Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-27
TABOOED AS FOODS.
THE PECULIAR CUSTOM AND BELIEF
CALLED "TOTEMISM.u
Almost Everything Worth Eating Has at
One Time or Another Been Under the
Ban-A Frequent Cause of Religious Dis
putes and the Display of bad Blood.

putes and the Display Of BAD Blood.
In recent issue of The Evening Post
the writer noted some supcrstitions about
| bread Not less curious and interesting is
the folklore which has clustered around
the various articles Of food.
| From the days of Adam and Eve to the
present time there has been not only for
hidden fruit, but forbidden meats and
vegetables. For one reason or another
people have resolutely refused to eat any
and all kinds of flesh, fish, fowl, fruits
and plants. Thus, the apple the pear,
the strawberry, the ounce, the bean, the
onion, the leek the asparagus, the wood
| peckcr, the pigeon, the goose the deer, the
| bear, the turtle and the eel-those, to name
| only a few eatablcs, have been avoided rs
| if unwholesomc or positively injurious to
health and digestion.
| AS we all know, tho jews have long
| had "a hereditary antipatby to pork. On
the other hand, swine flesh was highly
esteemed by the ancient Greeks and Ro-
mans. This fact is revealed BY the many
| references to pig as a dainty bit Of food.
| At the great festival held annually in hon.
1r Of Demeter, roast pig was the piece de
resistance in tho bill of fare, because the
| big was the sacred animal of Demeter
Aristophanes, in The Frogs, makes one
| IF the characters hint that some Of the 9TH
| .rs smell Of roast pig" These people un-
| .ioubtedly had been ut the festival (llnown
| as the Thosmophorial and had eaten freely
Of roast pig. Those who took part in an
other Greek mystery or festival lknown ae
| the EleusiniaJ ab-taued from certain food
and. above all. from beans.
Again, as We all know, mice are es-
teemed in China and IN some parts III In
dia. But the ancient Egyptians, Greeks
and Jews abhofred mice and would not
touch mouse meat Rats and icld mice
were sacred IN old Egypt, aud were not to
be eaten on this account 50, too. in some
paris of Greece, the mouse was the sacred
animal Of Apollo and mice were fed in
his temples. The chosen people were for
hidden 10 cnt THE weasel, ana the mouse
and the tortoise after his kind These
came under the designation * unclean
animals which were 10 be avoided.
But people have abs,aiupd from eating
kinds Of flesh which could nos be called
unclean. For example, the people Ct
Thebes, as Herodo,us tells lis, abstained
from sheep. What is the matter with NUT
]
stain from certain vegetables. Indeed the
Romans sneered at those Egyptians who
did not dare 70 eat onions, leeks or garlic.
And yet the Romans themselves were su-
perstitioUs about what they ate or what
they should avoid eating.
In his Roman Questions" Plutarch
asks, why do the Iatins abstain strictly
from the flesh Of tho woodpecker." Ii
order to answer Plutarch's question cor
rectly 1t is necessary 70 have some idea OF
the peculiar custom and belief called Ito
temism. There IS a stage of society in
which people claim descent from and
kinshp with beasts birds, vegetable, and
other objects This object, which Il
totem, or family mark, they relgiousIy
abstain from eating. The members Of tie
tribe are divided into clans or stocks, each
OF which takes the name ot some animal
plant or object, as the hear, the buffalo
the woodpecker, the asparagus, and SO
forth. No member OF tho bear family
would dare u eat bear meat, but he has no
objection to eating buffalo steak Even
the marriage law is based on this belief.
and no man whose family name is Wolf
may marry woman whose family name
is also Wolf
In a general way it may be said that al
most all our food prohibitions spring from
the extraordinary custom generally called
tOtcmlSin. Mr.. swan, who was a mission
airy for many years in the Kongo FREQ
state thus describes the custom: If
were to ask the Yeke people why thew dc
not cat zebra flesh, they would reply. =.
chijila-i. G. 1t is a thing to which we
have an antipathy." or. better, ut il one
of the things which our fathers taught Us
not to eat. 80 ii seems the word bash
ilang' means the people who have an
antipathy to the leopard" the "bashi
LAMBDA, those who have an antipathv to
the dog and the "bashilanlanzefu. "
those who have an antipathy to the Gle
plant. In other words. tho members Of
those stocks refuse to eat their totcms. the
zebra, the leopard and the elephant, from
which they take their names.
The survival of antipathy to certain
foods WAS found among people as highly
civilized as the Egyptians, the Greeks and
the Romans. Quite list Of animals whose
flesh was forbidden might he drawn mn
For example, in old Egypt the sheen
could not be eaten in rhcbcs, nor the poar
IN MCndos, nor the cat in BuhaStis nor
the crocodile at OmboS nor the rat which
was sacred to Ra, the sun god However
Inc people OF one place had no scruDln.
about eating the forbidden food of another
place, and this often led to religious dis
putes and bad blood
Among the vegetables tabooed as food
by the Egyptians may be mentioned thn
onion, the garlic and the leek. I.ucin
says that the inhabitants Of Pelusium
adored the onion. According to Plinv
the Egyptians used to swear by tho leek
and The onion. .Iuvenal polles fun at those !
who thought it sin to eat them. He ak.
claims surely y very religious nation
and d blessed peace, where every garden
Is overrun with gods"
Tho suryiyals of totemism among tho
ancient Greeks arc very interesting. Fam /
HES named after animals and plants were
not uncommon. One Athenian gems. the (
loxidie, had for its ancestral plant the
asparagus. We may be sure that this plant
was tabooed as food TO every man, woman |
and child of the Ioxide.-L. j. Vance in |
New York Post
Fashions Frills,
The very latest feminine fad is the l;+tlo /