The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1908-01-14
WHOLE NO. 1854.
Curious Foods and
Their Physiological Effect
BY GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH.

never SuSHtIL lut OTlElu VI
the tempting dish Now physloPgIsts
who have studied Eastern conditions
claims that the rat gives moro nour-
ishment and is FAR cleaner and moro
wholesome than our great American
hog.
The Chinamen's Eggs and the Japs'
Seawceds.
The Cinnamon offer for sale duck
eggs WI ose ages are decidedly prob
lematical. While eggs nearly ready
to hatch may seem repugnant to
Western nations, they are not in
furious to the health, but on the con-
trary are very wholesome and nour-
ishing. 1t is said that the Cinnamon
prefer stale eggs to fresh for physio-
logical reasons described by some OF
their wisest savants. Likewise they
eat shark fins, which possess great
nutritive value, and are recommend
ed as q preventive of scurvy and
bowel disorders. The birds nest soup
of the same race is a healthful diet.
1t is made by the secretion OF the
mouth glands of birds, and contains
mineral elements which are essential
to good health. The nests of these
birds are very highly priced. and the
soup is only for the wealthy. They
are becoming almost, as rare as gen.
uine terrapin and canvas-back ducks
in this country, and substitutes are
now palmed off on the novice who
is anxious to taste the national dish.
Lizards are eaten as feerly I'm China
as frogs legs in this country.
The Japanese make the most won
derful use of seaweeds OF any nation
in the world. Besides converting IL
into thin paper and weaving 1t into
mats and rugs, they eat great quanti-
ties, and its wholesome nature is tes-
titled by many. The seaweed con-
tains saline qualities which keep the
system in good condition in hot
weather. On the coast of France
seaweed and anemones are also
eagerly consumed. The anemone Is
| stuffed like peppers and boiled. To
| the novice it tastes much like crab
! meat, and is both wholesome and APP
petizing. Fish and sea products
| which in this country are thrown
away as waste are eaten in great
| quantities by the poor of Italy and
| Spain, and we have not yet been able
to show that what we call choice fish
is any better than the common food
Of the fishermen of Europe.
Curious Foods of Our Land.
But it is not necessary to go across
the ocean or to the far Orient to find
! curious foods of diet. We have the
clay eaters of Georgia and other parts
of the South; the Indians of the Flor
ida keys, who dry and roll earth
worms into dainty -four for food; the
conch eaters of the Bahama Islands;
the ant-eating Indians of Arizona,
and the honey-ant eaters of Mexico.
In the West we have certains tribes
of Indians which grind up grasshop-
| pers into a meal and eat them with
| great relish. Near Lake Mono, CAL
| ifornia, there Is abundant a fly known
scientifically as Ephydra. The fly in
so numerous at certain seasons of the
year that the larvae are washed up
in great windows on the shores of
the lake. The Indians gather these
larvae, which are worm-like crea-
lures, and, after drying them in the
sun, beat and reduce them to food
that looks a good deal like rice. The
food is called koo-chah-bee, and Is
very fattening and nourishing. At
the harvest season the waters of the
lake are covered by an oily substance
which is supposed to come from the
insects. Many birds besides the In
dams gorge themselves on this cur
ious food.
Down in Mexico on Lake Texcoco
there is another fly known as ahuatl
which Is eagerly eaten by the natives,
and at Lake Chalco sedges are Guilt.
waited for the insects to lay their eggs
on. When the eggs are deposited
on the sedge grass, they are gathered
In quantities and ground into a meal.
The small cakes made of these eggs
are delicious despite their queer
origin.
In the selection OF all these queer
foods it is not entirely the lack Of
better foods that has decided the ma
tives in their choice. There is a
physiological factor which should not
be forgotten. The queer foods are
in nearly all cases wholesome, nour-
ishing or tonic in effect. They may
not be exactly remedial foods, as we
classify many of our fruits and veg
etables, but they are adapted to GER
tain physiological needs OF the human
race in those climates.-From the
American Home Monthly.