The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-11-23
CONDEMNED AS FOOD
NEARLY EVERYTHING WORTH EAT
ING HAS BEEN UNDER A BAN
From the Days of Adam There Has
Been Not Only Forbidden Fruit, but
Forbidden Meats and Vegetables.
The Peculiar Belief of "Totemism."

Forbidden Meats and Vegetables.
The Peculiar Belief of "Totemism."
From the days of Adam and Eve TO
the present time there has been not
only forbidden fruit, but forbidden
meats and vegetables. For one rea.
son 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 strawber.
~, the ounce, the bean, the onion, the
leek, the asparagus, the woodpecker,
the pigeon, the goose the deer the bear,
the turtle and the eel-these, 70 name
only a few eatables, have been avoid
ed as If unwholesome or positively in.
furious to health and digestion.
As we all know, the Jews have long
had hereditary antipathy to pork. On
the other hand, swines flesh was high
" esteemed by the ancient Greeks and
Romans. This fact Is revealed by the
many references to pig as dainty bit
of food. At the great festival held an.
nually in honor Of Demeter roast pig
was the piece de resistance in the bill
Of fare because the pig was the sacred
animal Of Demeter. Aristophanes in
1.-THE Frogs" makes one Of the char.
acters hint that some Of the others
smell Of roast pig" These people I'm.
doubtedly had been at the festival,
known as the Thesmophoria, and had
eaten freely Of roast pig. Those who
took part In another Greek mystery or
festival, known as the Eleusinia, alb
stained from certain food and. above
all. from beans.
Again, as we all know, mice are es.
teemed in China and in some parts Of
India, but the ancient Egyptians,
Greeks and Jews abhorred mice and
would not touch mouse meat. Rats and
field mice were sacred IN old Egypt
and were not to be eaten on this &C.
count. So, too, In some parts Of Greece.
the mouse was the sacred animal Of
Apollo, and mice were fed in his tenn
Piles. The chosen people were forbid
den to eat the weasel and the mouse
and the tortoise after his kind" These
came under the designation Of unclean
But people have abstained from eat
ing kinds Of flesh which could not be
called unclean. For example, the people
Of Thebes, as Herodotus tells US, alb
stained from sheep. What is the mat
ter with mutton chops? Then. the an
clients used to abstain from certain
vegetables. Indeed, the Romans snser.
ed at those Egyptians who did not dare
to eat onions, leeks or garlic. and yet
the Romans themselves were supersti-
tious about what they ate or what they
should avoid eating.
In his Roman Questions" Plutarch
asks. why do the 1.atins abstain
strictly from the flesh Of the woodpeck-
er?' In order to answer Plutarch's
question correctly 1t is necessary to
have some idea Of the peculiar custom
and belief called "totemism." There IS
stage Of society in which people claim
descent from and kinship with beasts
BIRDS vegeta bles and other objects.
This object, which is a totem or
family mark. they religiously abstain
from eating. The members of the trlbe
are divided into clans or stocks, each
Of which takes the name Of some AMI
NAL, plant or object. as the bear, the
buffalo, the woodpecker, the asparagus,
and so forth. No member Of the bear
family would dare to eat bear meat
but he has no objection to eating pul-
falo steak. Even the marriage law Is
based on this belief, and no man whose
family name is Wolf may marry wo-
man whose family name IS also Won.
In general way it may be said tha'
almost all our food prohibitions spring
from the extraordinary custom gen
orally called totemism. Mr. Swan, VINO
was q missionary for many years In
the Kongo Free State, thus describes
the custom: II l were to ask the 1eke
people why they do not eat zebra fesn'
they would reply. "Chijila'-i. e., IT Is
a thing to which we have an antlpa-
thy or, better, 1T IS one of the things
which our fathers taught US not to eat.
30 It seems the word "bashilang
means the people who have an an
upathy TO the leopard" the "basha
amba," those who have an antipathy
" Tue uog, and the 'DasnlIauIduAeiu'
those who have an antipathy to the
elephant In other words. the mem
oers Of these stocks refuse to eat theN
totems, the zebra, the leopard and the
elephant, from which they take their
names.
-Yhs survival Of antipathy to certain