CHRISTMAS FARE 357 



European sportsmen in Central Africa gorge themselves 

 when elephants are killed, and a recent account tells of 

 the serious illness and danger to an expedition caused 

 by the whole countryside flocking to the carcasses of 

 twenty-three elephants killed by an ivory-hunter. The 

 blacks continued to eat the flesh of the elephants for 

 three weeks, when it had become decidedly " high," and 

 many died, whilst others took weeks to recover, in conse- 

 quence. The notion of " festivity," which, especially in 

 England, has been, even in recent times, that of eating 

 and drinking to excess, is prehistoric and barbaric. 

 Serious physiologists and medical men have expressed 

 the opinion that we shall never arrive at a satisfactory 

 mode of nourishing ourselves so as to take neither too 

 much nor what is in itself injurious to health, until the 

 practice of seeking gaiety and celebrating a memory or 

 honouring a friend or friends by means of profuse eating 

 (often followed by wearisome speeches) has given place 

 to a mode of rejoicing which is more likely to produce 

 hilarity and lightness of heart, and less certain to be 

 followed by painful and injurious results. We certainly 

 eat less and drink less of intoxicating liquors than we 

 did, but there is, it seems, still room for improvement. 



To connect heavy feeding with Christmas, the third 

 in rank of the great festivals of the Church, is not a 

 universal custom, and is, in fact, a peculiarity of our 

 own country, arising from the rearing and management 

 of cattle in early times, when English pasture land 

 furnished a splendid means of enriching its owners by 

 the production of " hides " and leather. Large numbers 

 of cattle had to be stalled during winter and fed on 

 stored herbage, and a great many were at this season 

 killed and the meat " salted down," since it would not 

 pay to keep them on stored food. It was not until the 

 introduction of " root-crops " that oxen could be kept in 



