The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-01
ODD THINGS EATEN.
QUEER ARTICLES OF FOOD IN
VARIOUS LANDS.
seaweed, Locusts and Wild Honey as
Staple Food Products-Hedge-
hog a Delicacy in Barbary-
Snail Soup and Stale Eggs.

flavorleSs, is ut times the cnlel 1Oou ol
some of the poorest. When dry it is
richer than oatmeal or Indian corn in
nitrogenous constituents, and takes rank
among the most nutritious of vegetable
foods. To prepare seaweed for the table
it should be stepped in water to get rid
of the salt with which it is impregnated,
and little carbonate of soda removes the
bitter taste, which to some palates is
most disagreeable. 1t should then be
stewed in milk or water till mucilaginous,
and is best favored with vinegar or pep
per. Fungi are almost everywhere
largely eaten, though in England less
attention is paid to them than they de-
serve, and few kinds appear at table. A
curious error is to suppose that fungi are
eatable and toadstools poisonous; no
such line of demarcation exists, nor,
strictly speaking, has the name toadstool
any precise meaning. Very many fungi
are edible, and the common agarlc
usually eaten in England is not the most
palatable and wholesome. Few foods
are more savory, and none are greater
faNorites, than well-cooked fungi, and
the souls of vegetarians yearn for them.
The lion is eaten by some African races,
although its flesh is in small favor with
them, while the Zulus find carrion so
much to their liking that, according to
Dr.. Colenso, they apply to food teeming
with large colonies of grubs the compre-
hensive word "uborni," which signifies,
in their uncouth jargon, ''great happi-
ness" David Livingstone tells US that
the aboriginal Australians and the Hot
tentots prefer the intestines of animals,
and he adds that sit is curious that this
is the part which wild animals always
begin with and tnat it is the first choice
of our men," The hippopotamus is an
other favorite meat Of the Africans, when
they catch it. Its flesh, when young, is
tender and palatable, butt becomes very
coarse and unpleasant with advancing
years. The Abyssinians find the rhin-
oceros much to their liking; so they do
the elephant. which is also eaten in
sumatra. DR.. Livingstone speaks of
elephants foot as excellent. "We had
the foot cooked for breakfast and found
it delicious. It is whitish mass, slightly
gelatinous and sweet, like marrow. A
long march to prevent bilousness is a
wise precaution after feast on elephants
foot. Elephants tongue and trunk arc
also good, and after long sinmering much
resemble the humps of buffalo and the
tongue of an OK, but oil the other meat
is tough, and from its peculiar flavor only
to be eaten by a hungry man." The ele-
plants eaten during the siege of Paris
we're said to be great success, and the
liver was pronounced finer than that OF
any goose or duck.
The people of Zanzibar should stand
high for the comprehensive character of
their cuisine. Among other deGcacies
are small monkey and fruit-eating
bat. Locusts are relished by the Beda-
win, of Mesopotamia, and some other
Eastern tribes; they are placed on strings
and eaten on journeys with bitter and
unleavened bread. The Jews, who were
prohibited eating many kinds of food
which our larger experience teaches are
palatable and wholesome, as we'll as
some that We do not venture to touch,
were permitted to have their fill of To-
Gusts. The locust is an article of diet to
this day, but only of the very poor; it is
thrown into boiling water and eaten with
salt. To live on locusts aud wild honey
conveys more accurate picture of ex-
treme poverty and frugality to traveller
in the East than to any one else. Lo-
Gusts, however, are not always cooked :;
sometimes they are eaten fresh. They
are said to have strong vegetable taste,
the flavor largely depending, as might be
expected, on the plants on which they
have been feeding. DR.. Livingstone,
who showed his common sense by not
being fastiduous, considered them pala-
table when roasted.
Some of the savage tribes of South
America are accused Of eating everything
that by any possibility will support
human life. Humboldt saw children
drag enormous centipedes from their
holes and crunch them between their
teeth; but insects and their larva are
favorite foods in many parts of the world.
In the West Indies a large caterpillar,
found on the palm tree, is reckoned q
great delicacy-and why not, let us ask?
To our civilized taste, however, carrion
and bad eggs seem foods which no hu-
man being could relish. Not so-thc
Chinese prefer stale to fresh eggs and
the PariaEs of Hindostan fight greedily
with the dogs and jackals for putrid
carrion. They would relish the rousette,
a kind of bat plentiful in Java, which
the natives value; but although its flesh
is white, delicate and tender, it gene
rally smells strongly of musk. The
| Nagus also cat raw meat
Among the Greenlandcrs and the
Esquimaux the seal is an important food,
and in spite of being coarse and oily was
formerly eaten in England. The por.
poise. was also an English dish, and its
liver is, when fried, still, we believe, rel
ished by sailors Arctic explorers have
found the walrus very palatable, and it
is largely consumed by the Esquimaux.
The japanese, New Zealanders and
Western Australians consider the whale
good eating, and the Esquimaux highly
approve of blubber and get through
enormous quantities. The crocodile is
grcedily devoured by the natives of GER
tain districts of Africa. 1t eggs in
taste somewhat resemble hens eggs, with
| perhaps a smack of custard.
To come to our own country. where