UC-NRLF 
 
 2850 
 V3 
 
 ELM 135 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 THE GASTRONOMY COLLECTION OF 
 GEORGE HOLL 
 
. Div. 
 IEMKMCJ 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF EATING; 
 
 DISPLAYING THE 
 
 OMNIVOROUS CHARACTER OF MAN ; 
 
 AND EXHIBITING THE 
 
 NATIVES OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES AT FEEDING TIME. 
 
 "7-Jtvry moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you j even as the 
 green herb have I g-iveii you all thing*." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 
 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE. 
 
 MDCCCXLVII. 
 PRICE TWO SHILLINGS. 
 
^ILLUSTRATIONS OF EATING; 
 
 DISPLAYING THE 
 
 OMNIVOROUS CHARACTER OF MAN ; 
 
 AND EXHIBITING THE 
 
 NATIVES OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES AT FEEDING TIME. 
 
 11 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you j even ns the 
 green herb have I given you all things." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 
 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE. 
 
 MDCCCXLVII. 
 
C. AND J. ADLAKD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. Interest and importance of the subject Three 
 grand methods of procuring food, the simple, the adven- 
 turous, and the ingenious Paley's Pigeons . . 7 
 
 CHAP. II. Brief account of the process of digestion . 13 
 
 CHAP. III. Grand constitutional distinction between Man 
 and Brute Comparative view of some structural differences 
 in the Tiger, in the Sheep, and in Man The crude re- 
 gimen considered The question, " Have we a reasonable 
 claim to destroy animal life ?" considered Philosophical 
 inference . . . . . . . . 17 
 
 CHAP. IV. Description of the food of the Greenlanders 
 Their extraordinary politeness The food of the Lap- 
 landers, and their singular burial customs . . 26 
 
 CHAP. V. The immense quantity of animal food required by the 
 inhabitants of high latitudes The reason for this Re- 
 ligious fastings modified to suit different climates Dis- 
 pensation in favour of several kinds of water-birds 31 
 
 CHAP. VI. The food of the Calmuk Tartars Extreme hos- 
 pitality of the Cochin-Chinese Description of a Chinese 
 entertainment in high life Food of the lower orders 
 Indiscriminate feeding of the natives of Siam, Pegu, and 
 Aracan Healthy regimen of the Ladrone Islanders 34 
 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. Legalized cannibalism of the Battas of Sumatra 
 Odd proof of filial affection in the Cingalese Habits of 
 the Hindoos Fruit-eating in Persia . . .40 
 
 CHAP. VIII. Gluttony of the Australians, arid their promis- 
 cuous bill of fare ....... 44 
 
 CHAP. IX. Cannibal feasts of the New Zealanders . 48 
 
 CHAP. X. Habits and customs of the Hottentots Reptiles, 
 Insects, and Monkeys used by the Mexicans Expedients 
 to subdue hunger Horseflesh, Vipers, Snails, Frogs, 
 Toads 50 
 
 CHAP. XI. Curious description of an Abyssinian feast . 56 
 
 CHAP. XII. The Geophagists, or Earth-eaters The wood and 
 bark of trees used as food . . . . .61 
 
 CHAP. XIII. Man becomes more fastidious in his diet as he 
 advances in civilization Impossibility of enumerating the 
 substances used as food by civilized nations Adultera- 
 tionsDoings of the Parisian restaurateurs Refined me- 
 thod of adulterating animal food Foie gras Brawn 65 
 
 CHAP. XIV. Food used under the influence of starvation 
 Siege of Paris Horrible Fate of Mons. Foscue . . 73 
 
 CHAP. XV. What is nutrition ? The doctors at fault Milk 
 the most important aliment Its constituents Univer- 
 sality and predominance of water in the economy of 
 Nature Relative proportion of fluids and solids in the 
 human body Unsatisfactory results of analyses Oil or 
 fat in every vegetable substance Interesting experi- 
 ment of Liebig 76 
 
 CHAP. XVI. Rationale of Roasting and Boiling Curious me- 
 thods of preparing food in vogue among the Ancients 
 The bonne louche . 83 
 
 NOTE. Last line of p. 28 should be last line but one of p. 29. 
 
THE BEEF-EATER TO HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 IN dishing up the gallimaufry which is here 
 presented to the omnivorous reader, no pains have 
 been spared to render it savoury as well as whole- 
 some, and to adapt it to every variety of taste. The 
 ingredients have heen collected from all parts of the 
 globe, and it is hoped that the condiments will be 
 found both piquant and spicy. The Beef-Eater also 
 trusts that it will not be found deficient in salt. 
 
But man is a carnivorous production, 
 
 And must have meals at least one meal a day : ' 
 He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction ; 
 
 But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey. 
 And though his anatomical construction 
 
 Bears vegetables in a grumbling way, 
 Your labouring people think, beyond all question, 
 Beef, veal, and mutton, better for digestion. 
 
 BYRON. 
 
ON THE 
 
 OMNIVOROUS CHARACTER OF MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Interest and Importance of the Subject Three Grand Methods 
 of procuring Food the simple, the adventurous, and the 
 ingenious Paley's Pigeons. 
 
 IN a 'Treatise on Diet/ composed by Hippocrates, 
 he endeavours to make it appear that all men are 
 born with the same mental capacity, and that the 
 difference which, in after life, is discoverable in the 
 minds of different individuals is to be attributed 
 entirely to the quantity and quality of the food they 
 have eaten. The amount of truth in this proposition 
 we will not pretend to determine ; but it is an ac- 
 
8 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 knowledged fact that the metaphysical depends upon 
 the physical; or, in other words, that the mind 
 takes its tone, in a great measure, if not entirely 
 from the sluggishness or energy of the physical 
 organs of which it forms a part, and of which it is, 
 in fact, the most important manifestation. These 
 physical organs, as we are perfectly aware, are 
 formed of a modification of those substances which 
 we use as food ; consequently, our eating and drink- 
 ing constitute the groundwork, not only of our 
 bodies, but of our minds also fashioning the one, 
 and giving temper to the other. 
 
 This being the case, we may readily imagine that, 
 when this subject shall be investigated with that 
 attention which it so well merits, we may be able 
 to ascertain the disposition and bias of an individual 
 from a knowledge of the quantity and quality of the 
 aliment which he devours, as unerringly as can now 
 be done by the more refined systems of physiognomy 
 and phrenology. 
 
 In fact, the grand outline of this principle is 
 already acknowledged. It is plain that the national 
 food forms the national character ; in proof of which 
 we have only to look, on the one hand, at the 
 smooth, slippery, and volatile character of the soup-, 
 snail-, and frog-eating Frenchmen ; and on the other, 
 at the heavy, dull, and imperturbable character of our 
 own beef-and-pudding-eating countrymen. There is 
 
OF EATING. 9 
 
 evidently a mysterious cause-and-effect connexion 
 between the food and the character; when the 
 nature of this connexion shall be discovered, the 
 subject will at once be elevated to the dignity of a 
 science, and form an important chapter in the history 
 of mankind. 
 
 Having thus, we hope, satisfactorily established 
 the interest and great importance of our theme, let 
 us proceed to our "Illustrations." 
 
 But, before entering into the pith of our subject, 
 it may not be uninteresting, briefly to describe the 
 process of digestion ; and notice a few other par- 
 ticulars which appear relevant to our main object. 
 
 Mrs. Glass, of culinary celebrity, in commencing 
 her instructions to prepare a certain fish for the 
 table, very pertinently observes, " first catch your 
 fish." This is a very necessary preliminary: the 
 food, before it can possibly be subjected to the action 
 of the digestive apparatus, must first be procured. 
 Now, there are different methods, in different coun- 
 tries, of procuring the food. In countries inhabited 
 by savages the general method seems to be that of 
 hunting ; but in civilized countries the methods are 
 extremely various. They may all, however, be 
 grouped into three grand orders, namely, 
 
 1. The Simple Order. 
 
 2. The Ad venturous Order. 
 
 3. The Ingenious Order. 
 
10 ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 To the first of these categories belong those straight- 
 forward and single-minded individuals, who procure 
 their food by the sweat of their brows ; to the 
 second, those who, inflated with magnanimous ideas 
 of liberty and independence, prefer the more ad- 
 venturous mode of appropriating the food of others ; 
 to the third (and this is by far the most limited order 
 of the three), those who contrive to secure a superabun- 
 dance of the very best materials for the exercise of 
 their digestive organs by the dexterous application 
 of a machine, which we cannot better designate than 
 by calling it the Corn-law Mill.* The machinery of 
 this mill is so ingeniously contrived, that it conveys 
 nearly all the fat of the land into the possession of 
 the inventors of the machine, and throws out merely 
 the husks and the refuse to the poor devils who 
 constitute the first order, and who are obliged, 
 nevertheless, to keep the wheels of this master-piece 
 continually going round. 
 
 The members of the third order, might, perhaps, 
 without much impropriety, have been classed with 
 those of the second ; the principles of the third, 
 or Ingenious Order, appear to be merely a refined 
 modification of those of the second, or Adventurous 
 Order. 
 
 * This mill is, at present (1846), considerably out of 
 repair, and there is a probability that it will speedily fall to 
 pieces. 
 
OF EATING. 1 1 
 
 The highly unnatural state of our social arrange- 
 ments, on the subject of food-procuring, cannot be 
 more correctly described than in the language of the 
 clear-sighted Paley. 
 
 "If," says he, "you should see a flock of pigeons in 
 a field of corn, and if (instead of each picking where 
 and what it liked taking just as much as it wanted, 
 and no more) you should see ninety-nine of them 
 gathering all they got, into a heap, reserving nothing 
 for themselves but the chaff and the refuse ; keeping 
 this heap for one, and that the weakest, perhaps 
 worst, pigeon of the flock ; sitting round, and look- 
 ing on, all the winter, whilst this one was devouring, 
 throwing about, and wasting it ; and if a pigeon, 
 more hardy or hungry than the rest, touched a grain 
 of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon it, 
 and tearing it to pieces : if you should see this, you 
 would see nothing more than what is every day 
 practised and established among men. Among men, 
 you see the ninety- an d-nine, toiling and scraping 
 together a heap of superfluities for one (and this 
 one, too, oftentimes the feeblest and worst of the 
 whole set, a child, a woman, a madman, or a fool) ; 
 getting nothing for themselves all the while, but a 
 little of the coarsest of the provision, which their 
 own industry produces ; looking quietly on, while 
 they see the fruits of all their labour spent or 
 spoiled ; and if one of the number take or touch a 
 
12 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 particle of the hoard, the others joining against him, 
 and hanging him for the theft." 
 
 A three-hours' speech, from Lord Brougham him- 
 self, could not place the fact in a clearer light. 
 
OF EATING. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Brief Account of the Process of Digestion. 
 
 WE will now suppose the food to have heen pro- 
 cured by one or other of the aforesaid methods 
 (rfimporte laquelle), and duly introduced to the 
 mouth, where it is cut to pieces, and ground by the 
 action of the teeth, and, at the same time,- is reduced 
 to a moist and soft mass by its admixture with the 
 saliva. 
 
 Thus prepared, it passes slowly down the oesopha- 
 gus or gullet, into the stomach, where the process 
 of digestion commences ; the first stage of which is 
 effected by means of the gastric juice, aided by the 
 unceasing action of the sides of the stomach. 
 
 Various and conflicting are the opinions of anato- 
 mists upon the nature and functions of this impor- 
 tant organ. To use the words of the celebrated 
 John Hunter, " Some physiologists will have it 
 that the stomach is a mill ; others, that it is a fer- 
 menting-vat ; others again, that it is a stewpan : but, 
 in my opinion, gentlemen, it is neither a mill, nor a 
 fermenting-vat, nor a stewpan ; but a stomach, gen- 
 tlemen a STOMACH." 
 
 To resume. The gastric juice is a peculiar fluid, 
 
14 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 which is secreted and given out by the inner coat of 
 the stomach, and which not only exerts a very power- 
 ful action in chemically dissolving the food, but 
 also produces some changes in it that have, as yet, 
 defied explanation upon any known principles of 
 chemistry. 
 
 The solvent power of the gastric juice is, indeed, 
 very great. Besides the ordinary substances which 
 it acts upon, it will dissolve cartilage, bone, wood, 
 and even iron ; but it will not reduce the least bit of 
 cork, nor the smallest fibre of cotton-wool ; and it is 
 important to recollect that it will not dissolve the 
 membranous skins of any kind of fruit. 
 
 We have a familiar instance of the operation of 
 gastric juice in the formation of curds and whey. 
 Rennet, which is the fluid used to curdle the milk, 
 is, in fact, the gastric juice (diluted) from the sto- 
 mach of the calf. Cheese is likewise made from milk 
 by means of the same fluid. 
 
 The gastric juice performs a very important part 
 in the process of digestion ; and, in acting upon the 
 substances introduced into the stomach, it is aided 
 by a peculiar action of the sides of the stomach, by 
 which every portion of the food is brought into con- 
 tact with the gastric juice. The result of this is, 
 that the mutton, and the turnips, and the pudding, 
 and the cheese, are all converted into a soft, uniform, 
 pulpy mass each article of food having completely 
 
 
OF EATING. 15 
 
 lost its individual character. This mass is called 
 chyme ; which word merely means certain ingredients 
 softened and incorporated. 
 
 When the food has been properly reduced to 
 chyme, the action of the stomach forces it into the 
 first portion of the intestinal canal, called the duo- 
 denum, which is, in every respect, a second stomach 
 where it mixes with fresh secretions, and undergoes 
 another change. These fresh secretions are, first, 
 the bile, secreted by the liver; and, second, the 
 pancreatic juice, secreted by the pancreas. 
 
 The effect of this admixture is the separation of 
 the chyme into two parts. The first and important 
 part is called chyle (which simply means juice, or 
 extract). It is a milky fluid, and constitutes the 
 nutritious matter. The second is the refuse, or that 
 part which is either indigestible, or unfit for being 
 converted into chyle. 
 
 The chyle, thus elaborated, is drawn in or ab- 
 sorbed by the lacteal vessels, as it passes along the 
 succeeding parts of the alimentary canal. From the 
 intestine the chyle is conveyed by the lacteals to a 
 vessel called the thoracic duct, which ascends in the 
 back part of the chest, and pours its contents into a 
 large vein near the heart, from whence it is sent to 
 the lungs, there to be still further purified, before it 
 contributes to- the general nourishment of the body. 
 
 This, although a very meagre outline of the process 
 
16 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 of digestion, must be sufficient for our present pur- 
 pose. In fact, to give but a very limited view of all 
 the organs connected with digestion, would occupy 
 the whole of our space, and be inconsistent with our 
 present object. 
 
OF EATING. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Grand constitutional distinction between Man and Brute 
 Comparative view of some structural differences in the Tiger, 
 in the Sheep, and in Man The crude regimen considered 
 The question, " Have we a reasonable claim to destroy ani- 
 mal life ?" considered Philosophical inference. 
 
 ONE considerable distinction between mankind 
 and the brute creation is manifest in this, that 
 whereas the various species of animals are, for the 
 most part, restricted to particular regions or lo- 
 calities, man is spread over every portion of the 
 earth's surface. 
 
 As an exemplification of this, the lion is found only 
 in the warm countries of Asia and Africa, and the 
 tiger is peculiar to the south-eastern portions of Asia. 
 The species of apes which most nearly approach the 
 human form are all limited to small districts in hot 
 regions ; and when carefully removed to cold cli- 
 mates, cannot be preserved against those diseases 
 which arise from great sensibility to cold. The va- 
 rious tribes are confined within very narrow limits : 
 the orang-outang is found only in the island of 
 Borneo, and the chimpanzee in the west of Africa. 
 The same may be said of the camel, which thrives 
 
 2 
 
18 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 only in hot sandy countries ; and of the elephant 
 one species of which is confined to Asia, the othe 
 to Africa. The animals of North and South America 
 are, with very few exceptions, peculiar to those conti- 
 nents ; and the animals of New Holland are altogether 
 peculiar. 
 
 Man, on the contrary, is not restricted to any par 
 ticular locality. His constitution is of the mos 
 accommodating kind ; and, accordingly, we find him 
 existing in almost every part of the world. 
 
 The extremes of heat and cold which a human 
 being is able to bear with impunity seem almost in 
 credible to those who, like ourselves, inhabit a com 
 paratively temperate climate. 
 
 In many parts of North America the mercury 
 freezes in the thermometer; and on the shores o 
 Hudson's Bay brandy freezes in rooms in which 
 fires are kept : yet the inhabitants go about hunt 
 ing in those latitudes. On the other hand, the 
 most populous parts of Asia are the hottest, am 
 the islands immediately under the equator are fully 
 peopled. 
 
 The sultry interior of Africa swarms with a negro 
 population. In Senegal, in Sierra Leone, in the de- 
 serts of South America, in South Carolina, the ther- 
 mometer, during the seasons of heat, ranges from 
 100 to 115 degrees. And not only does man thus 
 
OF EATING. 19 
 
 establish himself in almost every degree of latitude, 
 his ingenuity procuring food, clothing, and a place 
 to lay his head, but he thrives, and increases and 
 multiplies. 
 
 The same capability for occupying all situations is 
 observable in his being placed on plains and on 
 mountains in the lowest situations, and on positions 
 so high, that the pressure of the atmosphere is re- 
 duced to two thirds of what it is on the medium 
 surface of the globe. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that to a being so exten- 
 sively distributed every kind of food must be con- 
 genial, as it would be utterly impossible for him to 
 find the same description of produce in climates so 
 dissimilar. 
 
 In those extreme latitudes, where the cold precludes 
 the possibility of the least vegetation from springing 
 up during the far greater portion of the year, the 
 inhabitants find it both necessary and wholesome to 
 live on a diet composed of animal food. 
 
 As we approach the temperate zone we find that 
 vegetables are used in conjunction with animal food 
 the consumption of vegetables gradually increasing 
 as we draw nearer the equator, where we find that 
 the principal part of human sustenance is derived from 
 the vegetable kingdom. Rice, mullet, maize, the 
 plaintain, the yam, the cassava, the banana, nuts of 
 various kinds, spices, and cooling fruits these are 
 
20 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 the substances upon which the natives of tropica 
 climates chiefly subsist. 
 
 The principal reason (independent of climate) 
 why the different species of animals are confinec 
 to limited localities is, that the nature of their phy 
 sical organs restricts them to a particular kind o 
 food. 
 
 If we examine the skull of a tiger, we find tha 
 the upper and under jaws are connected by a simple 
 hinge-joint, which allows of only one kind of mo 
 tion, namely, a motion precisely similar to that of a 
 pair of pincers when they are opened and shut. 
 
 If we examine, in the same manner, the skull o 
 a sheep, we there see a hinge-joint of a very differen 
 construction. It not only allows of a motion to open 
 and shut the mouth in a perpendicular direction, 
 though not to so great an extent as in the tiger, but 
 it also admits of a considerable degree of motion 
 from side to side. 
 
 On an examination of the human skull, it is evi 
 dent that the jaws have a power of motion of an in 
 termediate character, possessing the vertical motion 
 of the tiger, and the lateral motion of the sheep 
 but neither of those motions to so great an extent 
 as by those animals. Look at the teeth in the 
 jaws of the tiger 5 there we see them pointed, am 
 jagged, and sharp, and of three distinct kinc 
 (See Fig. 1.) 
 
OF EATING. 
 
 21 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 But it will be seen, by a glance at the following 
 figure, that the teeth of the sheep are only of two 
 kinds ; that in the upper jaw there are no front 
 teeth, and that the back teeth are broad and rough, 
 and altogether different from those of the tiger. 
 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Compare the teeth of these two animals with those 
 in the jaws of the human skull. (See Fig. 3.) Here 
 
22 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 we find the teeth of three kinds, as in the tiger, but 
 in shape there is a slight approximation to those of 
 the sheep. The intermediate structure prevails as 
 well in the teeth as in the articulation of the jaws 
 neither so broad and rough as those of the sheep, 
 nor so sharp and jagged as those of the tiger. 
 
 Besides these varieties in the teeth and jaws, we 
 find equally remarkable varieties in the length of the 
 intestinal canal. Compared with the length of the 
 body, it is as 
 
 3 to 1 in the tiger ; 
 26 to 1 in the sheep ; and 
 
 6 to 1 in man. 
 
OF EATING. 23 
 
 Thus it is obvious that, in comparing the masti- 
 catory and digestive organs of these two animals with 
 those of the human subject, the ^organization of the 
 latter occupies an intermediate position, partaking, 
 to a limited extent, of the nature of both the carni- 
 vorous and the herbivorous ; and, consequently, ca- 
 pable of digesting animal as well as vegetable food. 
 
 This being the case, it will be unnecessary to enter 
 into a formal refutation of the doctrine of those who 
 contend that vegetables alone form the natural diet 
 of man. This antediluvian notion is completely set 
 aside by the appeal we have just made to comparative 
 anatomy. 
 
 With respect to those eccentric wise-acres who 
 maintain that cooking is an unnatural process, and 
 that we ought to eat our various articles of food with- 
 out any preparation, to those it is only necessary to 
 say, that if our judgment and ingenuity are not to be 
 exercised in relation to our food, the same principle 
 must, of course, be extended to all our articles of 
 dress ; and this will at once restore us to the de- 
 lightful simplicity of the age of innocence, before 
 even fig-leaves were thought of. In the article of 
 clothing, Nature has been more niggardly to man 
 than to any other animal. She sends him into the 
 world in a truly unsophisticated state ; and those 
 who act upon the principle of taking nothing but 
 what is presented to them by Dame Nature, must 
 be content to remain in that state : 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 " Chacun a son petit \ 7 ilain gout." 
 
 There is yet another class of fine-spinning theorists 
 which must not be left unnoticed, and that is the 
 ultra-sentimental anti-cruelty to animals' class, who, 
 with great pomp and gravity, declare that we have 
 no right to deprive anything of life which God has 
 created. A startling proposition, truly ! But on 
 what foundation does it rest ? According to these 
 innocents man must not eat a beefsteak, but a lion 
 or a tiger may riot on a hecatomb ; man must not 
 regale himself with a leg of lamb, but a wolf may 
 revel on the firstlings of the flock ; man must not 
 adorn his table with hare, or partridge, or fowl, oh 
 no, but a fox may worry and devour them at his 
 leisure. And thus it is throughout all nature the 
 strong feeding on the weak, and often the weak 
 feeding on the strong. 
 
 " Fleas there are that live on men, 
 Whilst other fleas bite them again, 
 And they have other fleas that bite 'em. 
 Thus flea bites flea ad infinitum /" 
 
 Now if animals are thus permitted to eat each other, 
 surely man, who is the chief of animals, may be al- 
 lowed to eat his mutton without laying himself under 
 the imputation of violating the order of nature, or of 
 being accused of possessing a depraved and sanguinary 
 appetite. 
 
OF EATING. 1>:> 
 
 Besides, we have already shown that the human 
 organization is expressly adapted to the assimilation 
 of animal substances ; and if man's stomach was 
 made for mutton, it is by no means unphilosophical 
 to infer that mutton was made for man's stomach. 
 
26 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Description of the Food of the Greenlanders Their extraor- 
 dinary Politeness The Food of the Laplanders, and their 
 singular Burial Customs. 
 
 HAVING, we hope, satisfactorily proved that man 
 is a carnivorous animal, as well as a vegetable feeder, 
 we will now take a peep at the various countries in 
 which he has established himself, and see what he 
 eats, and how he eats it ; whereby we shall discover 
 that his capacity for eating, and his instinctive desire 
 for particular kinds of food, are wonderfully modi- 
 fied to suit the varying circumstances by which he 
 may be surrounded. 
 
 GREENLAND. If we turn our attention to the 
 native inhabitants of Greenland, we there find them 
 living exclusively on animal substances. Sometimes, 
 indeed, they find a few berries, which, for a treat, 
 they preserve in blubber ; and sometimes they make 
 a meal of the sea-weed which they pick up from the 
 shore ; but these are merely exceptions to the general 
 rule. 
 
 They have advanced so far in the arts of civilized 
 life as to receive parties and provide entertainments. 
 
OF EATING. 27 
 
 These usually consist of three or four dishes, and it 
 is considered polite in a stranger to require great 
 pressing before he partakes of anything. When we 
 consider what these dishes are composed of, we would 
 be apt to imagine that great pressing would be abso- 
 lutely necessary. The greatest delicacy, in many 
 cases, is part of a whale's tail, rendered soft and 
 easy of digestion by being half putrid, or, perhaps, 
 a seal's carcase in the same delicious state. By way 
 of dainties, they sometimes present the flesh of bears, 
 belugas, sharks, dogs, gulls, and bull-heads. 
 
 When they wish to treat a European with extra- 
 ordinary politeness, before offering him a piece of 
 meat, they lick off the blood and dirt with their 
 tongues ; and, moreover, it is considered a gross in- 
 sult to decline the gift. 
 
 The seal, being generally abundant and easily 
 caught, constitutes nearly the whole of their food ; 
 the most important additions being fish and sea-fowl. 
 Train oil is used for preserving their food, and blub- 
 ber is principally eaten to the dried smelt. 
 
 Their great time for feasting is when they happen 
 to kill a whale, or find one dead on the shore ; in 
 which case every one runs to the prize, cutting off 
 and carrying away as much blubber as he can obtain. 
 
 Their cooking is performed in vessels of pot-stone, 
 suspended over lamps, or in metal cauldrons in the 
 open air, and is in accordance with the disgusting 
 
28 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 dirtiness of their other habits. The vessels in which 
 they cook are never cleaned, except in being licked 
 by the dogs ; and the meat, when taken out, is 
 simply laid on the ground, or perhaps on an old skin, 
 not much cleaner. 
 
 In the interior of Greenland there exists a horde 
 of savages, who are, perhaps, the most indiscriminate 
 feeders of all. Every animal which falls into their 
 clutches is made food of, from the bodies of their 
 enemies down to those delicate zoological specimens 
 which they find on each others' heads. In times of 
 scarcity they wander to the coast, and subsist upon 
 sea-weed. 
 
 As might naturally be supposed, there is not much 
 variety in the food used by all the barbarous tribes 
 inhabiting north of sixty degrees. Vegetables in 
 those high latitudes scarcely exist, and of animals 
 there are not many. The few differences which are 
 observable between the various countries in this re- 
 spect, consist chiefly in the preparation of their 
 scanty bill of fare, though they are very often content 
 to take it in its simplest form, namely, without any 
 preparation at all. 
 
 LAPLAND. The Laplanders live principally upon 
 dried fish, and the flesh of the reindeer and bear. 
 They make a kind of bread which is composed of 
 the pounded bones of fishes, mixed with the tender 
 are left as the priest's perquisites, a sort of post- 
 
OF EATING. 29 
 
 bark of the pine or birch free. Their usual drink is 
 whale-oil, or water in which juniper berries have been 
 infused. 
 
 Their burial customs are not a little singular, and 
 as they involve the interesting subject of eatables, 
 they are apropos of our present subject. When they 
 bury a corpse, they put into the coffin an axe, a flint 
 and steel, a flask of brandy, some venison, and dried 
 fish. With the axe the deceased is supposed to hew 
 down the bushes or boughs that may obstruct his 
 passage in the other world ; the provisions are for 
 him to subsist on during the journey ; and the flint 
 and steel are designed for striking a light, should he 
 find himself in the dark at the day of judgment. 
 
 The Muscovite Laplanders observe other ceremo- 
 nies still more gross. They not only supply the 
 defunct with money on his own account, but likewise 
 provide him with money for the porter of Paradise, 
 and a certificate from the priest, directed to St. 
 Peter, specifying that the bearer has lived like a good 
 Christian, and deserves to be admitted into heaven. 
 They walk in procession several times round the 
 body, demanding in a whining tone the reason of 
 his leaving them. After several other equally im- 
 portant mummeries, the body is conveyed to the 
 place of interment on a sledge, drawn by a reindeer, 
 and this, together with the clothes of the deceased, 
 mortem offering. Three days after the funeral, the 
 
30 
 
 ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 kinsmen and friends of the departed are invited to 
 an entertainment, where they eat the flesh of the 
 reindeer which had the honour to drag the corpse to 
 the burying-ground. 
 
OF EATING. 31 
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The immense quantity of Animal Food required by the inha- 
 bitants of high latitudes The reason for this Religious 
 Fastings modified to suit different Climates Dispensation 
 in favour of several kinds of water-birds. 
 
 ONE striking peculiarity of those countries within 
 and bordering the arctic circle is, that the inhabi- 
 tants require four or five times more food than the 
 inhabitants of temperate climates. Even Englishmen 
 who are stationed at the Fur Companies' factories 
 find it necessary to eat nearly as much as the natives 
 in order to keep up their health and strength. The 
 ordinary allowance of buffalo beef, or other animal 
 food, at those establishments, is from ten to twelve 
 pounds a-day for each man. 
 
 From which it seems obvious that the intense cold 
 of these regions gives greater tone and activity to 
 the digestive organs, and at the same time takes 
 away that disgust to certain gross and oily articles 
 of food which appears to be so natural to the inhabi- 
 tants of a milder atmosphere. It is well known 
 that Europeans, who spend the winter at Nova 
 Zembla, are obliged to follow the example of the 
 natives, by drinking the blood of the reindeer and 
 eating raw flesh. 
 
32 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 le 
 
 r ? 
 
 This change of the quality and increase of the 
 quantity seems to be absolutely necessary to suppor 
 the great expenditure of animal heat, occasioned by 
 the lowness of the temperature. 
 
 On the other hand, the Brahmins of India, the in- 
 habitants of the Canary Islands, and of the Brazils, 
 &c., who live almost exclusively on herbs, grains, 
 and roots, inhabit a climate, against the excessive 
 heat of which they have to seek means of protection ; 
 now, the digestion of vegetables is attended with 
 less heat and irritation. The philosophical or reli- 
 gious sects, by which the abstinence from animal 
 food was considered as a meritorious act, were all in- 
 stituted in warm climates. The school of Pythagoras 
 flourished in Greece, and the Anchorets, who in the be- 
 ginning of the Christian religion peopled the solitude 
 of Thebais, could not have endured such long fastings, 
 or supported themselves on dates and water, in a more 
 severe climate. In proof of this, the monks who re- 
 moved into different parts of Europe, were obliged 
 to relax the excessive severity of such a regimen, 
 and yield to the irresistible influence of the climate. 
 The most austere came to add to vegetables, which 
 formed the base of their food, eggs, butter, fish, and 
 even water-fowl. In books of casuistry, it may be 
 seen on what ridiculous grounds there was granted a 
 dispensation in favour of plovers, water-hens, wild 
 ducks, snipes, scoters, birds whose brown flesh, more 
 
OF EATING. 33 
 
 animalized and more heating, ought to have heen 
 proscribed from the kitchens of the monasteries much 
 more strictly than that of common poultry. 
 
 To the inhabitants of warm countries temperance, 
 or even occasional abstinence, is no very difficult vir- 
 tue ; northern nations, on the contrary, are voracious 
 from instinct and necessity. 
 
 They swallow enormous quantities of food, and 
 prefer those substances which in digestion produce 
 the most heat. Obliged to struggle incessantly 
 against the action of cold, which tends to benumb 
 the vital powers, to suspend every organic motion, 
 their life is but a continued act of resistance to ex- 
 ternal influences. Those nations that occupy the 
 confines of the habitable globe, in which man is 
 scarcely able to withstand the severity of the climate, 
 the inhabitants of Kamschatka, the Samoiedes, and 
 Esquimaux, live on the rank and stimulating flesh of 
 whales, walruses, bears, beavers, otters, and foxes ; 
 and on fish that, in the heaps in which they are piled 
 up, have already undergone a certain degree of pu- 
 trefactive fermentation. The abuse of spirituous 
 liquors is fatal to the European transported to the 
 burning climate of the West Indies ; the Russian 
 drinks spirituous liquors with a sort of impunity, 
 and lives to an advanced age amidst excesses under 
 which an inhabitant of the south of Europe would 
 sink. 
 
 3 
 
34 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Food of the Calmuc Tartars Extreme hospitality of the 
 Cochin-Chinese Description of a Chinese Entertainment in 
 high life Food of the lower orders Indiscriminate feed- 
 ing of the Natives of Siam, Pegu, and Aracan Healthy 
 regimen of the Ladrone Islanders. 
 
 TARTARY. The wandering Calmuc Tartars eat 
 the flesh of horses, wild asses, and other animals, 
 either raw, or with a slight degree of preparation 
 which it very often undergoes by putrefying under 
 their saddles. Their common drink is mare's milk, 
 fermented with the flour of millet. 
 
 COCHIN-CHINA. The Cochin-Chinese are repre- 
 sented as frugal, and hospitable to the following 
 degree : A Cochin-Chinese traveller, who has not 
 money sufficient to defray his expenses at an inn, 
 enters the first house of the town or village he arrives 
 at, where he waits for the hour of dinner, takes part 
 with the family, and goes away when he thinks 
 proper, without speaking a word, or any person ask- 
 ing him a single question. If such a summary 
 method of obtaining the great meal were established 
 in England, there is every reason to believe that it 
 would meet with general encouragement. 
 
 In most countries eggs are considered best when 
 
OF EATING. ,'jf> 
 
 new-laid, but in Cochin-China putrid and half- 
 hatched eggs are reckoned delicacies, and are sold 
 for thirty per cent, more than fresh ones. 
 
 CHINA. The Chinese are famous for the richness 
 and variety of their entertainments, although some 
 of their viands are rather peculiar. 
 
 Captain Laplace attended one of their feasts, which 
 he describes. He says, "The first course was laid 
 out in a great number of saucers, and consisted of 
 various relishes in a cold state, among which were 
 salted earthworms, prepared and dried, but so cut 
 up that I fortunately did not know what they were 
 until I had swallowed them ; smoked fish and ham, 
 both of them cut up into extremely small slices ; 
 besides which there was what they call Japan leather, 
 a sort of darkish skin, hard and tough, with a strong 
 and far from agreeable taste, and which seemed to 
 have been macerated for some time in water. All 
 these dishes, without exception, swam in soup. On 
 one side figured pigeons' eggs cooked in gravy, to- 
 gether with ducks and fowls cut very small, and 
 immersed in a dark-coloured sauce ; on the other, 
 little balls made of sharks' fins, pounded shrimps, 
 and maggots of an immense size. 
 
 " I had great difficulty in seizing my prey in the 
 midst of these several bowls filled with gravy. In 
 vain I tried, in imitation of my host, to hold their 
 wretched substitute for a fork between the thumb and 
 
36 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 the first two fingers of the right hand, for the cursed 
 chop-sticks slipped aside every moment, leaving be- 
 hind them the unhappy little morsel which I coveted. 
 It is true that the master of the house came to my 
 relief with his two instruments, which, a few moments 
 before, had been in contact with lips tolerably im- 
 bued with snuff and tobacco. I could very well ha^e 
 dispensed with such assistance, for my stomach had 
 already much ado to support the various ragouts, 
 each one more surprising than another, which I had 
 been obliged to taste of, nolens volens. However, I 
 contrived to eat, with tolerable propriety, a soup 
 prepared with the famous birds' nests, in which the 
 Chinese are such epicures. The substance thus 
 served up is reduced into very thin filaments, trans- 
 parent as isinglass, and resembling vermicelli, with 
 little or no 'taste." This is generally accompanied 
 with pigeons' eggs boiled hard, and eaten with soy. 
 A Chinese host is not satisfied that his guests have 
 done justice to his fare until they begin to emit those 
 sonorous eructations which usually proceed from an 
 overloaded stomach ; not squeamishly stifled, but 
 boldly sent forth, indisputable evidence of the great- 
 ness of their entertainer's hospitality ! And this is 
 actually considered a mark of politeness. 
 
 Animals that in England would be looked on with 
 disgust and destroyed, are by the Chinese regarded 
 as delicacies. Among others, a grub which breeds 
 
OF EATING. 
 
 37 
 
 in the sugarcane, the caterpillar of the sphinx-moth, 
 and the common earthworm are much relished. 
 And, moreover, their dishes are frequently cooked 
 with castor oil. 
 
 Amongst the poorer class of Chinese the feeding 
 is almost as indiscriminate as amongst the northern 
 savages. Cats and dogs, especially when they have 
 been well fed, are considered capital eating; and 
 they can make a tolerable dinner of a drowned rat. 
 The rich, themselves, consider the wild cat, when in 
 good condition, a dainty dish. 
 
 There is scarcely an object of commerce that is 
 not hawked about in the streets of Pekin by the 
 
38 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 itinerant merchants. Among the most extraordinary 
 of these may be reckoned the travelling cook : he 
 carries about with him the necessary apparatus and 
 utensils for cooking, a portable fire to fry, roast, or 
 boil, together with meats ready prepared, and a 
 varied stock of the raw material. These itinerant 
 cooks dress up and prepare an astonishing variety of 
 dishes, such as chesnuts cooked in honey, sheep's 
 head and trotters, pig meat of all kinds, and even 
 the flesh of that quadruped which BufFon wished to 
 avenge for the disdain with which he was treated, in 
 spite of his good qualities, of which patience, docility 
 and sobriety are not the least. Such is the penchant 
 of the common people for the flesh of animals, that 
 every kind of animal substance (which is not abso- 
 lutely poisonous) is bought and devoured.* 
 
 In the eating of dogs and cats, however, the 
 Chinese are not peculiar ; hundreds of dogs and cats 
 are annually consumed by the inhabitants of the 
 French capital. There is certainly one trifling dif- 
 ference in the two cases : the pig-tailed disciple of 
 
 * " Tout ce qui est viande," disent les Missionnaires, " se 
 vende et se mange. La police, qui est si sage, si humaine, et 
 si admirable dans tant de choses, a plie, sur cet article, jusqu'a 
 tolerer de vrais abus, et jusqu'a conniver a des especes de 
 boucheries et de ventes que nous n'oserions nommer." 
 
 " La chair," dit le P. Amiot, " de la plupart des animaux 
 domestiques morts de vieillesse, de maladie, ou tout couverts 
 d'ulceres, font leurs delices." 
 
OF EATING. 39 
 
 Confucius is fully aware of the specific nature of 
 the animal which he is devouring, while the poor 
 victimized Parisian fondly imagines he is feasting 
 upon a hare or a rabbit at the least.* 
 
 PEGU, ARACAN, Si AM. The inhabitants of 
 these countries are not more delicate in their eating 
 than the lower class of Chinese ; they eat, without 
 distinction, rats, mice, serpents, putrefied fish, and 
 all sorts of garbage. 
 
 LADRONE ISLANDS. The inhabitants of the 
 Ladrone Islands subsist solely on roots, fruits, and 
 fish ; they are, nevertheless, muscular and healthy, 
 and live to an extreme old age. 
 
 * Query Are there no dogs or cats served up at the eating- 
 houses in our own metropolis ? 
 
40 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Legalized cannibalism of the Battas of Sumatra. Odd proof 
 of filial affection in the Cingalese. Habits of the Hindoos. 
 Fruit-eating in Persia. 
 
 SUMATRA. The most extraordinary, and at the 
 same time the most revolting eating customs that 
 are to be found in any country, however barbarous, 
 are those practised by the Battas, a numerous nation 
 in the island of Sumatra, who are habitual and sys- 
 tematic cannibals. What makes this appear the 
 more extraordinary is, that they are, in general, to- 
 lerably educated, the majority of them being able to 
 read and write. They acknowledge a Supreme Being, 
 are fair and honorable in their dealings, and their 
 country is highly cultivated. Yet these people, so 
 far advanced in civilization, actually have laws to 
 regulate the eating of criminals and prisoners of war. 
 
 Sir Stamford Raffles, who investigated this subject 
 with the greatest zeal, gives the following as the 
 result of his researches. 
 
 " It is the universal and standing law of the 
 Battas, that death by eating shall be inflicted on the 
 following crimes : Adultery ; midnight robbery ; 
 
OF EATING. 4 1 
 
 treacherous attacks on a house, village, or person ; 
 and on all prisoners of war. 
 
 " In all these cases it is lawful for the victims to be 
 eaten ; and they are eaten alive, that is to say, they 
 are not previously put to death. The criminal or 
 prisoner, as the case may be, is tied to a stake, with 
 his arms extended: the chief enemy, when it is a 
 prisoner, or the chief party injured, in other cases, 
 has the first selection ; and after he has cut off his 
 slice, others cut off pieces, according to their taste or 
 fancy, until all the flesh is devoured. It is eaten 
 either raw or grilled, with a mixed condiment of 
 Chili pepper and salt. When the party is a prisoner 
 of war, he is eaten immediately, and on the spot." 
 
 From the clear and concurring testimony of all 
 parties, it is certain that it is the practice NOT to 
 kill the victim till the whole of the flesh cut off by 
 the party is eaten, should he live so long. The 
 chief, or injured party, then comes forward and cuts 
 off the head, which he carries home as a trophy. 
 
 When a criminal is sentenced to be eaten, he is 
 secured and kept for two or three days, till every 
 person is assembled. He is then eaten quietly, and 
 in cold blood, with as much ceremony, or perhaps 
 more, than attends the execution of a capital sentence 
 in Europe. 
 
 The brains belong to the chief captor, or to the 
 injured party, who usually preserves them in a 
 
42 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 bottle, for purposes of witchcraft. The palms of 
 the hands and soles of the feet are the favorite de- 
 licacies ; and many drink the blood. Formerly they 
 ate their parents when too old for work. 
 
 Sir Stamford Raffles concludes his account by 
 saying, " I have also a great deal to say on the 
 other side, for these people have many virtues. I 
 prize them highly." 
 
 CEYLON. It is affirmed by historians of the last 
 century that the natives of Ceylon were in the habit 
 of feeding on human flesh, and that they even ate 
 the dead bodies of their parents, instead of burying 
 them, imagining that no other sepulchre could be 
 so fit for them as their own bowels, since thereby 
 they are changed into their own substance, and live 
 again in themselves. 
 
 This custom of giving so excessive a proof of filial 
 affection is likewise related of the ancient Scythians, 
 and possibly it might have been practised by the in- 
 habitants of Ceylon ; but in both countries it is now 
 entirely abolished. 
 
 HINDOSTAN. As an extreme contrast to the car- 
 nivorous tribes, we may mention the Brahmins of 
 India, who religiously abstain from every kind of 
 animal food, and even think it a crime to destroy 
 the gnats, fleas, or other vermin by which they are 
 annoyed. They throw rice and beans into the rivers 
 to nourish the fishes, and grain upon the ground to 
 
OF EATING. 43 
 
 feed the birds. When they meet a hunter or a 
 fisherman, they earnestly beg of him to desist ; and 
 if he be deaf to their entreaties, they offer him money 
 for his gun or net ; and if he be still obstinate they 
 trouble the waters to frighten away the fishes, and 
 set up hideous cries to scare away the birds and 
 other game. The food of these people consists of 
 milk and vegetables. 
 
 PERSIA. Although the use of animal food is by 
 no means rare in Persia, and the flesh of the wild 
 ass is esteemed a luxury, yet their favorite food is 
 drawn from the vegetable kingdom. It is said to 
 be no uncommon thing for a Persian to eat ten or 
 twelve pounds of melons ; and, of course, it is not 
 surprising to learn that many of them fall a sacrifice 
 to this excessive appetite for fruit. 
 
44 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Gluttony of the Australians, and their promiscuous bill of fare. 
 
 AUSTRALIA. Let us now direct our attention to 
 that extraordinary land Australia, and there we shall 
 find the native barbarians almost entirely carnivorous. 
 Their food consists of kangaroos, kangaroo-rats, 
 opossums, bandacoots, which are animals resembling 
 rabbits, various sorts of insects, and wild honey. 
 
 A recent traveller, who spent several years in that 
 country, and frequently accompanied the savages in 
 their hunting excursions, was an eyewitness to many 
 of their singular habits. On one occasion he saw 
 a native cutting away with his tomahawk into the 
 bark of a tree, from which he soon extracted about 
 seven or eight grubs, thick, fat, yellow insects, 
 which he put into his mouth head, legs, and all, 
 one after another, and pronounced them tapping 
 his chest capital ! 
 
 He continues "As we proceeded, I observed 
 another digging away at the trunk of a rotten tree, 
 from which he soon brought to light a nest of small 
 ants, which were completely covered with little 
 white eggs. As soon as he had dug them out in a 
 mass, he cut a piece of bark from the elbow of a 
 
OF EATING. 45 
 
 gum tree, which formed an oblong concave vessel, 
 in which he placed the nest of ants with their eggs, 
 and conveyed them to the encampment. I inquired 
 what he was going to do with them ; he replied 
 Good food good food." 
 
 The manner of eating these insects is as curious . 
 as the repast itself. " The black, having procured 
 some stringy bark, commenced pulling it apart, until 
 he had converted it into a sort of tow. With a 
 parcel of this he took up as many ants and eggs as 
 the tow could hold, and then, carefully putting them 
 in his mouth, he chewed them very composedly. 
 After throwing out the quid, he took another supply ; 
 and so on, until he had finished the whole. He 
 described them to be very sweet." 
 
 All eatable insects they swallow while alive. Even 
 the common bee they put into their mouths whole, 
 for the sake of the honey contained in it. Almost 
 all the quadrupeds, as well as reptiles, that are 
 found in the country, are eaten .by them; but the 
 opossum, which is the most numerous, and most 
 easily procured, is their principal food. 
 
 They appear to have but one method of cooking 
 their meat: whether it be quadruped, reptile, or 
 fish, it is carelessly thrown on the fire, and devoured 
 piecemeal, as it becomes cooked. 
 
 The quantity they can eat is truly astonishing, 
 and scarcely credible. " On one occasion" says the 
 
46 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 narrator, " four natives came to the tent late in the 
 evening, each having a large kangaroo slung over 
 his shoulder. As they were very hungry, cooking 
 operations immediately commenced. They began 
 by extracting the sinews from the tail ; then placing 
 the animals on the fire, until all the hair was singed 
 off, they held them by the tails and rubbed the 
 singed and crumpled parts smooth with the soles of 
 their feet. Afterwards, that part of the kangaroo 
 to be eaten first (which is generally the tail) was again 
 placed over the fire, and constantly turned, so as to 
 become thoroughly heated; they then divided the 
 joints of the tail with the tomahawk, and ate them 
 separately. Next an incision was made from the 
 chest, through the abdomen, the entrails taken out 
 and thrown aside, after which they took out from 
 the fire several heated stones, which they pushed 
 with their tomahawks into the carcase. The blood 
 hissed, and the steam issued forth, bringing with it 
 a savoury smell. They then tore out the heart, 
 liver, and lungs, which they instantly devoured, and 
 licked their hands, reeking with the blood. 
 
 "Thus they continued, roasting and devouring, 
 with gluttonous appetites, for several hours, until 
 they became so crammed, that they were unable to 
 go to the stream near at hand for water, and begged 
 me to send for some. I sent for a large bucket-full, 
 which I sweetened with sugar; and when they had 
 
OF EATING. 
 
 47 
 
 fairly emptied its contents, they faintly chanted a 
 sort of tune, and fell asleep. In the morning they 
 consumed the remaining fragments of their kan- 
 garoos. I do not exaggerate in stating, that within 
 a space of eighteen hours, these four natives devoured 
 from twenty-five to thirty pounds of flesh each, 
 besides no very small portion of bread." 
 
 The eggs of a large species of snake found in 
 Australia, which in size resemble pigeons' eggs, are 
 eaten both by natives and Europeans, and are said to 
 be delicious when roasted in wood ashes. 
 
48 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Cannibal Feasts of the New Zealanders. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND. Here we find the same revolting 
 feasts of cannibalism, which we have already de- 
 scribed, in speaking of the Battas of Sumatra. In 
 New Zealand, however, they do not devour their 
 victims in a living state. 
 
 The method they adopt to cook the flesh has been 
 very accurately described by an English sailor, who 
 was a compulsory resident on the island during a 
 period of twelve years. This description relates to 
 the cooking of several of his companions, who were 
 captured at the same time with himself. 
 
 "After they were killed" he says, "some of the 
 natives proceeded to dig eight large holes, about a 
 foot deep, into which they put a quantity of dry 
 wood, and covered it over with a number of stones. 
 They then set fire to the wood, which continued 
 burning till the stones became red hot. In the 
 mean time some of them were employed in stripping 
 the bodies of my slaughtered shipmates, which they 
 afterwards cut up. 
 
 "The stones being red hot, the largest pieces of 
 the burning wood were pulled from under them and 
 thrown away, and some green bushes, having been 
 first dipped in water, were laid round the edges of 
 
OF EATING. 49 
 
 the stones, while they were at the same time covered 
 over with some green leaves. The mangled bodies 
 were then laid upon the top of the leaves, with a 
 quantity of leaves also strewed over them ; and after 
 this a straw mat was spread over the top of each 
 hole. About three pints of water were poured upon 
 each mat, which, running through the stones, 
 caused a great steam ; and then the whole was in- 
 stantly covered over with earth. The whole of this 
 preparation took place in the evening. 
 
 " We got up the next morning, as soon as it was 
 daylight, and went and sat down outside the house. 
 Here we found a number of women busy making 
 baskets of green flax, into which the bodies of our 
 messmates, that had been cooking all night, were 
 put. A quantity of potatoes had also been prepared 
 by a similar process. 
 
 " I observed some of the children tearing the flesh 
 from the bones of our comrades, before they were 
 taken from the fires. A short time after this the 
 chiefs assembled, and the baskets being placed 
 before them, they proceeded to divide the flesh 
 amongst the people. They also sent us a basket of 
 potatoes, and some of the flesh, which had the ap- 
 pearance of pork ; but instead of partaking of it, we 
 shuddered at the very idea of such an unnatural and 
 horrid custom, and made a present of it to one of 
 the natives." 
 
 4 
 
50 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Habits and customs of the Hottentots Reptiles, Insects, and 
 Monkeys used by the Mexicans Expedients to subdue hun- 
 ger Horseflesh, Vipers, Snails, Frogs, Toads. 
 
 We must now traverse the broad Atlantic, and pay 
 our respects to the good people of Africa. 
 
 CAFFRARIA. The culinary arrangements of the 
 Hottentots and Caffres are at once simple and ex- 
 peditious : their unfastidious palates are easily pleased 
 So long as the quantity is satisfactory, the manner 
 of its preparation is a matter of very minor impor 
 tance. Buffalo-beef, which is their staple article o 
 consumption, is merely cut into slices, and held over 
 the fire till it is half-broiled : this is eaten withou 
 bread, and often in the first stage of putrefaction 
 Grease or tallow is the great dainty of the Hottentots, 
 which they are not only fond of eating, but, when 
 melted, they also drink, without feeling the leasi 
 inconvenience therefrom. 
 
 Idleness is the predominant vice of the Hottentots 
 Some of them sleep nearly the whole of their time, 
 and are only roused to activity by the urgent call oi 
 hunger, which forces them at length to rise and seek 
 for food. When they have killed a buffalo, they laj 
 themselves around a fire to broil their meat, and eat 
 
OF EATING. 51 
 
 and sleep by turns, as long as there is anything left to 
 eat, and till hunger again drives them to hunt for more. 
 
 It is a custom among the Hottentots, that when a 
 cow is barren she must be killed ; but in this case 
 the flesh must be eaten by married people only, and 
 not by those who are single. 
 
 The Hottentots, in common with several other 
 nations which we have already noticed, are in the 
 habit of feeding on various kinds of insects, parti- 
 cularly those large caterpillars from which butter- 
 flies and moths are produced ; also white ants, grass- 
 hoppers, snakes, and some sorts of spiders. 
 
 The Caffres eat lions ; but Bruce, the celebrated 
 traveller, was listened to with incredulous ears when 
 he related that he had dined on the flesh of a lion in 
 the North of Africa. 
 
 The Moors in WEST BARBAUY, before they kill a 
 hedgehog, which with them is esteemed a princely 
 dish, rub his back against the ground, by holding 
 his feet betwixt two (as men do a saw when they are 
 sawing stones), till it has done squeaking, and then 
 cut its throat. They are also remarkably fond of 
 honey-comb, with the young bees in it, while they 
 still resemble gentles. 
 
 AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES. In Mexico, 
 the banana forms the principal food of the inhabitants. 
 When gathered green, they cut it into slices, and lay 
 them in the sun to dry. When sufficiently dry, 
 
52 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 they pound them into meal, which they use for the 
 same purposes that flour is generally used for. 
 
 The cassava, though not so abundant, is extremely 
 nutritive, forming, when smoked and grated, a sub- 
 stance which is not subject to the attacks of insects ; 
 and this constitutes one of their chief articles of 
 provision on long journeys. 
 
 Frogs, of which they have three very large species, 
 are much in request, as an article of diet, in Mexico, 
 and are considered as good as turtle. 
 
 A large fly, which is produced near the Mexican 
 Lake, lays innumerable eggs on the rushes which 
 border the shores. These eggs are collected by the 
 natives, who make them into a sort of paste, for sale 
 in the markets, where it is eagerly purchased for 
 food, and is said to resemble caviare. Moreover, 
 many kinds of insects, even in the mature state, are 
 dried, reduced to powder, and made into paste, for 
 the same purpose. 
 
 But the most remarkable food used in Mexico, as 
 also in many of the West India Islands, is the flesh 
 of the monkeys with which most of their forests are 
 plentifully stocked. To prepare this dish, the body 
 is scalded in order to remove the hair, and after this 
 operation has been neatly 'performed, the creature 
 has the exact appearance of a dead child ; and, o 
 course, would be rather ornamental than useful on 
 the table of an Englishman. 
 
OF EATING. 53 
 
 It is not at all improbable that many savage nations 
 may have been accused of cannibalism merely from 
 the circumstance of their indulging in this sort of 
 food ; for, according to Ulloa, the appearance of the 
 monkey of Panama, when being cooked, is precisely 
 that of a human body. 
 
 The American Indians are very fond of rattle- 
 snakes, boiled or stewed. The anaconda and other 
 boas afford a wholesome diet to the natives of the 
 countries they inhabit. Crocodiles, iguanas, and 
 other lizards, are eaten in South America and the 
 Bahama Islands. 
 
 The sloth is also a common article of diet in 
 South America, and is said to have the flavour of 
 boiled mutton. The tapir and the armadillo are 
 eaten by the Brazilian and West Indian ; and the 
 opossum is eaten in Peru. 
 
 Humboldt says the children in some parts of 
 America may be seen dragging enormous centipedes 
 from their holes, and crunching them between their 
 teeth without compunction. 
 
 A peculiar expedient resorted to by the American 
 Indians, when they undertake a long journey, and 
 are like to be destitute of provision, is to mix the 
 juice of tobacco with powdered shells, in the form of 
 little balls, which they keep in their mouths, and the 
 gradual solution serves to counteract the uneasy 
 craving of the stomach. 
 
54 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Upon the same principle a glass of gin will take 
 away the appetite of such as are not accustomed to 
 it. Lord Byron, in order to keep his figure thin and 
 genteel, used frequently to fast for two or three 
 days, at which times he subdued the sensation of 
 hunger by an occasional glass of brandy. 
 
 In various countries of civilized Europe the in- 
 habitants use, as food, many substances, the very 
 idea of which would cause disgust and loathing in 
 the more fastidious Englishman. 
 
 In Denmark and Sweden, horseflesh is publicly 
 exposed for sale in the markets ; and Duchatelet 
 asserts that a very large quantity is consumed by the 
 inhabitants of Paris. The knackers and their fami- 
 lies, who live principally on it, have a remarkably 
 robust and healthy appearance. 
 
 Vipers, both stewed and made into soup, consti- 
 tuted, in former times, an important item in the 
 Materia Medica ; and at the present time they are 
 said to be eaten in many parts of France and Italy. 
 
 Snails are taken for food in many parts of Europe, 
 and are reckoned both pleasant and nourishing. 
 With the Romans, snails were in great esteem. 
 Fulvius Hilpinus, not long before the civil war 
 between Csesar and Pompey, made in his garden 
 several inclosures, for the feeding of snails, keeping 
 every species by itself: there might be seen the 
 white snails of Reate, the gray and great snails 
 
 is of 
 
OF EATING. 55 
 
 Illyricum, the fruitful snails of Africa, and the 
 Solitan snails, most famous and excellent of all 
 others ; which he suffered not to feed upon shrubs 
 and plants, but gave them a kind of pap made of 
 sweet wine, honey, and flour, by which they were 
 fed so fat, and became so wholesome and delicious, 
 that they were much sought after, and sold for eighty 
 quadrants a dishful. 
 
 The esculent or edible frog is considered quite a 
 delicacy in France, Germany, and Italy. Toads are 
 also eaten by the French, although in blissful igno- 
 rance. The frogs brought to the markets in Paris 
 are caught in the stagnant waters round Montmorency, 
 in the Bois de Vincennes, Bois de Boulogne &c. 
 The people who collect them separate the hind- 
 quarters and legs from the body; after carefully 
 skinning them, they arrange them on skewers, as 
 larks are done in this country, and bring them in 
 that state to market. In seeking for frogs, these 
 dealers often meet with toads, which they prepare 
 and skewer along with the frogs : now, as it is im- 
 possible, except by a scientific eye, to determine 
 whether these denuded hind quarters belong to frogs 
 or toads, it continually happens that great numbers 
 of the supposed frogs, sold in Paris for food, are 
 actually toads : thus the Parisian is, (literally and 
 without a figure of speech) a " toad-eater." 
 
56 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Curious description of an Abyssinian feast. 
 
 ABYSSINIA. Perhaps the most extraordinary mode 
 of procuring a dinner, of which we have any record, 
 is that employed hy the inhabitants of a district in 
 Abyssinia. 
 
 Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, relates that w r hen 
 he was at no great distance from Axum, the ancient 
 capital of Abyssinia, he fell in with three of the 
 natives driving a cow. They halted near a brook, 
 and the drivers suddenly tripped up the cow, and gave 
 the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground. 
 One of them then got across her neck, holding down 
 her head by the horns, the other twisted the halter 
 about her forefeet, while the third, who had a knife 
 in his hand, to Mr. Bruce' s very great surprise, in- 
 stead of taking her by the throat, got astride upon 
 her belly before her hind legs, and cut two pieces, 
 thicker and longer than our ordinary beefsteaks, out 
 of the upper part of the buttock. 
 
 One of them still continued holding the head, 
 while the other two were busied in dressing the 
 wound. This was not done in an ordinary manner : 
 the skin, which had covered the flesh that was taken 
 
 
OF EATING. 57 
 
 away, had been left entire ; this was carefully laid 
 over the wound, and fastened to the corresponding 
 part by two or three small skewers or pins. At the 
 river side where they were, they had prepared a 
 cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the suture. 
 After regaling themselves on the flesh, raw and yet 
 quivering with life, they forced the animal to rise, 
 and drove it on gently as before. 
 
 On convenient occasions, the Abyssinians of the 
 best fashion in the villages, courtiers in the palace, 
 or citizens in the town, of both sexes, meet together 
 to dine between twelve and one o'clock. A long 
 table is set in the middle of a large room, and 
 benches beside it for the number of guests who are 
 invited. A cow or bull (one or more, as the com- 
 pany is numerous) is brought close to the door, and 
 his feet strongly tied. The skin .that hangs down 
 under his chin and throat is cut only so deep as to 
 arrive at the fat, and, by ;the separation of a few 
 small blood-vessels, six or seven drops of blood fall 
 upon the ground. Having satisfied the Mosaical law, 
 according to their conception, by pouring these six 
 or seven drops upon the ground, two or more of 
 them fall to work. On the back of the beast, 
 and on each side of the spine, they cut skin-deep ; 
 then putting their fingers between the flesh and the 
 skin, they strip the hide of the animal half way 
 down his ribs, and so on to the buttock, cutting the 
 
58 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 skin wherever it presents any impediment to their 
 operations. All the flesh of the buttocks is then 
 cut off, and in solid square pieces, without hones, 
 or much effusion of blood ; and the prodigious noise 
 the animal makes is a signal for the company to sit 
 down to table. 
 
 There are then laid before every guest, instead of 
 plates, round cakes, about twice as big as a pancake, 
 and somewhat thicker and tougher. They are made of 
 a grain called teff ; and though of a sourish taste they 
 are far from being disagreeable, and are very easily 
 digested. Three or four of these cakes are generally 
 laid upon each other for the food of the person 
 opposite to whose seat they are placed ; and beneath 
 these four or five others of the ordinary bread, which 
 is of a blackish kind. These serve the master to 
 wipe his fingers .upon, and afterwards the servant 
 for bread to his dinner. 
 
 Two or three servants then come in with square 
 pieces of beef in their bare hands, and lay them upon 
 the cakes of teff. By this time all the guests have 
 knives in their hands ; the men have the large 
 crooked ones which they put to all sorts of uses 
 during the time of war, and the women have small 
 clasp knives, such as the worst of the kind made at 
 Birmingham. The company are so arranged that 
 one man sits between two women. The man first 
 cuts a thin piece off the large square, while you 
 
 iyet 
 
OF EATING. 59 
 
 see the motion of the fibres ; the women then cut it 
 lengthwise into strips, about the thickness of a finger, 
 and crosswise into square pieces, something smaller 
 than dice. This they lay upon a piece of the teff 
 bread, strongly powdered with Cayenne, or black 
 pepper, and fossil salt ; they then wrap it up in teff 
 bread like a cartridge. 
 
 In the mean time the man, having put up his 
 knife, with a hand resting on each woman's knee, 
 his body stooping, his head low and forward, and 
 mouth open very like an idiot, turns to the one 
 whose cartridge is first ready, who stuffs the whole 
 of it into his mouth, which so fills it that he is in 
 constant danger of being choked. The greater the 
 man would seem to be, the larger piece he takes in 
 his mouth; and the more noise he makes in chewing 
 it, the more polite he is thought to be. They have, 
 indeed, a proverb to this effect : " Beggars and 
 thieves only eat small pieces, or without making a 
 noise." Having dispatched the first mouthful, his 
 next female neighbour holds forth another cartridge, 
 which goes the same way; and so on till he is 
 satisfied. He never drinks till he has finished eating, 
 and before he begins, in gratitude to the fair ones 
 who fed him, he makes up two small rolls of the 
 beef and teff bread ; each of his neighbours then 
 opens her mouth at the same time, while with each 
 hand he puts in the roll. He then falls to drinking 
 
60 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 out of a large handsome horn ; the ladies eat till 
 they are satisfied, and then they all drink together. 
 A great deal of mirth and joke goes round, rarely 
 with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour. 
 
 During the whole of this time the victim at the 
 door still lives. As long as they can cut off flesh 
 from the other parts they do not meddle with the 
 thighs, or the parts where the great arteries are. At 
 last, they fall upon these also ; and the animal, bleed- 
 ing to death, becomes so tough, that the servants, 
 who have the rest of it to eat, are obliged to gnaw it 
 from the bones like dogs. 
 
 In the mean time, those within are very much 
 elevated ; love lights all its fires, and everything is 
 permitted with absolute freedom. There is no 
 coyness, no delays, no need of appointments or 
 retirement to gratify their wishes : the temple of 
 Bacchus becomes the temple of Venus. 
 
OF EATING. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Geophagists, or Earth-eaters The Wood and Bark of 
 Trees used as Food. 
 
 THE substances used as food, which we have 
 spoken of hitherto, although numerous and very 
 dissimilar, have, nevertheless, all been immediately 
 derived from the animal or vegetable kingdoms. We 
 must now descend to the mineral kingdom, for even 
 there substances exist, from which the human organs 
 of digestion appear to be able to extract considerable 
 nutriment. 
 
 THE OTTOMAQUES. We learn from Humboldt, 
 that " the Ottomaques on the banks of the Meta and 
 the Orinoco, feed on a fat unctuous earth, or a species 
 of pipeclay, tinged with a little oxide of iron. They 
 collect this clay very carefully, distinguishing it by 
 the taste ; they knead it into balls of four or five 
 inches in diameter, which they bake slightly before 
 a slow fire. Whole stacks of such provision are 
 seen piled up in their huts. These balls are soaked 
 in water when about to be used, and each individual 
 eats about a pound of the material every day. The 
 only addition which they make to this unnatural 
 fare consists of small fish, lizards, and fern roots. 
 
62 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 
 
 The quantity of clay that the Ottamaques consume, 
 and the greediness with which they devour it, seem 
 to prove that it does more than distend their hungry 
 stomachs, and that the organs of digestion have the 
 power of extracting from it something convertible 
 into animal substance." 
 
 The banks of the MACKENZIE RIVER, a few miles 
 above the Bear Lake, contain layers of a kind of 
 unctuous mud, which the Indians in that neighbour- 
 hood eat occasionally during seasons of scarcity, and 
 also take it even at other times for an amusement. 
 It is said to have a milky taste, and that the flavour 
 is by no means unpleasant. 
 
 The inhabitants of CAPUA are said to have for- 
 merly paid a tribute to the Neapolitans, for a kind 
 of earth called leucogaeum, which they made use of 
 in the preparation of a dish named alica. 
 
 ALEPPO. Russell, in his 'Natural History of 
 Aleppo,' relates that a kind of fuller's earth, called 
 byloon, is brought to that city in great quantities, 
 and carried about on asses to be sold in the streets. 
 This earth is mixed with dried rose-leaves, and made 
 up into balls. Its use as food is chiefly confined to 
 pregnant women and sickly girls. 
 
 In INDIA, lime is commonly eaten with the betel- 
 leaf. 
 
 In NEW GUINEA, the negroes, it is said, are in the 
 habit of eating a yellowish earth, and are so fond of 
 
OF EATING. 63 
 
 it, that when brought to America as slaves, no pu- 
 nishment can induce them to relinquish it, although 
 their health suffers materially in consequence. 
 
 In NEW CALEDONIA, the inhabitants make use of 
 a species of oolite as food, sometimes devouring as 
 much as a pound weight at once of this apparently 
 indigestible substance. 
 
 In several parts of PERU, the natives buy in the 
 markets a calcareous earth, which they reduce to a 
 fine powder, and mix with their coca. 
 
 In JAVA, little rolls of a reddish clay are sold in 
 the market-place, under the name of arnpo. Many 
 eat it to become thin, which is reckoned a great 
 beauty among the Javanese. 
 
 RUSSIA. An earthy substance, found on the 
 banks of the river Kamen-da-Maslo, is eaten in va- 
 rious ways, both by the Russians and the Tongousi. 
 It is of a yellowish colour, and not unpleasant in 
 taste ; but it is pernicious to the health, producing 
 various disorders, the most frequent of which is the 
 gravel. 
 
 In GERMANY it is well known that the workmen 
 in the freestone quarries of Kiffhausen spread upon 
 their bread, instead of butter, a very fine clay, which 
 they term stein-butter. 
 
 SWEDEN. A considerable tract on the shores of 
 Lake Lettnaggsjon, near Urnea, in Sweden, is com- 
 posed of a material, which, from its extreme fineness, 
 
64 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 resembles flour. This has long been known to the 
 natives by the name of bergmehl, or mountain meal ; 
 and it is used by them in considerable quantities, 
 mixed up with flour, as an article of food, experience 
 having taught them that it is highly nutritious. On 
 examination with the microscope, the bergmehl is 
 found to consist entirely of the shells of a species 
 of animalcule, which, having been accumulating from 
 age to age at the bottom of the waters in which the 
 living animal is found, form a stratum of consider- 
 able thickness. 
 
 Recent experiments in Germany have proved that 
 the wood of various trees may be converted into a 
 nutritious substance. The fibres of the birch, fir, 
 lime, beech, poplar, and elm, when dried, ground, 
 and sifted, so as to form a powder like coarse flour, 
 are not only capable of affording wholesome nourish- 
 ment to man or domestic animals, but with a little 
 culinary skill, constitute very palatable articles of 
 food. Cold water being poured on this wood-flour, 
 inclosed in a fine linen bag, it becomes quite milky. 
 
 The bark of trees, also, has been frequently used, 
 when prepared in a similar way, as a substitute for 
 other food. This is the barke-brod of the Norwe- 
 gians. 
 
OF EATING. 65 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Man becomes more fastidious in his diet as he advances in 
 civilization Impossibility of enumerating the substances 
 used as food by civilized nations Adulterations Doings of 
 the Parisian restaurateurs Refined method of adulterating 
 animal food Foie gras Brawn. 
 
 THE principle is by no means evident upon which 
 the inhabitants of civilized countries have agreed to 
 select some substances as edible, and to reject others. 
 That which is regarded as a luxury in one country 
 is by its neighbour abhorred as loathsome. An 
 Englishman is not easily persuaded to dine on snails 
 with an Italian on frogs with a Frenchman on 
 horse-flesh with a Tartar or on monkeys and lizards 
 with a West Indian. On one occasion this capricious 
 taste was carried so far, that the Neapolitans actually 
 refused to eat potatoes during a famine. 
 
 The only general principle which seems to prevail 
 is that in proportion as civilization advances, so 
 does man become more fastidious in his diet ; but 
 whether those substances which he selects and retains 
 in his bill of fare are in reality more wholesome and 
 nutritious than those which he discards, it is difficult 
 to determine. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 It has not been attempted to enumerate those suo- 
 stances which are used as food by the civilized na- 
 tions, of which Britain forms a part. The attempt 
 would be rather a speculative one at the best ; for, 
 as the generality of articles in ordinary use pass 
 through so many hands before they arrive at the 
 consumers, it would be extremely difficult in the 
 majority of instances to say precisely either what we 
 eat or what we drink. 
 
 Take, for example, a few of the things in daily use : 
 bread, milk, tea, coffee, chocolate, beer, wine ; we all 
 very well know that the commodities frequently pur- 
 chased under these names are little better than coarse 
 imitations of the genuine articles. Then, again, there 
 are certain ambiguous eatables known under the 
 various titles of German sausages, polonies, and 
 saveloys ; the reader's own imagination will readily 
 suggest the various substitutes which may be profit- 
 ably employed to save the beef and pork. 
 
 The following paragraph, which appeared in the 
 6 British Gazette' a short time ago, will throw some 
 light on this subject : 
 
 " Caution to Importers of Sausages. Bologna 
 sausages seem likely to be at a discount for some 
 time, in consequence of a ham-and-beef shop in the 
 suburbs of Brussels having, for several months past 
 been purchasing a considerable quantity of horse- 
 flesh, under the pretext of making lamp-black. I 
 
OF EATING. 67 
 
 was observed, at the same time, that he was making 
 a great number of Bologna sausages. The attention 
 of the police having been directed to these circum- 
 stances, a large quantity of suspicious sausages were 
 seized on the premises, and handed over to com- 
 petent judges to be analysed." So much for 
 sausages ! 
 
 Some interesting information relative to the doings 
 of the Parisian eating-house-keepers is given by 
 Sefton Glossmore,* in a letter to his friends. 
 
 He says, " Avoid the cheap restaurateurs ; I mean 
 those who give you five or six dishes, which you se- 
 lect out of 250, at thirty-two sous par tete. The 
 dishes are mysterious excellences, savoury and satis- 
 fying to your heart's content ; but if you have an 
 inquiring mind, speculations will arise, not calculated 
 altogether to strengthen your digestion. Horseflesh 
 and cat's flesh are reported to be employed as substi- 
 tutes for beef, and rabbit's, or hare's flesh; and not 
 long ago the police took the liberty of prying into 
 these doubtful points. The result of their inquisition 
 has had the sad effect of shaking the faith of the 
 Parisians in the identity of the dishes with those 
 described in the cartes ; and which a seizure of 2000 
 kilogrammes of horseflesh by the octroi officers at 
 the Barriere du Combat last week will not, I fear, 
 tend to re-establish. 
 
 * Lloyd's Pilferings from the Calais Post-bag. 
 
68 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " This cargo of carrion was on its road to one of 
 the great dining-houses at thirty-two sous a head ; 
 and the police have since heen ordered to visit all 
 these cheap eating-houses forthwith. The discovery 
 of a few score cat-skins on the premises of a traiteur, 
 in the Rue Montmartre, has raised a prejudice against 
 these unsuspicious-looking innocents ; and economi- 
 cal bachelors, who had fattened on their maiden 
 friends' lost pussies, and their rich ones' cast-off tits, 
 for years past, now (black ingratitude) join in the cry 
 against the restaurants par tete" 
 
 A much more refined method of adulterating 
 animal food, and one which is not so liable to detec- 
 tion, is that of fattening the animals to be used as 
 food on substances of a questionable description. 
 As an illustration of this : A lady of Algiers, who 
 some time ago buried one of her children, recently 
 obtained permission from the municipal authorities to 
 have the grave opened for the purpose of placing in 
 the coffin a stillborn infant. The coffin was found 
 entirely empty ; and an inquiry being instituted as 
 to the cause of this, it was clearly ascertained that 
 the grave-digger, who is the owner of an immense 
 number of pigs, and who supplies most of the pork- 
 butchers of Algiers, fed his pigs with the dead bodies 
 from the cemetery. In his house were large quanti- 
 ties of human flesh chopped up ; and on examining 
 the other graves, nearly every coffin was found 
 
OF EATINCr. 69 
 
 empty. A discovery was also made in the house of 
 the grave-digger of jewellery to the value of about 
 50,000 francs, which had been taken from the bodies. 
 He was immediately arrested, and the prosecution 
 was going on at the time the letter was written con- 
 taining tbe account. The use of pork was inter- 
 dicted for some time; and all the grave-digger's pigs 
 were, by order of the procureur-general, instantly 
 killed and buried. In this rather singular case, it is 
 very probable that many persons had been eating 
 pork actually fed with the flesh of their own rela- 
 tions. But why should this startle us ? Hear what 
 Hamlet says : 
 
 King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius ? 
 
 Ham. At supper. 
 
 King. At supper ? Where ? 
 
 Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain 
 convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is 
 your only emperor for diet ; we fat all creatures else to fat us, 
 and we fat ourselves for maggots : your fat king and your lean 
 beggar is but variable service ; two dishes, but to one table 
 that's the end. 
 
 King. Alas, alas ! 
 
 Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a 
 king ; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. 
 
 King. What dost thou mean by this ? 
 
 Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a pro- 
 gress through the guts of a beggar. 
 
 It has been stated, though we will not vouch for 
 the truth of the statement, that in our own metro- 
 
70 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 polls, people who keep fowls in the neighbourhood 
 of the hospitals, fatten them with the poultices which 
 they procure from the nurses. It may be presumed 
 that they do not fat them for their own tables. 
 
 The celebrated foie gras of the French is nothing 
 more than the liver of the goose preternaturally en- 
 larged. A lean goose is selected, and confined in a 
 deal box, which is so small that the bird cannot turn 
 in it ; the bottom is provided with a wide grating 
 for the passage of the dung. A hole is made in the 
 fore part of the box for the head of the goose, under 
 which a vessel is placed full of water, with some 
 pieces of charcoal in it to keep it fresh. The box 
 with its inmate is then placed in a cellar, or other 
 dark place, to prevent distraction or excitement ; it 
 is even said that the creature's eyes are sometimes 
 put out to render it more inactive. The food em- 
 ployed is maize soaked in water, considerable quan- 
 tities of which are crammed down the animal's 
 throat morning and evening, and the rest of the day 
 is spent in drinking and guzzling from time to time 
 the water placed before it. After this process has 
 continued for about three weeks, some poppy oil is 
 mixed with the maize, and by the end of the month 
 the fattening is usually completed. This is ascer- 
 tained by the difficulty the bird has in breathing, 
 and by the presence of a lump of fat under each 
 wing. It is now necessary to kill it, or otherwise it 
 
OF EATING. /I 
 
 would die of fat. Some idea may be formed of the 
 state of obesity produced, when it is known that the 
 liver of a goose, treated in this manner, often weighs 
 from a pound and a half to two pounds, and that 
 the body, which is considered excellent eating, fur- 
 nishes in roasting from three to five pounds of fat. 
 
 The lovers of brawn will, no doubt, be interested 
 in the following description, which is from the quaint 
 pen of Dr. Thomas Moffet: "The best way of 
 brawning a boar is this of all other, which I learned 
 first of Sir Thomas George, and saw practised 
 afterwards to good purpose. Shut up a young 
 boar, of a year and a half old, in a little room, in 
 harvest time, feeding him with nothing but sweet 
 whey, and giving him every morning clean straw to 
 lie upon, but lay it not thick ; so before Christmas 
 he will be sufficiently brawned with continual lying, 
 and prove exceedingly fat, wholesome, and sweet. 
 As for the common way of brawning boars, by sty- 
 ing them up in so close a room that they cannot 
 turn themselves round about, and whereby they are 
 forced always to lie on their bellies, it is not worthy 
 of imitation ; for they feed in pain, lie in pain, and 
 sleep in pain ; neither shall you ever find their flesh 
 so red, their fat so white, nor their liver so sound, 
 as being brawned otherwise accordingly as is before 
 rehearsed. After he is brawned for your turn, thrust 
 
72 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 a knife into one of his flanks, and let him run with 
 it till he die ; others gently bait him with muzzled 
 dogs. The Roman cooks thrust a hot iron into his 
 side, and then run him to death, thinking thereby 
 that his flesh waxed tenderer and his brawn firmer. 
 
OF EATING. 73 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Food used under the influence of starvation Siege of Paris 
 Horrible fate of Mons. Foscue. 
 
 HAVING pointed out most of the articles of food 
 which mankind either adopt by choice, or are re- 
 stricted to by the nature of the climate which they 
 inhabit, and briefly alluded to some of those myste- 
 rious compounds which we daily eat in blissful igno- 
 rance, we will now direct our attention to those 
 substances which human beings have been induced 
 to eat under the extreme pressure of starvation. The 
 history of the sufferings of the inhabitants of 
 Paris, during the memorable siege of that city in 
 1590, will furnish us with ample materials to illus- 
 trate this branch of our subject. 
 
 By the time the siege had continued about seven 
 weeks, the great mass of the people had consumed 
 every particle of ordinary food. 
 
 Horses, mules, and asses first fell under the 
 butcher's knife, and their flesh sold at a high price. 
 After these were consumed, all the cats and dogs 
 were ordered to be delivered up to be killed for food. 
 For the purpose of cooking them, public kitchens 
 were established in the different quarters of the city, 
 
74 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 where the meat was boiled in large caldrons, and 
 distributed every day, with an ounce of bread, to 
 each person. In this manner the people were sup- 
 ported for a fortnight. After this the poor ate the 
 skins of all these different animals. These, however, 
 lasted but a very short time ; and they were then 
 obliged to resort to still more loathsome food. 
 
 Some devoured the raw, half putrid flesh of dogs, 
 which they found dead in the streets ; others, entrails 
 which had been thrown into the kennels; others, 
 rats and mice, which had in like manner been cast 
 away ; and, moreover, the bones of the heads of dogs, 
 which they bruised into a sort of meal. 
 
 But even all these substances were soon exhausted ; 
 so that not a dog, or cat, or rat, or offal of any de- 
 scription was to be found within the city. Revolt- 
 ing, therefore, as were the expedients to which their 
 previous necessities had driven them, those to which 
 they were now reduced were still more sad. They 
 actually pounded slates, and baked the dust into 
 a sort of bread. Many, at last, rifled the very graves ; 
 and, extracting the bones from the rotten carcases, 
 ground, and baked, and ate them. A few even be- 
 came cannibals, and ate human flesh. An account is 
 well authenticated of a mother who, when her two 
 children died, instead of having the bodies buried, 
 salted them, and, together with her female servant, 
 fed on them for several days. 
 
OF EATING. 75 
 
 It is important to notice that most of the persons 
 who endeavoured to support life on these unnatural 
 and extraordinary substances soon died. 
 
 The remarkable case of Mons. Foscue furnishes 
 another instance of what a human being will eat when 
 driven to the last extremity. This Mons. Foscue, 
 having amassed a large sum of money, to keep it safe 
 placed it in a deep concealed cellar, the door of which 
 was fastened by a self-acting spring lock. On one 
 occasion, being in the cave, the door by some acci- 
 dent closed upon him ; and the cellar being too deep 
 for his cries to be heard, he ultimately perished for 
 Want of food. A few months afterwards, on making 
 some alterations in the building, the body was found, 
 and the candlestick. He had eaten the candle, and 
 gnawed the flesh off both his arms. 
 
76 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 What is Nutrition ? The Doctors at fault Milk the most 
 important Aliment Its Constituents Universality and pre- 
 dominance of Water in the economy of Nature Relative 
 proportion of Fluids and Solids in the Human Body Unsa- 
 tisfactory results of analyses Oil or Fat in every vegetable 
 Substance Interesting experiment of Liebig. 
 
 THE subject of nutrition has engaged the pen of 
 almost every physiologist from Hippocrates down to 
 Dr. Kitchener; nevertheless, it must be acknow- 
 ledged that absolutely nothing has been advanced 
 upon which a sound general principle can be esta- 
 blished. One very learned and clever doctor will 
 tell you this kind of food is more nourishing than 
 that, and will give you a very plausible reason for 
 his opinion; another doctor, equally learned and 
 clever, gives you quite a different statement, and 
 quite as plausible a reason for it. 
 
 " Who shall decide when doctors disagree ?" 
 
 The cause of this inconsistency undoubtedly is, 
 that they have not yet ascertained what nutrition is, 
 or what those substances are which afford nourish- 
 ment to the human body. In fact, upon this sub- 
 ject, as upon that of the nature and treatment of dis- 
 
OF EATING. 77 
 
 ease, the learned doctor is not much in advance of 
 the ignorant plebeian. 
 
 Gluten and starch are accounted the nutritious 
 principles in the vegetable foods, and gelatine, or 
 animal gravy, in the animal foods. In estimating, 
 therefore, the nutriment contained in any particular 
 substance, the usual method is merely to ascertain 
 the quantity of starch, or gluten, or albumen, or 
 gelatine contained in it; the fluid particles, which 
 have been evaporated during the process, being re- 
 garded as nothing. It seems to have been quite for- 
 gotten that nourishment is not derived from solid 
 matter merely, but from fluid also. A certain quan- 
 tity of soup, for instance, will go further in support- 
 ing a family, than the whole solid matter would do, 
 of which the soup was formed ; and a basin of sago, 
 properly prepared, will afford more nourishment 
 than the grains of sago swallowed dry. The same 
 may be said of the barley or oatmeal-crowdy of the 
 Scotch, which is more nutritious than the same 
 quantity of barley or oatmeal made into bread. 
 
 We all very well know how important how indis- 
 pensable the pure element is to the existence of 
 every living thing, and that the demands of thirst 
 are even more imperious than those of hunger ; yet 
 in all analyses on this interesting subject, the water 
 is invariably rejected. To show the fallacy of this 
 mode of reasoning, we have only to imagine the case 
 
78 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 of an individual living entirely on any, or all, of 
 these so-called nutritious substances, after they have 
 been deprived of their fluid : the result may be easily 
 conceived. 
 
 Milk, as has been proved by experiment, is the 
 only known aliment which is capable of supporting 
 life alone. It is, in fact, prepared by nature ex- 
 pressly for food. And what is it composed of? It 
 would naturally be expected that, since milk pos- 
 sesses the nourishing property in so eminent a de- 
 gree, its constitution must be peculiar, and contain 
 a greater variety of the principles forming alimentary 
 matter than other kinds of food. Such is, indeed, 
 the fact ; for every sort of animal milk is composed 
 of albuminous, oily, and saccharine elements, or, in 
 other words, of cheese, butter, and sugar. And are 
 these all? By no means. Nature expressly declares 
 that these ingredients are incomplete without the 
 addition of a large quantity of water. The propor- 
 tions in which these three substances (albumen, oil, 
 and sugar) are united in different kinds of milk vary 
 exceedingly; but they have always been found to 
 exist in the milk of every animal, and invariably 
 blended with a large proportion of water. 
 
 Now, if Nature, not only in milk, but in every 
 other nutritious article of food, is so liberal of her 
 supplies of this fluid, surely, it must be, to say the 
 least, as important an element in the composition, 
 
OF EATING. 79 
 
 and as necessary to the nourishment of the body, 
 as those substances which are styled nutriment par 
 excellence ; and, although its operation in the grand 
 process of digestion be imperceptible and mysterious, 
 it is not the less certain and effectual. This must 
 be obvious to every one, when it is considered that 
 by far the greater part of the human body is com- 
 posed of fluids. 
 
 The relative proportion of fluids in the human 
 body (we quote from Southwood Smith) is always 
 much greater than that of the solids ; hence, its soft 
 consistence and rounded form. The excess, accord- 
 ing to the lowest estimate, is as six to one, according 
 to the highest, as ten to one. 
 
 The fluids, which are composed principally of 
 water holding solid matter in solution, are not only 
 more abundant than the solids, but they are also 
 more important, as they afford the immediate ma- 
 terial of the organization of the body ; the media 
 by which its composition and its decomposition are 
 effected. They bear nourishment from every part, 
 and by them are carried out of the system its noxious 
 and useless matter. In the brain they lay down 
 the soft and delicate cerebral matter ; in the bone, 
 the hard and compact osseous matter ; and the 
 worn-out particles of both are removed by their 
 instrumentality. Every part of the body is a 
 laboratory in which complicated changes are going on 
 
80 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 every instant : the fluids the all-important fluids 
 are the materials on which these changes are 
 wrought. 
 
 This heing the case, it necessarily follows that, 
 although we may analyse with the greatest exact- 
 ness, it is impossible to determine the nourishing 
 properties of any kind of food, merely by the quan- 
 tity or predominance of any particular ingredient. 
 Moreover, nourishment does not appear to depend 
 upon any one substance, whatever its nature may 
 be, but upon the harmonious combination of various 
 substances ; and this combination depends, in a 
 great measure, for its virtues, on the particular con- 
 stitution which it receives; for what may be beneficial 
 in one case, may prove injurious in another, so true 
 it is, that one man's meat may be another man's 
 poison. In fact, the experience of an observing 
 man, on his own constitutional peculiarities, is worth 
 more than the fine-spun theories of all the chemists 
 and doctors in the world. 
 
 We perfectly concur with Dr. Kitchener, when he 
 observes "To affirm that anything is wholesome 
 or unwholesome without considering the subject 
 in all the circumstances to which it bears relation 
 and the unaccountable peculiarities of different con- 
 stitutions is, with submission, talking nonsense." 
 
 In the assimilation of food, much depends on the 
 state of the mind and the nervous system. During 
 
OF EATING. 81 
 
 high excitement, either of joy or grief, the stomach 
 loses its power of digesting, and even, in some cases, 
 of receiving or retaining food. In cold weather, as 
 has already been stated, its power is greater than in 
 hot ; and in activity its power is greater than in 
 idleness ; consequently the food must vary according 
 to the prevailing state of the individual. Some men 
 will keep in good condition on potatoes and salt, 
 while others are as lean as scarecrows, although 
 living on the fat of the land. 
 
 As a fine specimen of the quackery and uncer- 
 tainty of chemical analysis on the subject of food, 
 we may cite the result of several experiments made 
 to ascertain the relative nutrition in potatoes and 
 wheat ; and these by celebrated chemists : 
 According to Mayer, 
 
 Potatoes are to wheat as 15 to 48 
 
 According to Black, as 15 to 120 
 
 According to Petri, as 15 to 74 
 
 What can we observe in these conflicting statements 
 
 but the ignorance and pretension of the learned 
 
 doctors who make them ? 
 
 It may seem surprising, at first sight, that an 
 individual should not only increase in flesh, but 
 actually get fat upon a diet purely vegetable ; but 
 our surprise will cease when we consider that there 
 is, in every vegetable substance, a considerable 
 amount of oily or fatty matter. 
 
82 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Liebig, in his celebrated work on Chemistry, quotes 
 the instance of a lean goose, weighing four pounds, 
 which in thirty-six days, gained five pounds weight, by 
 consuming twenty-four pounds of maize, and yielded 
 three pounds and a half of pure fat. Liebig could 
 not account for this quantity of fat, because maize, 
 according to such experiments as had been made 
 upon it before Liebig wrote, did not contain the 
 thousandth part of its weight of fat. Since that 
 time, however, it has been found by repeated ex- 
 periments that it really contains at least nine per 
 cent. ; so that when a lean goose eats twenty-four 
 pounds of maize, it takes up two pounds and a half 
 of fatty matter, which, with the fat previously exist- 
 ing in the animal, is sufficient to account for the 
 three pounds and a half. 
 
 Even dry hay, such as is met with in the trusses 
 eaten by cattle, contains two per cent, of fatty or 
 oily matter. 
 
 Animals which live on grain and vegetables are 
 always fatter than those which live exclusively on 
 flesh. Their fat is consistent and firm, while that 
 of carnivorous animals is almost completely fluid. 
 
 It is not, therefore, surprising that Paddy should 
 get plump upon his cabbages and praties, or that 
 Sawney should be well-favoured on his brose and 
 oaten bannocks. 
 
OP EATING. 83 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Rationale of Roasting and Boiling Curious methods of pre- 
 paring food in vogue among the Ancients The bonne douche. 
 
 ALTHOUGH in high latitudes it may be convenient, 
 and even necessary, for the inhabitants to eat their 
 food without any preparation, yet, in all temperate 
 and warm climates, the art of cookery prevails to a 
 greater or less extent. The observation of Seneca, 
 that in proportion to the number of cooks so have 
 diseases multiplied, might furnish us with a chapter 
 of interesting and important matter, but, as it does 
 not come within our present scope, we suggest it as 
 a theme to the learned members of the College of 
 Physicians. 
 
 The flesh of animals is, in general, either roasted 
 or boiled ; although, in an economical point of view, 
 it would certainly be better to eat it in its raw state ; 
 for, in the first place, we should most probably be 
 content with a smaller quantity than we usually eat ; 
 and, in the second place, it is a well-known fact, 
 that, in whatever way the flesh of animals is cooked, 
 it loses a considerable portion of its substance. 
 
 In an extensive public establishment, experiments 
 have been made, on a large scale, to ascertain the 
 
84 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 precise amount of loss upon both beef and mutton, in 
 the process of roasting and boiling. 
 
 It was found that twenty-eight pieces of beef, 
 weighing altogether 280 Ibs., lost in boiling 73 Ibs. 
 14 oz., being at the rate of 26 Ibs. 8 oz. in 100 Ibs. 
 
 Nineteen pieces of beef weighing 190 Ibs., lost in 
 roasting 61 Ibs. 2oz., being at the rate of 32 Ibs. in 
 each 100. 
 
 Nine pieces of beef, weighing 90 Ibs., lost in 
 baking 27 Ibs., being at the rate of 30 Ibs. in each 
 100. 
 
 Twenty-seven legs of mutton, weighing 260 lbs.,lost 
 in boiling, and by having the shank-bones taken off, 
 62 Ibs. 4 oz. The shank-bones being estimated at 
 4 oz. each, the loss in boiling was 55 Ibs. 8 oz., 
 being at the rate of 21 Ibs. 5 oz. in each 100. 
 
 Thirty-five shoulders of mutton, weighing 350 Ibs., 
 lost in roasting 109 Ibs. 10 oz., or 31 Ibs. 5 oz. in 
 each 100. 
 
 Sixteen loins of mutton, weighing 141 Ibs., lost 
 in roasting 49 Ibs. 14 oz., or 35 Ibs. 8 oz. in each 
 100. 
 
 Ten necks of mutton, weighing 100 Ibs., lost in 
 roasting 32 Ibs. 6 oz. 
 
 Consequently, a piece of beef which, in the 
 butcher's shop, weighs 9 Ibs., when it appears on 
 the dinner-table, after being roasted, only weighs 
 6 Ibs. : mark that, ye domestic economists ! Of the 
 
OF EATING. 85 
 
 other 3 Ibs. part has been converted into kitchen- 
 stuff, and the remainder has vanished up the chimney. 
 By boiling a similar piece you do not lose so much 
 by half a pound. 
 
 Shoulders and necks of mutton lose as much as 
 beef ; and loins lose rather more. 
 
 But if you prefer the leg, why of course you boil 
 it ; and by so doing you save a pound of mutton ; 
 for, where the roast mutton wastes 3 Ibs., the boiled 
 mutton only wasted two, and the virtue of those 
 two will be found in the broth. 
 
 The cooks of the ancients appear to have been 
 much more accomplished in their art than our 
 modern practitioners. One of these illustrious 
 ministers of luxury attained such a degree of envi- 
 able perfection, that he could serve up a pig boiled 
 on one side, and roasted on the other ; and, more- 
 over, stuffed with every possible delicacy, without 
 the incision being perceived through which these 
 dainties had been introduced. On being intreated 
 to divulge this wonderful secret, he swore, by the 
 manes of all the heroes who fell at Marathon, or 
 conquered at Salamis, that he would not reveal this 
 sacred mystery for one year. When the important 
 day arrived, and he was no longer bound by his 
 vows, he condescended to inform his anxious hearers, 
 that the animal had been bled to death by a wound 
 under the shoulder, through which the entrails had 
 
86 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 been extracted; and, afterwards, hanging up the 
 victim by the legs, the stuffing was crammed down 
 his throat. One half of the pig was then covered 
 with a thick paste, seasoned with wine and oil. 
 This being done, it was put into a brass oven, and 
 gently and tenderly roasted. When the skin was 
 brown and crisp, our hero proceeded to boil the 
 other moiety ; the paste was then removed, and the 
 boiled and roasted grunter was triumphantly served 
 up. 
 
 Sometimes pigs were slaughtered with red-hot 
 spits, that the blood might not be lost ; and the 
 stuffing consisted of various small animals. 
 
 Snails were also a great dainty amongst the 
 Romans. After being fattened on bran and other 
 articles, they were broiled alive on silver gridirons, 
 and served up to table on the same. They were 
 eaten to give a relish to their wine. 
 
 In our own country, and at the present time, 
 in preparing the woodcock for table, the en- 
 trails are not drawn, but roasted within the bird, 
 whence they drop out with the gravy upon slices 
 of toasted bread, and are relished as a delicious 
 kind of sauce. 
 
 But of all the ingenious methods of cooking 
 that were ever devised, the method of roasting a 
 goose, practised by our good old ancestors, in the 
 good old times, was the most ingenious and re- 
 
OF EATING. 87 
 
 fined. The directions are thus set forth : " Take 
 a goose, or a duck, or some such lively creature 
 (but the goose is best of all for the purpose) ; 
 pull off all her feathers only those of the head 
 and the neck must be spared. Then make a fire 
 round about her ; not too close to her, that the 
 smoke do not choke her, and that the fire do not 
 burn her too soon ; nor too far off, that she may 
 not escape the fire. Within the circle of the 
 fire let there be small cups and pots full of water, 
 wherein salt and honey are mingled ; and let there 
 be also set chargers full of sodden apples, cut 
 iuto small pieces. The goose must be all larded 
 and basted over with butter, to make her the 
 more fit to be eaten, and that she may roast the 
 better. Put the fire about her, but do not make 
 too much haste, when, as you see her begin to 
 roast ; for, by walking about, and flying here and 
 there, being cooped in by the fire, that stops her 
 way out, the unscared goose is kept in. She 
 will fall to and drink the water to quench her 
 thirst, and cool her heart, and all her body; and 
 the apple sauce will cleanse her. When she wasteth 
 and consumes inwardly, always wet her head and 
 heart with a wet sponge; and when you see her 
 giddy with running, and begin to stumble, her heart 
 wants moisture, and she is roasted enough. Take 
 her up, and set her before your guest; and she 
 
88 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF EATING. 
 
 will cry as you cut off any part from her ; and 
 will be almost eaten up before she is dead." 
 The writer concludes by observing "It is mighty 
 pleasant to behold." 
 
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