The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-08-25
WHAT PEOPLE EAT.


What people eat is q subject which would
fill an encyclopaedia, but still the great
variety in diet in different parts of the world
is well illustrated in few cases of exhibits
in what is known as the section of food at
the National Museum. The labels if print
ed one after another would make q strange
bill of fare that would astopish guest at a
modern hotel. One could order from such
a bill cake of dried seaweeds from Alaska,
prairie potatoes or bread root from the
northwest coast, an edible birds nest from
Siam, smoked trepang or sea cucumber
from China, and perhaps soup made of a
sharks fin from China and porpoise saul
sage from Philadelphia. He could have
loaf of bread made by grinding tho pods of
Mesquite beans and baking the dough in
squaw's hat. He could have delicious look
ing bars or rolls of vegetable isinglass from
Japan, and if his meat was tough he could
have cooked with it an infusion of the
leaves and fruit of the Jamaica papaw tree,
which, it is claimed, makes the toughest
steak tender. He could regale himself ON
bread fruit and other delicious native pro-
|
with his dessert cakes made by Alaska In.
dams by drying and pressing blackberries.
Thus he could go ON changing his order
from day to day, and each day finding
something new to delight or surprise his
palate. In most cases the surprise would
exceed the delight. The articles used for
food by different peoples, and especially
the barbarous or semi-ciwilized nations,
among whom caterers who search the
markets of the world for delicacies are I'M
known, seem to depend more upon the
supply than upon the tastes of the people.
On the Northwest coast, where Nature is
not prodigal, the Indians subsist chiefly
upon fishing and hunting. For vegetables
they have such things as dried and leathery
looking seaweeds, lichens, fern roots, which
are roasted; cakes of spruce bark and other
dry, tough and uninviting roots and leaves.
Among the Neeshenam Indians crude salt,
obtained from brine, is roasted. The Zunis
prepare salt which is of dirty color The
seaweeds prepared by the Northwest coast
Indians are pressed into cakes and dried in
the sun. The Chinese like the dish and
prepare 1t ON the Pacific coast of America
for shipment home to China. One species
of kelp used by the Indians of st. Paul's
Island, Alaska, is chewed, just as white
men or good many of them use tobacco.
Indians on the Columbia River make bread
out of moss gathered from spruce fir trees.
Among the Apaches favorite dish is made
of eloverseed and leaf, which are eaten raw
or cooked. The Moqnis and Zuns DIR,
peaches, after removing the stones, and
preserve them in that way Some of the
Indians make dishes of rose pods and seeds.
Berries of dark color, known rs cloud ber
ries, are dried and pressed into cakes by
the Northwest coast Indians The Neeshe
nam Indians, of California, like mush
rooms, which they prepare by boiling. They
also like truffles, which they find under
| ground or in thickets, and eat raw or roasted
Grape roots are made into wine by Indians
of Southern California Many kinds of
seeds are utilized by Indians to give variety
to their fare. The Oregon Indians eat the
pond lily seed capsules. Large water lily
seeds, or You-ka-pin nuts, are eaten by
Arkansas Indians in the form of mush on
baked in cakes. The Pai-utes eat cakes
made of service berries. The berries are
sometimes pounded up with grasshoppers,
which impart additional flavor to the cakes.
These Indians also eat licorice root, roast
I'd and pounded, and very thorny goose
berries, which have to be softened by scald-
ing. The Neesheham Indians prepare horse
chestnuts by steaming them in pits The
manzinita berries and mesquite beans form
q staple article of food among many tribes
of Indians in the Southwest. The berries
and beans are ground up into flour and
cooked in cakes or loaves. Many other
kinds Of beans and seeds are used in the
same way. Among some Indians of Arizonn
md California gourds are ground into -four.
In New Mexico, Arizona and Utah the In.
dams est dried melons and pumpkins. The
cactus fruit and seed enter into many
preparations. Black looking cakes known
as Tuna cheese, and sold throughout Mex
leo, are made of cactus fruit. Prickly pears
are used extensively by California Indians.
they are preserved by drying and their
seeds are ground into meal. The prickly
pears were introduced into California by the
Catholic fathers and are cultivated by the
Indians. A loaf or cake of bread made by the
Nez Perces Indians from ground kause root
looks Us tough and inedible as an oak plank.
Sunfower seeds are ground into -four and
made into bread by some California In
dams. Powdered sassafras leaves were origi-
ually used by Cboctaws, and were introduc-
I'd by them as an article of food to the white
| settlers of New Orleans. Various kinds OF
meats are used by the Indians. In Cali
fornia acorns are eaten. In seasons OF
scarcity the Indians get the acorns that are
stored away in the trunks of trees by wood
peckers- The Apaches make bread out of
| juniper berries and the Navajoes eat clay
| with their potatoes. Some Of the California
Indians eat pine cones. In China very
Inc white -four ia made of white beans.
The Japanese make bread in thin, white
waters, very palatable looking. snails are
eaten in England and Europe, and consid-
cred great delicacy. Among other strange
articles of food are shrimps sailed and dried
in tho sun by the Chinese, dried cephala-
pods imported from China and sold by Chi
nese merchants in San Francisco, eggs pre-
served in brine by the Chinese, shark fins
shredded and prepared for use in soups,
reindeer meat dried and pounded by the
Nashope Indians, sun dried turtle from
Jamaica, pemmican made Of buffalo meat,
barnacle shells gathered for food by the
Northwest coast Indians, and variety of
other curious articles of food used in
different parts Of the world
NO Further Need OF That Doctor.
j Husband (telephoningl-.sM NY wife has q