56 FOOD IN THE NORTH OF EUROPE. 



also simple, it being mostly rice and fish, taken on the coast, and fruits. 

 Maize is some eaten in Sumatra. Wine and spirits of their own make 

 are much drank. The latter, called bang, is extracted from hemp. 

 Opium and tobacco are indulged in to excess. 



The Tartars, like the Arabs, are a wandering people ; but, instead 

 of the camel as the source of nutriment, they subsist chiefly on horse 

 flesh. The animal is carefully fattened for the food of the more wealthy, 

 but the value of the horse renders the food scarce with the poor, par- 

 ticularly in winter. Sheep are however considerably eaten. Few 

 vegetables or fruits are cultivated or eaten. Considerable mare's milk 

 is drank, but more is fermented into an intoxicating drink. 



The Siberians, in the north, obtain their food mostly by hunting and 

 fishing, though in the south of their country the grains are abundant. 

 Sour milk and horse flesh are also chief articles of consumption. They 

 have no knowledge of raised bread. The greatest delicacy is fat, raw, 

 melted or rancid. A soup is made by them of the inner bark of the 

 larch tree ; milk or fat is likewise consumed in considerable quantities. 

 Fresh fish are eaten in large numbers, and the flesh of the Reindeer is 

 much esteemed. Their dogs are said to eat the same food as their 

 masters, while those of the South Sea Islands in doing the same, are 

 seen to eat nothing but vegetables, yams and bread fruit. Tobacco is 

 a luxury in the northern parts, inducing stupefaction by the smoke be- 

 ing swallowed for that purpose. 



The Norwegians are well provided with rye, as their bread corn ; the 

 bark of the larch with the meal of rye, barley or oats is also much 

 used as bread. Their chief animal food is fish taken in great abundance 

 on the coast and in the bays. 2,650,000 tons of grain arc annually 

 raised in Norway, and 750,000 tons are imported. The dairy products 

 are abundant and much exported. Coffee is much drank, and even to 

 excess by the women. 



In Sweden the agricultural products are abundant and great quanti- 

 ties are exported, though thirty years since the quantity was insufficient 

 for their own consumption. The grain grown in 1828 was 6,499,000 

 tons and 3,248,000 tons of potatoes. The neat cattle are estimated at 

 1,900,000 and the sheep at 1,562,000, yet a fifth of the people are said 

 to be unable to support themselves. 



In Denmark the chief vegetable food is rye, buckwheat and pota- 

 toes. Wheat is in the proportion only of half a bushel for each per- 

 son. Fish and beef are largely eaten. Barley is the chief grain of 

 the islands. This, with oats and buckwheat, forms the bread of the 

 people. The products of the dairy are here also abundant. Denmark 

 has exported in six months 4,671,260 Ibs. of butter and 596,100 Ibs. of 

 cheese. The Hamburg beef" so famous, is from Denmark. 



In Mecklenburg, and other near duchies, the food is like that of the 

 Danes. The consumption of persons on a farm has been estimated at 



