THE DIET OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2555, 24 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DIET OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES.

Tub vagaries of the appetite are far bevond the explanatory science of physiology, What wo call tuleranoe in medicine is in itself a mystery. We cannot tell why this thing agrees with this individual and at the same time utterly desires his brother. The trite old saying about one man's poison must be accepted empirically. Still less can we account for the variations of taste. Why one man's gustatory nerve should respond agreeably to salt, while another repels it with violence, we euunot understand. Donlitless, education has most to do with it, aud yet the macnerin which education operates uontiuues a mysteey. Tho preference of the Chinese for food that seem- to our appetites absolutely di-vnst ing is well-known. In Canton, rats sell for fifty cents a dozen, and dogs' hind quarters command a higher price than lamb or mutton, Faucy, eating birds' worth 30 dols. a pound ? This is what a mandarin revels in. The French have beguiled u- into eating frotrs' legs, which were once tabooed in this country, and we have even come to esteem diseased goose liver in the form of pit 6 de foie gras. Tho writer has met Brazilians who rave over boa coustrictor stakes, and eouut monkeys and parrots a very good meal. In tho West Indies biked snake is a common dish, as the reptiles abound and it is a good way of getting rid of them. But when it comes to]frying palm worms in fat, one would think the stomach would rebel. It is not so, however, though by a strange inconsistency, stewed rabbit is looked upon with disgu»t. On the Pacific coast the Digger Indians eat dried locusts, and in the Argentine Republic skunk flesh is a dainty. Our own favourite bivalve, the ny-Hter, is very disgustintr to a Turk, while the Devil fish, eaten in Corsica, is equally so to us. We cannot, understand, either, how the inhabitants of the West Indies and the Pacific coast can eat lizards'eggs with a relish ; still less, how the eggs of the turtle and alligator can become a favourite article of diet. The Brazilians eat ants, probably to get rid of them, for they literally infest the country, and are of an enormous size. It is easy to pick up a handful of ants almost anywhere, though the wiry do not go about it ra this way, as the pestiferious insect bites in a most vicious manner. A curry of ants eggs is a great delicacy in Siain, aud tho Cingalese eat the bees whose honey ;hey have stolen. The Chinese, who seein to have stomachs iike the ostrich eat the chrysalis of the silkworm after unwinding the cocoon. Spiders are used iu New Caledonia as a kind of desert, while caterpillars are also relished by the African Bushmen.—Philidelphia Medical Register.