Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 299 



But the greatefl: deftrmflion of the brute creation on this cartli is 

 by man for food ; and this leads me to fpeak at fome length of the 

 food of man, which is very different in the different ftatcs througli 

 ■which he has paffed. In his firfl: ftate upon this earth, when he 

 was a quadruped and walked w^on all-four, (the ftate in which Pe- 

 ter the ivild boy was found in the woods of Hanover, the moft cu- 

 rious difcovery, as to the human race, that has been made in this 

 age *), it was of abfolute neceffity, as I have obferved elfewhere f, 

 that he fhoiild feed upon the herbs and roots which the earth pro- 

 duced, and not upon the fruits of trees. That was firft praclifed by 

 the Arcadians, who were a moft antient people, fo antient that they 

 faid they were more antient than the moon, being •^risoo-jX^co;, as 

 they called themfelves; for they were taught, by their king Pelafgus, 

 to feed upon acorns. This is a curious fad: in the hiftory of man, 

 which Paufanias has preferved to us, (Lib. Vlll. Cap. I.) ; and it 

 is a ftep in the human progrefs, the memory of which appears to 

 have been preferved only among thefe very antient people \. 



Before the invention of corn, Diodorus Siculus tells us, that 

 the Egyptians ate grafs and roots that grew in the rivers and 

 marfties, particularly an herb called agroflis, with which they 

 fattened cattle in later times ; and that they continued to feed 

 in that way till Ifis taught them the ufe of a better herb for food, 

 I mean the lotus, which grovt's in the river. Diodorus adds, 

 that even in his own time, the children in Egypt fed upon reeds 

 and other aquatic plants which grew in the river and marflies |J : 



P p 2 Arrian 



* See upon this fubjeifl: of Peter the ivild boxy at great length, Vol. III. of this 

 work, p. 57 and following. 



t Vol. IV. p. 39. 



\ See Vol. IV. of this work, p. 3y. 



H Vol. III. of this Work, p. 375. 



