Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-06-01
CONDEMNED AS FOOD
NEARLY EVERYTHING woRTH EAT
ING HAS SeCM UNDER a BAN.

From tho Dnys of Adam There I'm,
Been No. Only Forbidden Fruit, but
Forbidden Meats nnd vc.ctu:,tcs.
The Peculiar belief OF 'rotcmtsmu
From the days OF Adam and Eve to
The present time there las been not
only forbidden fruit, bat Forbidden
meats and vegetables. For one reu-
son or another people have reso!utcIy
refused TO eat any ana all kinds or
flesh, fish, fowl, fruits ana plants.
Thus the apple. the pear, The strlwber-
~, the ounce, the bean. the onion, this
leek, the asparagus. the woolpcchcr,
the pigeon, the goose, the deer. the bear.
the turtle AMI the eel these, To name
only few eutnblcs; lave been avoid
cd MS il unwholcsoMp or positively in.
furious to health ami digestion.
as we MI know, the Jews have long
Tad hereditary antipathy TO pork. On
the other hand, SWINGS iinsh was high
ly esteemed by the ancient Greeks and
Romans. This fact is revealed by the
many references To pig rs Il dainty Bit
OF food. At the great festiva! held an
nually In honor OF Dcmctcr roast nj.
was the piece dc resistance III the bin
of fare because the pig was Tie sacred
animal OF lc!ncter. Arstophancs Il,
1.-The Frogs. makes one Of tie char.
acters hint that some OF Tie c,tLers
smell OF roast pig" These people M
,do"btedly had been at tie festival.
known us the Thrsuioplloria. ana ..a.i
eaten freely Of roast pig. Those who
took part III another Greek mystery or
festival known rs the E!cusinia, alb.
stained from certain food and, above
all, from beans.
Again. as we all know, mice are es-
tecnied In China and in some parts OF
India. but the ancient Egyptians,
Greeks anu Jews abliovred mice AMI
would not touch mouse meat Rats and
field mIc were sacred in old Egypt
and We're not TO be eaten OH this nc.
count So, too. In some parts OF Greece.
the mouse WAS the sacred animal OF
Apollo, and mice We're fed In his ten
pies. The chosen people were forbid.
den to cat The weasel and Tie mc,lS0
and tho tortoise after his kind" These
came under the designation OF unclcan
Fat people lave abstancl from CIT.
ing kinds OF flesh which could not be
called unclcan. For example. the people
of ThcbcS. rs l!cr0dotus tells us, alb.
stained from sheep. What i; the mat.
ter with mutton chops? Then, the an.
clients used to abstain from certain
vegetables. Indeed, the Romans snccr-.
ed M those Egyptians who did not dare
To eat onions, lccks OF garlic, and yet
The Nomans themselves were supcrsti-
tious about what they nto or what they
should avoid eating.
In his Ottoman Questions" Plutarcb
asks, why do the I.atins abstain
strictly from the flesh OF the woodpcc1-
err In order 10 answer Plutarch's
question correctly 1t Is necessary to
have soluc idea OF the peculiar custom
and belief called "totemsm." There Is
4 stage Of society in which people claim
lesccnt from and klnship with beasts,
birds. vegetables ard other objects.
This object, which Is; Il totem" or
family mark. they rc!!giously abstain
from eating. The members OF the tribo
are divided INTO claus or stocks, each
" which takes the name of some AMI
nal, plant or object, as the bear, the
buffalo, the woodpccker. The asparagus,
and 50 forth. No member OF the bear
family would dare 10 eat bear meat
but he has no objection TO eating buf-
falo steak Even the marriage law Is
based on this belief, and TO man whose
family name is Wolf may marry wo.
man whose family name is also Wolf
In Il general way II may be said that
Utmost all our food prohibitions spring
from the extraordinary custom gen.
orally called totemiSm. Mr.. Swan, who
WAS missionary for many years IN
the KonGo Free State, thus describes
the custom: I'LL were TO ask tie Yekc
people why they do not eat zebra flesh.
they would reply, "Chiiiia".-i. e., ut is
4 thing TO which we have an antipa-
thy" or, better, st is one of the filings
which our fathers taught us not to eat"
So 1t seems the word "baslilang"
means the people who have an an.
upathy to the leopard" the "bnsha-
lamba." those who have nh nntIpathy
to the dog" and the Observation-Disclosures"
those who have nm antipathy to tbs
eicpHaiit. III otilef WORDS, the iuclN-
bcrs Of these stocks refuse to eat their
totems, the zebra, the leopard and tho
elephant, from which they take their
names.
The survival Of antipathy to certain
foods WAS found among people us
highly civilized as the Esyptians, tho
Greeks and the Romans. Quite list
Of animals whose flesh was forbidden
might be drawn up. For example, In
old Egypt the sheep could not be eater
in Thebcs, nor the goat in Mcndcs, nor
the cat in Dubastis, nor the crocodile