116 son animal and vegetable food. Nov. 28s 
tions, stamped as it were with a general and anti- 
quated approbation, and adopted as infallible mat- 
ters of experience, which yet are nothing lefs than: 
generally just. In the number of these hackneyed 
maxims muy be reckoned this: that the use of: 
flefh meat, renders men strong and courageous or e~ 
ven cruel ; and, on the contrary, that the use of vege= 
tables makes them weak, gentle, or even cowardly.. 
But we are taught by the history of mankind, that 
these and similar propositions fhould undergo consi-+ 
derable limitations before they are currently ad- 
mitted. 
In the first place, a great number of nations and 
tribes might be named, in whom these preten= 
ded effects of animal food do not at all appear.. The 
inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe and’ 
Asia, the Laplanders, Samoides, Ostiacs, Tungu- 
ses; Burets, and Kamtfhadales, as well as the inhabi- 
tants of the most northern and southern promonto- 
ries of America, the Esquimaux, and the natives of 
Terra del Fuego, are to be reckoned among the 
smallest, ugliest, and most dastardly and feeble 
people on the face of the earth; and yet all these 
nations not only livealmost entirely on animal food,, 
but that mostly raw, and without any preparation *. 
The Burets, says Mr Pallas 7, are not only diminu- 
tive and of a feminine look, but are also so weak, 
that six Burts, with the utmost exertions of their 
* I forbear to cite authorities for this, both because the fact is well ; 
known in Rufsia, and because they may be seen by every writer on this. 
subject. 
+ Pallas Morgolian tribes, vol. i. p. 1718 
