FOOD OF EASTERN PEOPLE. 55 



and exported. The Paraguay tea, made from a shrub of the holly 

 family, is greatly used. But we shall notice the vegetables and the 

 various drinks made from them, under their respective heads. 



The Persians make rice a chief aliment, united with wheaten cakes, 

 sour milk and cheese, dates, grapes, melons, peaches, cherries 3 cur- 

 rants, and many other choice fruits. -Wine is used freely. The pro- 

 ducts of the dairy are also abundant, derived as they are from immense 

 flocks of wandering cattle. Most of our best culinary vegetables are 

 there abundant. Little meat is eaten beside that of the flocks. 



The Arabs every where have similar alimentary regimen. This is 

 derived chiefly from their flocks of cattle and from a small quantity of 

 grain, the flour of which affords an unleavened bread. Camel's milk 

 and dates are also a common food ; and in Esypt and Persia they have 

 rice, and in other parts millet, with some wheat and pulse. Camel's 

 meat is occasionally eaten, and sheep and lambs, with coffee and but- 

 ter. The latter, indeed, is taken to excess, whole cups full in a melted 

 state being frequently drank before breakfast. Water, camel's milk, 

 and occasionally a drink distilled from rice, and coffee, are the only 

 drinks. 



The jlbyssinians have, however, so great a relish for meat, though 

 within a warm climate, as to cut the raw flesh from the live animal 

 and devour it while yet quivering. The wound of the animal is after- 

 wards sewed up or plastered over. Others are more humanely killed 

 before this process is performed. 



In India, as we have elsewhere said, rice is the general food of all 

 classes ; and in fact in all Southern Asia, with herbs, vegetable oils 

 and fruits, it constitutes the almost exclusive aliment. The Hindoo 

 lives and works on 1J Ibs. of rice per day, with water, for his drink ; 

 travelling with coolies, or passenger cars, with 500 Ibs. weight, fifteen 

 miles per day. No one of caste, it is said, ever partakes of beef; and 

 none but out-casts are intemperate in stimulating drinks. The prin- 

 cipal luxury of the mahomedans is fruit. 



The Chinese subsist chiefly on rice, a kind of cabbage, and a few 

 other culinary vegetables. Swine, or pigs, and ducks are the principal 

 animal food, and these are necessarily sparingly eaten. Dogs, rats, 

 and almost every other animal, is eaten with avidity when they can be 

 procured. Fish are caught on the coast and in the rivers, and these 

 contribute a little to the animal food. The rich, as a luxury, eat soups 

 made of bird's nests, slugs, &c. Tea, cold and without milk or sugar, 

 is the chief drink, and opium affords them a source of baneful luxury. 



The Japanese are less fed than even the Hindoos : they refrain both 

 from animal food and milk, though those upon the coast are said to be 

 provided with fish and fowls. They use considerable tabacco and their 

 principal drinks are tea and rice-beer. 



In Sumatra } Java, Borneo and the Philippines, the diet of the people is 



