The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-08-28
CONDEMNED AS FOOD
NEARLY EVERYTHING WORTH EAT
ING HAS BEEN UNDER A BAN.
From the Days of Adam There Ifne
Been Not Only Forbidden Fruit, but
Forbidden Mcnts and Vegetables.
The Peculiar belief of .sTOtemism."

From the days of Adam and Eve Il
the present time there has been not
only forbidden fruit, but forbidden
meats and vegetables. For one req.
son or another people have rcSolutely
refused to eat any and all kinds of
flesh, fish, fowl. fruits and plants.
Thus the apple, the pear, the strawber-
ry, the ounce. the bean. the onion, the
leck, the asparagus the Wo)dpecker,
the pigeon. the goose, the deer, the bear,
the turtle and the ccl-thcsc, to name
only Il few catables, have been avoid
ed as if unwhocsome or positively in
furious to health and digestion.
AS wc all know, the Jews have long
had a hereditary antpathy to pork. On
the other hand, sWnc'S 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 Dcmcter roast pig
was the piece de resistance in the bill
of fare because the pig was the sacred
animal of Dcmctcr Aristoplanes in
THE Frogs" makes one of the char
acters hint that some of the Others
'sme!l of roast pig" These people un.
doubtcdly had been at the festival,
known ns the Thcsnophoria and had
eaten freely of roast pig. Those who
took part in another Greek mystery or
festival, known as the Elcu3inia, alb.
stained from certain food and above
all. from beans.
Again. as we all know, mice are es-
tecmed in China and in some parts of
India. but the ancient Egyptians,
Greeks and Jews ahhorYcl mice and
would not touch mouse meat. Rats and
field mice were sacred in old Egypt
and were not to be eaten on this ac-
count. So. too. in some parts Of Greece,
the mouse was the sacred animal of
Apollo. and mice were fed in his tenn
pies. 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
Eut people have abstaned from eat.
ing kinds Of flesh which could not be
called unclcan. For example, the people
of Thebcs. as IIcrodotus tells US, alb
stained from sheep. What is the mat
ter with mutton chops? Then, the an
rients used to abstaia from certain
vegetables. Indeed, the Romans sheer
cd at those Egyptians who did not dare
10 eat onions. lccks or Garlic, and yet
the Romans themselves We're supersu-
tous about what they aIe or what they
should avoid eating.
In his "toman Questions" Plutarch
asks, "Nhy do the 1.atins abstain
strictly from the flesh of The woodpeck'
cr:" In order to answer plutarch's
question correctly 1t is necessary to
have some idea Of the peculiar custom
and BELIEF called "totemsm." There Is
Il stage of society in which people claim
descent from and llinshlp with beasts,
birds, vegetables and other objects.
This object, which is a totem" or
family mark, they rcligiously abstain
from eating. The members of the tribe
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 buff
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 Wolf.
In general way 1t may be said that
almost eli our food prohibitions sprine
from the extraordinary custom gen
orally called totemism. Mr.. Swan, who
was missionary for many years III
the Kongo Free State, thus describes
the custom: If | were TO ask the Yeke
people why they do not eat zebra flesh,
they would reply, "Chijila'--'i. e., 1T Is
thing to which we have an antipa
thy" or, better. ut is one of the things
which our fathers taught us not to eat
SO it seems the word "bashilang'
means "the people who have an an
tipathy to the leopard" the "basha
LAMBDA" those who have an antipathy
to the dog" and the "bashlanlanzefu,'
'those who have an antipathy to the
elephant" In other words, the mem
DerS or tlcSc STOCKS rel use u cat lIlCu
totems the zebra, the leopard and the
elephant, from which they take thelr
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 be drawn up. For example, IN
old Egypt the sheep could not be eaten
in Thebes, nor the goat in Mendes, MOI
the cat in Bubastis, nor the crocodile
at Ombos. nor the rat, which was sa-
cred to Ra, the sun god. HoweN a., the
people of one place had no scruples
about eating the forbidden food Of an
ether place, and this often led to re
'igious disputes and led blood.
Among the vegetables taJooed AZ
food by the Egyptians may be men
toned the onion, the garlic and the
leek Lucian says that the inhabitants
Of Potassium adored the onion. Accord
ing to Pliny. the Egyptians used to