1 24 Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 



are more than once named as the food of heathens 

 and witches in northern literature. A curious 

 verfe, which is part of the grace before meat of 

 the monks of St. Gall, points to the ufe of horfe- 

 flefh fo late as A.D. 1000 



" Sit feralis equi caro dulcis in hac cruce Chrifti," 



while ProfefTor R. Smith has furmifed that " our 

 own prejudice againft horfe-flefh is a relic of an 

 old ecclefiaftical prohibition framed at the time 

 when the eating of fuch food was an a6l of wor- 

 mip to Odin." 1 Hippophagy has aftumed con- 

 fiderable proportions in Paris of late years, and 

 the following advertifement from the Times of 

 Sept. 1 6, 1 88 1, mews that the northern nations 

 are ftill true to their old attachment : " Horfe- 

 Flefh for Exportation. Wanted, found prime 

 Salted Meat in large pieces, fuitable for fmoking. 

 Deliveries monthly of about 25 barrels of 200 Ib. 

 to 300 Jb. each. State price, including packages. 



f. o. b. London, Liverpool, or Hull. J. C. S , 



Landemarket, Copenhagen." 



Having thus brought ancient and modern times 

 into juxtapofition, it is well to remember the poet's 

 line 



" Et jam tempus equfim fumantia folvere colla." 3 



corniculis atque ciconiis quae omnino cavendae funt ab efu 

 Chriftianorum ; etiam et fibri, et lepores, et equi filvatici 

 multo amplius vitandi." See Viftor Hehn, ut fuj>., p. 24, and 

 Grimm's " Teutonic Mythology," ed. Stallybrafs, vol. i., p. 47, 

 1880. 



1 "Le&ures on the Old Teftament," p. 366. 



2 " Georg.," ii. 542. 



