154 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



Macaulay : " Whatever the Bengali does he does languidly. 

 His favourite pursuits are sedentary. He shrinks from bodily 

 exertion, and, though voluble in dispute, and singularly perti- 

 nacious in the war of chicane, he seldom engages in a personal 

 conflict, and scarcely ever enlists as a soldier. The physical 

 organization of the Bengali is feeble even to effeminacy ... his 

 limbs delicate, his movements languid. During many ages he 

 has been trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy 

 breeds. His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is 

 weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly resistance ; but 

 its suppleness and its tact move the children of sterner climates 

 to admiration not unmingled with contempt. All those arts 

 which are the natural defence of the weak are more familiar to 

 this subtle race than to the Ionian of the time of Juvenal, or to 

 the Jew of the dark ages." 



Strachey, commenting on the above passage, says : 



" There have been many changes since Macaulay 's time, and 

 among signs of increasing vigour one that is not without signifi- 

 cance has been the development of a taste for athletic sports 

 among the educated classes in the Government schools and 

 colleges cricket, hockey, and football, especially the latter, 

 which is now played all over the province. This, however, is 

 true of only a small section, and the general description remains 

 much as Lord Macaulay presented it. It cannot, however, be 

 applied to the northern and eastern districts, where the majority 

 of the population is Mohammedan. 



" The Mohammedan peasantry of the eastern portion of the 

 province are men of far robuster character than the Bengalis of 

 the western districts. It was among them that the sepoys who 

 fought under Olive at Plassey were chiefly recruited, and the 

 maritime districts supply thousands of intrepid boatmen and 

 lascars to the mercantile marine." 



There is no doubt at the present time of the fact that sport 

 and manly exercises have taken a great hold of the Bengali 

 youth, which may be accepted as a great step forward in the 

 evolution of a more virile and energetic people. With this 

 change in customs a demand for a more concentrated diet than 

 rice is certain to arise. 



The following saying concerning the Brahmins, who should be 

 vegetarians, exemplifies the effects likely to accrue from foods 

 deficient in protein : 



