Chap. Iir. APPENDIX. 375 



he fed upon grafs, and mofs of trees *. Of this objecllon I have 

 taken notice already t ♦ And I will add here, that thofe who main- 

 tain that Man cannot live upon herbage, or vegetable food of any- 

 kind, appear to me to confound the Man of God and Nature with 

 the artificial animal he has made himfelf, and to be as ignorant of 

 the hiftory as the philofophy of Pvlan. Diodorus Siculus relates that 

 the firft men in Egypt ate grafs and roots that grew in the marlhes : 

 and there is one root particularly that he names, and calls it 

 agrojils, upon which he fays cattle fatten, and which, in thofe very 

 antient times, nouriihed men : And the memory of that food was pre- 

 ferved, even in his time, in Egypt ; for men, when they prefented 

 themfelves before the Gods, had of that herb in their hands. And 

 « it was not, he fays, till later times, that Ifis taught them the 

 ufe of the lotus for bread ; the memory of which w^as alfo preferved 

 In all the monuments of that Goddefs. Befides thefe fads, of 

 fo great antiquity, but which, I am perfuaded, Diodorus relates 

 from good information, and were confirmed, as I have juft now 

 faid, by rites and ceremonies, pradifed in his time, he in- 

 forms us of what mull have fallen under his own obfervation, 

 that the children in Egypt fed upon reeds, and other aquatic plants, 

 which grew in the river and marfhes j:. And not only in Egypt, 

 but in India, as Arrian relates upon the authority of Megafthenes, 

 who appears to have known more of India than any man of the 

 antient world, the Indians, before they were civilized and taught 

 arts by Bacchus, fed upon the barks of trees : And, in later times, 

 as late as when Megafthenes wrote, he fays that the Gymnofo- 

 phifts fed in the fame way §. And, in Arcadia, Paufanias relates, 



tliat, 



* Page 58. of this Volume.. 

 t Page 66. 



% See Volume Firft of the Origin and Progrefs of Langu:ige, p. 60^, of the Sc- 

 -cond Edition. 



^ AxTvm's Itidicay p. 325. 



