Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1886 — They Do Not Like Our Food. [ARTICLE]

They Do Not Like Our Food.

Not a few articles, of food that are popular among civilized peoples, some of them being even regarded as great dainties, are rejected by many savage tribes as utterly unfit to be eaten. Some preparations of food, too, that we enjoy are not relished by uncivilized people, becau-e in their expez-ience they have met with nothing like them. The natives of New Guinea, for instance, cook a few cereals in their own fashion, but they made very wry faces when they attempted to eat some fresh baked biscuits that the missionaries gave them. They finally wrapped their biscuits up in paper, intending to keep them as curiosities. On some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago there are hundreds of natives whose only industry is to collect the edible birds’ nests that are esteemed a great dainty by the Chinese. They wouldn’t dream of eating them tliem c e'ves, and they think the Chinese must be very peculiar people to use that sort of food. The Esquimaux near Littleton Island once discovered a supply of bread and salt pork that Dr. Kane had cached, and they proceeded to enjoy a feast at the white men’s expense. They liked the sa t pork, and did not leave a morsel of it. This was probably the first chance they had ever had to vary the monotony of their meat diet. They nibbled the bread a little, promptly pronounced it a failure, and told Dr. Kane afterward that they would as soon swallow so much sand. The Esquimaux generally dislike all the preparations of vegetables that the explorers bring among them. They think it is a perverted appetite that craves anything hut meat. A tribe living not far from Port Moreskv, New Guinea, that-think boiled snakes are to he preferred to roast pig, draw' the line at sugar. When they saw Dr. Chalmers, their first .white visitor, sweetening his tea one morning they asked him for some of his salt. Dr. Chalmers told them it was not salt, but they were incredulous, and so he gave some sugar to one of the natives. “He began eating it,” says Dr. Chalmers, “and the look of disgust on his face was worth seeing; lie rose up, went out, spat out that he had in liis mouth, and threw the remainder away.” Then he told the crow r d what horrible stuff it was, and they were satisfied to take his word for it without trying it themselves.

Many savage tribes think eggs are wholly unfit for food. They keep fowls that are very much like our own, and sometimes chickens are almost their sole animal food, hut they never dreamed that anybody could get hungry enough to eat eggs until they saw the missionaries eat them. The spectacle of their white friends making eggs a jia t of their breakfast still troubles a number of tribes in Africa. Mr. Wallace says that among some of the Pacific Islanders hens’ eggs are saved to sell to ships, hut are never eaten by the natives.

There are a number of tribes : : n Africa whose chief riches are tlieir herds of cattle, hut who never drank a drop of cow’s milk in their lives. They think the milk of their herds is for calves and not for human beings, and they are disgusted at the idea that anybody should consider it a proper article of food. A few tribes near the great lakes think it is a spectacle worth seeing to look at the missionaries milking cows and drinking the milk. Among many tribes, however, milk is an important article of food. They estimate a man’s wealth by the number of cattle he owns, and thinks he is squandering his capital if he kills one of them for food. They use their cattle to buy wives and other commodities, and eat them only when they die in natural course.

Strawberries and raspberries are found in some tropical regions, but they are never eaten, and, in fact, are hardly worth picking, as they are poor, almost tasteless things. The wild fruits of tropical regions are generally far inferior in quality and abundance to those of the temperate zone.

These same tribes that are astounded at some of the articles white men put into their stomachs very likely eat grasshoppers, ants, monkeys, elephants, and many other things that have not been, introduced into our cuisine. The pure white salt of commerce is the one article in the nature of food that they are all glad to get. Earth strongly impregnated with saline matter has a wide sale in one part of Central Africa, and along tho Angola coast natives collect the impure deposits of the salt marshes to season their food. If salt were not so heavy, explorers would find it more useful than almost any other commodity in paying their way through savago lands.