
ing favor, and has for long formed
quite the staple flesh food of the Indian
horsemen of the Pampas, who eat
neither bread, fruit, nor vegetables
The elephant is eaten in Abyssinia and
in Sumatra. Three elephants were
eaten by the Parisians during the siege,
and were considered delicious, the liver
more especially so. DIR. Livingstone
says he breakfasted off cooked ele-
plants foot and found it a whitish
mass, slightly gelatinous and sweet,
like marrow, and quite delicious. The
birds nests We have spoken of as being
consumed by the Chinese are procur-
able even in some London shops. They
are the nests of swallows found In cav
ems on the seashoie of the Eastern
Archipelago, and are of a gelatinous
nature, from a peculiar mucus which
the bird secretes and discharges from
its mouth whilst building the nest.
Lizards again are partaken of by the
Chinese; so are snakes. Spiders are
relIshed by Bushmen, so are grasshop.
pers. LOcusts are eaten, both in the
fresh state and sailed, by Persians,
Egyptians, Arabians, Bushmen, and
North American Indians. White ants,
bees, moths, caterpillars, and grubs, all
find admirers, especially among the
lower savages. We have not got to
the lowest depths yet. karth-eating is
practised by the Japanese, who make
it into thin cakes called tonddDlpO, and
eaten especially by the women, who
take it to produce slenderness of figure.
1t is generally unctuous clay, consist
ing of the remains of animal and plant
life deposited from fresh water. In
northern Europe bread meal, consist
ing of the empty shells of minute
iufusOrial animalcules, is eaten. The
Wanyamwezi, a tribe living in central
Africa, eat clay between meals, pre-
/ hn Alax, - MT hilla
earth-eaters take earth having no nu-
TRENT properties. Agmara Indians, for
example, eat a gritty whittish clay,
destitute of all nutrient properties.
Tropical America is the scene of endem-
ic disorders from this depraved dirt
eating habit. Officers who have Indian
children in their employ use wire
masks TO keep them from putting clay
into their mouths. "A negro addicted
to this propensity is considered to be
irrevocably lost for any useful purpose,
and seldom lives long"
The quantity of food taken is also u
matter of curiosity when we have WELL
authenticated instances of the extremes
Of going a long time without food at
all, in eating next to none, and the
other extreme of eating enormous
quantities. In Siberia, sir George
Simpson procured couple of men hav-
ing reputation for eating large guam
titles, and prepared dinner for them
of thirty-six pounds avorduPois of beei
and eighteen pounds of butter for each.
BY the end of the first hour their
"stomachs were like kettle-dTums,"
having taken half the dinner; in an
other two hours they had devoured the
/. whole dinner of one hundred and eight
pounds of beef and butter. Those who
eat so enormously are in a state OF
stupor for three or four days, neither
eating nor drinking, and rolled about
with a view to promoting digestion.
Barrow says the Hottentots eat enor-
mously sometimes: "Ten of our Hot
tentots ate middliDg>sized OK, all but
the two hind-.egs, in three days" And
again "Three Bosjesmans had sheep
given to them about five in the evening,
which they partoOk of all through the
night without ceasing for sleep, and
finished by noon the next day" On
the other hand, in Shetland a number
of the paupers getting Is. and Is. Cd. a
week outdoor relief, manage to live
upon it year in and out, though food is
just as dear as in any other part OF
Scotland, sundry cups of tea apd a
half-penny biscuit constituting a days
eating on many days, for they have
fuel to buy out of their money in cases
where they cannot fetch the peats in
from the hills themselves.
No doubt We pass over edible things
through Ignorance of their properties.
Thus, oranges are mostly regarded AS