The animal food resources of different nations, with mention of some of the special dainties of various people derived from the animal kingdom

Front matter

y

Animal Jood Ucsoimpa of different stations.

THE f.-nimal Jfojob Resources of different ftatkms,

Preface

A quarter of a century ago 1 published a work on u The Curiosities of Animal Food,” based chiefly on a Lecture I had delivered at a Literary Institution. Although the volume merely dealt cursorily with the wide subject in a popular point of view, it was favour¬ ably received and much quoted by various eminent scientific authors, writing on the Food question. That book has, like many of my other works, long been out of print.

The subject, however, of the Animal Food supply has since then risen into great importance. Having given much attention to this matter, I have endeavoured to condense into the present volume a large amount of practical and useful information not generally accessible, combined at the same time with some pleasant reading.

P. L. SIMMONDS.

85, Finborough Road,

South Kensington.

February, 1885.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from University of Toronto

CHAPTER I. Introductory and General

page

Man an Omnivorous Animal — Some Eastern Nations eschew Animal Food — Varieties of Food of Different People — Man the only Cooking Animal — Variable Food in Different Ages and Climates — Less Animal Food Eaten in Tropical Regions than in Temperate and Arctic Regions — Various Food Delicacies — A Chinese Dinner — Wild American Animals as Food — Marrow — Tinned or Preserved Meats — Statistics of Imports of Animal Food from America — Charqui — Dried and Jerked Meats of Different Countries — Pastoormah — Dendeng — Frozen Carcases — Choice Morsels held in Special Estimation — Value of our Imports of Animals and Animal Products for Food in 1883 — Advance in Prices — Meat Consumption in France — Meat Pro¬ duction and Consumption in Russia — United States Consumption — Mutton despised in many Countries —

Large Consumption in Great Britain — Slaughter of Sheep in Buenos Ayres — Goats’ Flesh very little Eaten — Our Foreign Supplies of Animal Food —

Average Individual Consumption — Value of Cheese as Food — Imports of Butter and Cheese from Abroad — Diseased Meat as Food — Not considered to be In¬ jurious — German Legislation thereon — Extensive Use of Animals which have Died by a large Low- Caste Population in India — M. Decroix’s Personal Experience of a Quarter of a Century Feeding on the Flesh of Diseased Animals — Medical Evidence taken on this Subject before the Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association — Diseased Lung of a Bullock Cooked and Eaten — Opinion of the Lancet on Diseased Meat .........

Vlll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II. A Few Words on Cannibalism

PAGE

Flesh of Whites not esteemed — Statements of Old Chro¬ niclers on the Practice of Cannibalism in Europe,

Asia, and America — Assertions of Modern Travellers — Evidences of Shipwrecked Sailors and Others — Cannibalism Common in the Pacific Islands and Australia, especially in the Fiji Islands — Evidence of many Writers — Practised also in Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, Celebes, Sumatra, Malacca —

Many African Tribes Anthropophagi — Statements of Sir S. Baker, Bruce. Captain Cameron, P. du Chaillu, Thompson, and Layland ...... 40

CHAPTER III. Flesh Food from Mammals

Flesh of Monkeys Eaten in Africa, the West Indies, South America, Ceylon, and Borneo — The Lemurs in Mada¬ gascar — Bats Eaten in the East and in Australia — Insectivora — The Hedgehog — Carnivorous Planti¬ grades — Bears — Skunk — Badger— Sea Otter — Civet Cat — Dogs’ Flesh Eaten by North American Indians,

Chinese, Africans, and other People — Foxes and Wolves Eaten — Lion’s Flesh — Jaguar — Hyaena —

Lynx — Carnivorous Marsupials — Opossums — Bandi - coots — Kangaroos — W ombats — Phalangers — Mar¬ mots — Squirrels — Rats — Rat Pie — Dormouse — Hares and Rabbits — Prodigious Increase of Rabbits in Australasia — Flesh of the Beaver — Porcupines —

Agouti— Sloth— Anteater — Armadilloes ... 54

CHAPTER IV. Flesh Food from Mammals. — Continued

Pachyderms — Elephants — Hippopotami — Rhinoceros — Tapir — Peccary — Swine — Immense Numbers in North America — Our Large Imports of Bacon. Hams, etc., from the United States — Wild Boars — Statistics of Swine in Various Countries — Consumption of Pork in France— Horseflesh Eaten in China, Europe,

CONTENTS.

IX

PAGE

and America — Statistics of Horses — Increase of Con¬ sumption of Horseflesh in Europe* — Asses and Mules also Eaten — Quagga and Zebra — The Ruminants — Statistics of Horned Cattle over the World — Con¬ sumption in the United Kingdom — Average Weights in Different Countries — Beef Imported into England — Quantity Sold in the London Markets — Average Prices — Buffaloes — Statistics of Sheep in Various Countries — Large Imports of Carcases from New Zealand — Imports of Sheep to the London Markets and Comparative Prices — Average Weight of Dif¬ ferent Kinds of Sheep— Goats’ Flesh — Flesh of the Camel Tribe — Alpaca — Giraffe — Vemson — Reindeer — Moose or Elk — Antelopes — Eland — Bison — Marine Mammals — Whales — Seals — Sea Lion — Sea Elephant — Walrus — Dugongs — Dolphins — Porpoises . . 82

CHAPTER V. Flesh Food Furnished by the Feathered Tribes

Buzzard, Kite, and other Birds of Prey Eaten — Beccafico — Guacharo — Larks — Thrushes — Blackbirds — Bunt¬ ings — Fried Canaries — Starlings — Rooks — Ortolans — Edible Birds’ Nests — Statistics of Supply — Parrots — Toucans — Domestic Poultry— Fowls in Egypt and Morocco — Weight of Different Fowls — Statistics of Poultry in the United Kingdom — in France — in Austria — in the United States — Value of the Poultry Imported from Abroad — Turkeys — Christmas Sup¬ plies — Statistics of Turkeys in France — Wild Tur¬ keys of America — Peacocks — Formerly Served at Royal Banquets — Bustards — Partridges — Game Birds Consumed in Great Britain — Snipes — Woodcocks — Grouse — Pheasants — Capercailzie — Game Birds of Sweden — Prairie Hens — Ruffs, Reeves, and Godwits — Quails — Game Pies of France — Pates de Foies Gras — Tragopans — Pigeons, Domestic and Wild —

* While this work was passing through the Press (but too late for notice in its proper place), an important article has appeared in the “Bulletin of the Societe d Acclimation,” Paris, for August, 1884, p, 617, by M. Decroix, giving a resume of the consumption of horses, asses and mules in France from 1876 to 1883, accompanied also by numerous recipes for cooking horseflesh in various ways.

X

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Ostrich Meat — Flamingoes, Cranes, and Herons —

Ducks and Geese — Statistics of in France — Wild Geese — Swans — Plovers — Teal — Canvas-back Ducks — Pelicans — Penguins . 134

CHAPTER VI. Eggs of Various Kinds as Food

Eggs of Domestic Poultry — Nutritive Value and Chemis¬ try of Eggs — Average Weight of Eggs — Quantity and Values of our Imports of Eggs — Range of Prices —

Number of Eggs Received from France — Estimated by Weight on the Continent — Testing Eggs — Egg Traffic of the United States and Canada — Prices — Condensed Eggs — Various Modes of Preserving Eggs — Pickled Eggs — Easter Eggs — Ostrich Eggs —

Emeu Eggs — Plovers’ and Lapwings’ Eggs — Eggs of Sea Fowl — Gulls — Terns — Penguins — Petrel — Albatross — Eggs of Reptiles — Turtles — Land Tor¬ toises — Alligators — Lizards’ Eggs — Snakes’ Eggs —

Insects’ Eggs — Fish Spawn — Cod Roe — Herrings’

Eggs — Sturgeon Caviare — Modes of Preparing — Roe of Sandre, Bream and Mullet — Fish-bread from Roes — Mode of Preparation — Eggs of Crustacea — Lobster Spawn . . 184

CHAPTER VII. Reptiles, Snakes, and Amphibians Eaten as Food

Turtles and Tortoises — Land, Marsh, River and Sea Tor¬ toises — Flesh Largely Eaten in Various Countries — - Terrapins of America Great Food Delicacies — Turtle Soup and Dried Turtle Flesh — Sources of Supply of Turtle — Recipes for Cooking Turtle — Flesh of Loggerhead Turtle not Good — Crocodiles and Alli¬ gators Eaten Lizards Eaten — Monitors- -Iguanas —

Snakes Eaten in Many Countries — Snake Wine — Amphibians — Frogs Eaten in Europe, America, and Asia — Modes of Catching Them — Recipes for Cook¬ ing Them — Salamander and Axolotl Eaten . . . 216

CONTENTS.

XI

CHAPTER YHI.

Food Products of tiie Sea — Some Fish Delicacies.

page

The Harvest of the Sea — Nutritive Value of Fish — The Office of the Food Taster— A Chinese Fish Dinner —

An American Fish Dinner — Supply of Fish to Lon¬ don — Imports of Fish in the United Kingdom —

Supply of Birmingham, Dublin, etc. — Imports of European States — Supply to New York — Commer¬ cial Classification — The Cod Family — Statistics of the Fisheries — Norwegian Fisheries — Capelin — Fish Flour and Bread, Extracts, and Other Preparations — Fish Sauces — Flat Fish — Soles, Turbot, Plaice, etc. — Herrings — Extent of the Fisheries — Pilchards — Whitebait — Fish Supply of Paris — Statistics of the French Fisheries — Sardines — Anchovies — Skates —

Mackerel — Mullet — Tunny — Conger Eels — Fresh Water Eels- — Large Consumption in Italy — Minnows 254

Chapter IX

Food Products of the Sea — Fishes — Continued.

Fisheries of Sweden — Of Roumania — Lampreys — Stur¬ geons — Balyk — Mode of Preparing — Russian Fisheries — Fisheries of Tunis — Of Egypt and West African Coasts — Indian Fisheries — Choice Fish- Statistics of Imports and Exports — Trade in Sharks’ Fins and Fish-maws — Bonito — Gourami — Fish of Guadaloupe — Consumption of Fish in West Indies — Barbados — Jamaica — Honduras — Sharks as Food — Their Flesh Eaten in Various Countries — Swordfish — Oulachans, Large Fishery for — Carp Family — Trout and Salmon— Statistics of British Trade in — Salmon Fisheries of Canada — Tinned Salmon, Enor¬ mous Trade in — Halibut — North American Fisheries — Fish Preserved in Ice — White Fish (Coregonus) and other Lake Fish — Flying Fish — Consumption of Fish in Zanzibar — New Zealand Fish — Tasmanian Fish — Fish of Ceylon, China, and the Indian Seas —

Of Japan — Brazilian Fish — Fish of River Plate and Paraguay .........

Xll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X. Various Insects Eaten as Food

PAG E

Cockchafers or Vers Blanc Eaten — Modes of Cooking —

Bees and Ants Eaten — Cossus of the Ancients —

Gru-grus or Palmworms — Caterpillars — Tobacco Worms — Locusts — Extensive Use of Locusts in Africa, Asia, and America — Various Modes of Cook¬ ing — Termites Eaten in India and Africa — Silkworm Chrysalids — Red Ants — Honey — Statistics of Pro¬ duction — Lerp and Trehalose . . . . . 347

CHAPTER XI. Animal Food Furnished by the Crustaceans and

Mollusca.

Lobsters — Chemical Composition of the Lobster — Trade in, from Norway and Sweden — American Lobster Trade — Canned Lobsters — Cape Lobsters — Lobster Fisheries on the American Shores — Shrimps, varieties of — Prawns — Dried Shrimps — Feasting on Live Shrimps — Crayfish — Crabs, varieties of — Land Crabs — Mollusca — Univalves — Edible Snails — Limpets —

Whelks — Periwinkles — Haliotids, or Ear-shells . . 376

CHAPTER XII. Animal Food Furnished by the Mollusca and Radiata

Bivalves — Cockles — Oysters, Classification and Varieties of — Statistics of French Production — Magnitude of American Oyster Trade — Green Oysters — Ship¬ ments of Oysters in Barrels and Cans — Statistics of American Production — Canadian Oysters — Scallops — Razor-fish — Clams, varieties of — Clam Bake Feasts in the United States — Other Species of Mollusks, Tapes, Venus, Pholas, &c. — Mussels — French Trade in — British Consumption — Zoophytes, Actinia — Modes of Cooking — Curious Fish Dinner — Cephalopods, Sepia, Octopi, Squids, Sea-Urchins — Trepang or Beche-de-Mer — Varieties of — Large Consumption of in China — Indian Exports — Leeches and Worms Eaten .......

THE

CHAPTER I. Introductory and General

Man an Omnivorous Animal — Some Eastern Nations eschew Animal Food — Varieties of Food of Different People — Man the only Cooking Animal — Variable Food in Different Ages and Climates — Less Animal Food Eaten in Tropical Regions than in Temperate and Arctic Regions — Various Food Deli¬ cacies — A Chinese Dinner — Wild American Animals as Food — Marrow — Tinned or Preserved Meats — Statistics of Imports of Animal Food from America — Charqui — Dried and Jerked Meats of Different Countries — Pastoormah — Dendeng — Frozen Carcases — Choice Morsels held in Special Estimation — Value of our Imports of Animals and Animal Products for Food in 1883 — Advance in Prices — Meat Con¬ sumption in France — Meat Production and Consumption in Russia — United States Consumption — Mutton Despised in many Countries — Large Consumption in Great Britain — Slaughter of Sheep in Buenos Ayres — Goats’ Flesh very little Eaten — Our Foreign Supplies of Animal Food — Average In¬ dividual Consumption — Value of Cheese as Food — Imports of Butter and Cheese from Abroad — Diseased Meat as Food — Not considered to be Injurious — German Legislation thereon — Extensive Use of Animals which have Died by a large Low-Caste Population in India — M. Delcroix’s Per¬ sonal Experience of a Quarter of a Century Feeding on the Flesh of Diseased Animals — Medical Evidence taken on this Subject before the Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association — Diseased Lung of a Bullock Cooked and Eaten — Opinion of the Lancet on Diseased Meat.

Professor Owen has well observed that — “ Whatever the animal kingdom can afford for our food or clothing, for our tools, weapons, or ornaments — whatever the lower

B creation can contribute to our wants, our comforts, our passions, or our pride, that we sternly exact and take at all cost to the producers. No creature is too bulky or formidable for man’s destructive energies ; none too minute and insignificant for his keen detection and skill of capture. It was ordained from the beginning that we should be the masters and subduers of all in¬ ferior animals.”

Our range of food already is specially wide and varied. All the world is laid under tribute to supply our tables, and we are learning to imitate or improve on the culi¬ nary processes of every nation and every age. In Europe and in America — aye, and we may also add in the far East — men have hunted high and low, on land, in the air, and in the sea, to obtain a variety of food, and this not only in times of war and famine, but when peace and plenty reigned. Not only will men have variety, but they will have it at every meal. There are not, perhaps, ten people in a thousand who eat a single meal consist¬ ing of only one article, provided they can get variety. Science has taught us that as in nature clay produces one plant and sand another, so man also requires a variety of food to provide for all the elements of which he is made. Other creatures are generally restricted to one sort of provender at most. They are carnivorous, piscivorous, or something-ivorous, but man is the uni¬ versal eater.

He pounces with the tiger upon the kid, with the hawk upon the dove, and upon the herring with the cormorant. He goes halves with the bee in the honey-cell, but turns upon his partner and cheats him out of his share of the produce. He grubs up the root with the sow, devours the fruit with the earwig, and demolishes the leaves with the caterpillar ; for all these several parts of the members of the vegetable kingdom furnish him with food. Life itself will not hinder his appetite, nor decay nauseate his palate ; for he will as soon devour a lively young oyster as demolish the fungous produce of a humid field. This propensity is, indeed, easily abused ; viands of such incon-

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.

gruous nature and heterogeneous substances are sometimes collected as to make an outrageous amalgamation, so that an alderman at a City feast might make one shudder ; but this is too curious an investigation — it is the abuse of abundance too, and we know that abuse is the origin •of all evil. This fact should lead us to another point, the appreciation of goodness and beneficence. The adap¬ tation of external nature has often been insisted on — the adaptation of men to all circumstances, states, and conditions is carrying out the idea. The inferior animals are tied down, even by the narrowness of their animal necessities, to a small range of existence ; but man can seldom be placed in any circumstances in which his universal appetite cannot be appeased. From the naked savage snatching a berry from the thorn, to the wellclad, highly-civilised denizen of the town, surrounded by every comfort, every luxury ; from the tired traveller who opens his wallet and produces his oaten cake beside the welling lymph which is to slake his thirst, to the pursy justice, “ in fair round belly with good capon lined,” who spreads the damask napkin on his knees, tucks his toes under the table, and revels in calipee and calipash, — what an infinite diversity of circumstances !

The Word of God tells us : “ Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you ; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” Still Animal food is even now but sparingly used in Eastern countries, and by some nations held in utter abhorrence. All great legislators of the Orient have, moreover, forbidden the use of certain animals which they call unclean. Moses, Manu, and Mahomet proscribed them alike. Buddhism makes the killing of a living animal sinful. Nor does any nation on earth yet subsist on Animal food only ; even the lowest in the scale of civilisation, those who live as fishermen and hunters, mix some vegetables with their diet.

That which characterises especially meat and fish, is the abundance of nitrogenous matter which can be assimilated into our tissues, and which conduces to healtliy nourishment, and it is these foods the repro¬ duction of which has to be encouraged, for the supply is at present insufficient, and hence the want is calcu¬ lated to injure the health of the people, especially the' labouring classes, whose daily work demands a nutrition more reparative.

The diversity of substances which we find in the cata¬ logue of articles of Food is as great as the variety with which the art or the science of cookery prepares them ; the notions of the ancients on this most important sub¬ ject are worthy of remark. Their taste regarding meat was various. But they considered it, as we still do, the most substantial food, hence it constituted the chief nourishment of their athletes. Camels’ and dromedaries flesh was much esteemed, their heels more especially. Donkey flesh was in high repute. Maecenas, according to Pliny, delighted in it, and the wild ass brought from Africa was compared to venison. In more modern times we find Chancellor Dupret having asses fattened for his table.

The Romans seem to have indulged in as great a variety of Animal food as the epicures of the present day. A passage from Macrobius, quoted in S oyer’s “ Panthropheon ” furnishes the following menu of a supper given by the Pontiff Lentulus on the day of his recep¬ tion : — “ The first course was composed of sea hedgehogs (Echinus), raw oysters in abundance, all sorts of shell¬ fish and asparagus. The second service comprised a fine fatted pullet, a fresh dish of oysters and other shell-fish, different kinds of dates, univalve shell-fish (as whelks, conchs, etc.), more oysters, but of different kinds, sea nettles, beccaficoes, chines of wild boar, fowls covered with a perfumed paste ; a second dish of shell-fish and purples (? lobsters), a very costly kind of Crustacea. The third and last course presented several hors cT oeuvre, a wild boar’s head, fish, a second set of hors cV oeuvre, ducks, potted river fish, leverets, roast fowls, and capitones (a large kind of eel) from the marshes of Ancona.”

An eminent French economist justly observes : — “ A

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.

population which does not consume meat is not in a healthy condition ; they have in themselves a deplorable cause of inferiority in works of strength and of mortality by diseases.” *

Man is the only animal that cooks, and, indeed, hu¬ manity may be said to be divided into two epochs, that preceding and that following the discovery of cookery. Pre-historic man resembled savages of the present day, whether on the Continent of America, in Australia, or Polynesia, where fish, animals, and loathsome insects are eaten raw, as a kind of change from fruits. Man was not, as some savants allege, originally a vegetarian ; the latter is perhaps an artificial kind of alimentation. Brahmins only became frugiferous where agriculture put within their reach that kind of food. Vegetables are easily consumed by birds and cattle, because they have gizzards and paunches — appropriate organs, but wanting to man ; hence the necessity of the culinary art, to make rice and millet digestible. But to cook, it was essential to have fire, and for a long time humanity had not dis¬ covered this element. Indeed, it was even a marketable •commodity, and some tribes still carry living embers as they camp.

Dr. W. Roberts tells us that the changes impressed on food by cooking form an integral part of the work of digestion — a part which we of the human race get done for us by the agency of fire-heat, but a part which the lower animals are compelled to perform by the labour of their own digestive organs.

The late Mr. John Crawfurd, in the “ Ethnological Transactions,” remarks : — “ By his anatomical structure •man is an omnivorous animal, and all the races, when attainable, will equally consume animal and vegetable food. A very few, the result of dire necessity, live on .animal food only, such as the Esquimaux, who could not exist amid ice and snows if they did not. No race lives exclusively on a vegetable diet, for their position has

* Chevalier, “ Des forces alimentaires des Etats,” p. 47.

never rendered a restriction to it indispensable ; thenearest approach to it is probably among the higher classes of Hindoos, but these are greater consumers of milk and butter, of vegetable oils and pulses, which con¬ tain the same chemical elements as animal food. Some tropical races, such as the Malays, have been supposed to be almost exclusively consumers of fruits and vegetables,, which is not true, for they are large consumers of fish and of vegetable oils, or of substances containing these oils, as the cocoanut and ground pea or earth nut.”

A recent writer, speaking of human diet, observes : “ It is a remarkable circumstance that man alone is pro¬ vided with a case of instruments adapted to the masti¬ cation of all substances — teeth to cut and pierce and champ and grind ; a gastric solvent too, capable of con¬ tending with anything and everything, raw substances and cooked, ripe and rotten, nothing comes amiss to him.”

If animals could speak, as fEsop and other fabulists make them seem to do, they would declare man the most voracious animal in existence. There is scarcely any living thing that flies in the air, swims in the sea, or moves on the land, that is not made to minister to his appetite. The daily food, however, varies in different ages and different climates. Queen Elizabeth and her ladies breakfasted on meat, bread and strong ale. Our modern ladies take tea and coffee and thin slices of toast or bread. The Esquimaux drink train oil, and the Cos¬ sacks koumiss, an ardent spirit made from mare’s milk. The inhabitants of France and Germany eat much more largely than we do of vegetable diet, and drink at all times of the day thin acid wines.

In Devonshire and Herefordshire an acid cider is the common beverage, and in the Highlands of Scotland oatmeal porridge is in a great measure the food and whisky the drink of the inhabitants. The Irish peasant lives chiefly on potatoes, and the Hindoo on rice. Yet all this variety and much more is digested, yields nutri¬ ment, and promotes growth ; affording undeniable evidence that man is really omnivorous, that he can he supported by great varieties of food.

In warm climates meat is often poor, dry, insipid and hard stuff, because perhaps it cannot be kept to render it in general fit for any man who has not the teeth of a shark, or the snout of a saw-fish.

In tropical countries Animal food ought to be indulged in as sparingly as is consistent with the digestive powers ; for, on the whole, animal food is more easy of digestion than vegetable; and it maybe added ( en parenthese) that the flesh of the mature animal is more easily absorbed into the human system than that of the young of the same kind. Thus, five-year old mutton is more whole¬ some than lamb ; beef than veal ; goat than kid. This may seem strange to those who have never studied the subject, but the physiologist assures us that such is the fact. This being so, there was perhaps something of an unconscious wisdom in that party of sailors who once drank a bowl of punch on the summit of Pompey’s Pillar in Egypt, on Christmas Day, in choosing for their dinner a tough billy-goat, in preference to a younger animal, for the all-sufficient reason that it took more “ chawing,” and that, consequently, the flavour would linger on the palate much longer than if it had been less mature.

Still, while conceding that Animal food is necessary for the sustentation of human strength and health, it cannot be denied that an abundant supply of vegetables is highly beneficial to the great omnivore — Man, and particularly so in tropical climates. There can be no doubt that a bountiful Providence has adapted the food of man to his necessities in all climates, so that the pro¬ duct of any particular country is best suited to the people inhabiting it.

Habit, as is well known, will do much in accustoming the stomach to particular descriptions of food. Many persons live exclusively, or almost so, on vegetables, others on animal substances, and particular kinds of diet are forced on the inhabitants of many regions of the globe ;

but as far as Englishmen are concerned, a due mixture of vegetable and animal matter is not only most palat¬ able, but most conducive to health.

Let us briefly take a preliminary glance at some of the various articles which different people relish. Be¬ sides the local peculiarities of the vegetable and animal foods which are most abundant and attainable, we have the influence of those instinctive appetites for particular articles of food, which certainly exist, however difficult of explanation they may be. Religious or superstitious usages are also most important factors in the result in many instances, although they will not always serve to explain the abstention from certain perfectly wholesome and nutritious foods, or the consumption of absolutely noxious or useless materials like clay. — Professor Church’s “ Food.”

Sir George Grey, in his “ Travels in Australia,” gives a graphic account of the food of the Australians, and particularly tells us of the feast of a whole tribe on a stranded whale. “ It was a sorry sight (he says) to see a pretty young woman entering the belly of the whale, then gorging herself with blubber, and issuing forth anointed from head to foot, and bearing in each hand a trophy of the delicacy in question.”

A young lady of the Sandwich Islands, even now, will swallow half a dozen raw mackerel for breakfast, without the smallest inconvenience to herself.

Sir E. Belcher, in a visit to some Esquimaux at Icy Cape, found the winter store room under the floor of their yourt or den, pretty well supplied with a mixture of reindeer, whale, walrus, seal, swans, ducks, etc., but none fresh. It was frozen into a solid mass beneath, but loose from those on the surface, and seemed to be incor¬ porated by some unexplained process into a gelatinous snow, which they scraped up easily with the hand, and ate with satisfaction, fish and oil predominating. It was not offensive or putrid. How many years the frozen mass may have remained there he could not determine.

In North America, fish eyes, the roes of salmon, and

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.

other small scraps, are buried in the earth by the natives until putrid, and then eaten cooked or raw. These sub¬ stances produce a horrible stench when exposed to the air. The Chippewa Indians are said to indulge in this diet.

The Sioux prepare a favourite dish, used at great feasts, called “ washen-ena,” consisting of dried meat pulverised and mixed with marrow, and a preparation of cherries, pounded and sun-dried. This mixture, when eaten raw or cooked, has an agreeable vinous taste.

The Emperor Napoleon once partook of an African dinner, with tortoise broth for turtle soup, porcupine, gazelle, and loin of the wild boar for pieces de resistance , salmis of Carthaginian hens, antelope cutlets, and bustards for entrees , an ostrich for a roast, and for side dishes ostrich eggs in the shell, pomegranate jelly, and all manner of sweetmeats with unpronounceable names like “ scerakboracs.” Ostrich, by way of roast chicken, is however rather tough eating ; and we wonder the Governor, who was his host, did not add a slice or two of lion to the entrees, and pickled rhinoceros’ foot to the side dishes. They certainly would digest much better than Arab sweetmeats, which, with the exception of “ hulwah ” are abominable.