The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-08-02
CONDEMNED AS FOOD
NEARLY EVERYTHING WORTH EAT
ING HAS BEEN UNDER A BAN.

Forbidden Meats and Vegetables.
The Peculiar Belief of .sTotemism."
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-
ry, 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 to name
only a few eatables, have been avoid
ed as IL 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, swine's flesh was high
ly 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 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 1.-The weasel and the mouse
and the tortoise after his kind" These
came under the designa ton 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 sneer-
ed at those Egyptians who did not dare
to eat onions, leeks or garlic, and yet
the Romans themselves were superstt-
tious about what they ate or what they
should avoid eating.
In his Roman Questions" Plutarch
asks, "Why do the Latins abstain
strictly from the flesh of the woodpeck-
er?' In order to answer Plutarch's
question correctly it Is necessary to
have some idea Of the peculiar custom
and belief called "totemism." There is
a stage of society in which people claim
descen~ from and kinship with beasts,
birds, vegetables and other objects.
This object, which is totem" or
family mark, they religiously 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 a general way it may be said that
almost all our food prohibitions spring
from the extraordinary custom gen.
orally called totemism. Mr. Swan, who
was a missionary for many years in
the Kongo Free State, thus describes
the custom: If I were to ask the Yeke
people why they do not eat zebra flesh,
they would reply. "Chijtla"-i. e., at is
a thing to which we have an antipa-
thy" or, better, "It is one of the things
which our fathers taught us not to eat"
So it seems the word "bashilang"
means 1.-THE people who have an an
tipathy to the leopard" the 'basha-
LAMBDA" those who have an antipathy
to the dog" and the ''bashilanlanzefu,"
chose who have an antipathy to the
elephant" In other words, the men,
bers of these stocks refuse to eat their
totems, 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 be drawn up. For example, in
old Egypt the sheep could not be eaten
in Thebes, nor the goat in Mendes, nor
the cat in Bubastis, nor the crocodile
at Ombos, nor the rat, which was sa-
cred to Ra, the sun god. However, the
people of one place had no scruples
about eating the forbidden food of an
other place, and this often led to re-
ligious disputes and bad blood.
Among the vegetables tabooed as
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
swear by the -leek and the onion. Juve-
nal pokes fun at those who thought it
a sin to eat them. He exclaims, Surely
a very religious nation and a blessed
peace where every garden is overrun
with gods"'
The survivals of totemism among the
ancient Greeks are very interesting