Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-06-27
FOOD FANCIES.
CAPRICE AND SUPERSTITION
RULE THE APPETITE.
PreIudiccs Against Articles That arc
Both savory and Wholesome
People Who Starved Rather
Than Eat Cornmcal.

Than Eat Cornmcal.
The superstrict Buddhist viii not esi
desh at all, because the life that animated
the creature is part of the universal lit
that animates all creatures, from winch
each in turn abstracts the supply for the
purposes of its temporal existence. To
eat of the creature is therefore a kind Of
cannibalsm Of the second degree, and
your Buddhist will none of it. The com.
monalty of them do not go so far. They
may eat meat between sunrise aud noon.
Everybody knows of the totems OF
North American Indians, but not quite
everybody has bcea interested to learn
that totemism is nearly universal with
savage man. No savage will eat the ami
NAL that represents his own clan; thus
some abstain from turtles and tortoises,
Others from the beaver, others from the
raccoon or 'possum, others from the
partridge, and SO on through the scale of
animal being.
To kill and eat the flesh Of kline is con-
sidered among non-Mahometan Hlndus
one of the most heinous crimes. This
arose from the COW being the preferred
beast for sacrifice. Long ago the COW
played the same part US the fatted calf
among the Jews in showing hospitality,
and beef was a staple article of diet. The
use of the COW for sacrifice preceded
Brahminism, and was an aborigional rite.
4 ,hn hn5 attached 70 har
for some centuries.
Why the ancient Egyptians generally
abstained from pork has not yet been
learned, but it is certain that there was a
rcpugnance to it among them, and those
who bred the animal and ate its flesh were
despised. Along with SO much more
of the wisdom Of the Egyptians" this
| discrimination against swine passed into
the Institutes OF Moses for the government
of the Jews. He included the camel in
the inhibition, an animal not used for
domestic purposes by the Egyptians,
thong it had been already introduced
10 their country in Moses time. 1t is
/ conlectured that the herds of swine men.
toned in the Gospels may have been kept
by Gentiles.
Among North American Indians some
Hurons would not eat Of the remnants Of
food left in cooking vessels, nor Of that
offered at funeral feasts, in order that the
spirits of the dead might nave a chance
! at both. At the end OF the Bulgarians'
Palm Sunday feast at the cemeteries they
lao -, hat Ioa hny
on To" graves for the dead who are cx.
pected during the night. In Tyrol, on
All Souls night, some of the cakes must
be left on the table for the souls released
from Pur' tory for that night. In Brit.
tany, on the same night, the tabecloth
must not be drawn, and supper must be
left for the souls to come and take their
part In North Deccan and India, the
blood, supposed to be the life of the ami
NAL, is offered to the gods; the flesh is
eaten. The Hottentots used sometime:
to boil their meat in blood TO which some
milk had been added. Moses forbade
the Jews to seethe the kid in its mother,
milk, n mode which therefore was evi.
IDENTIFY known to them. The EsquimauS
drink blood when they can get it.
Among the DayaSs young men abstain
from the flesh of the deer lest it make
them timid, aud before u pig hunt they
avoid oil lest the game slip through theil
fingers. Amoug some South American
indians the warriors will not eat the fest
Of slow going and cowardly animals.
Many irish starved during the great
famine rather than eat the meal of Indian
corn which was rent them from Amcric,
after the wheat and other food they hat
themselves grown had been seized by thei
absentee English landlords and shipped
out of their island. In part their alb
stinence from the Indian meal WAS due t
their alleged inability TO cook it-a curl
Gus commentary on mental condition
But many thousands died OF starvation
rather than attempt to eat food new t
their experience.
The starvation in France during tn,
thirty years preceding the Revolution
must have been disastrous but for the dis
semination of the potato. But the ply
stefan who introduced the tuber barrel,
escaped with his life from mob that be
lieved he was meaning to poison them
Itappears that some peasants had stolel
some of the vines out OF the doctor!
garden, which they cooked, supposinG
the stalk and leaves to be the edible part
and were made ill. The doctor fnall,
introduced the root by pursuading tn,
King to let it appear on his own table
whereupon all the courtiers fell to grow
ing potatoes, and the cause of the potato
was won. -New York Sun.