EVOLUTION 



95 



the world, but to-day it is exceedingly difficult to trace the means by which 

 this diffusion took place, though it is probable that much of it was due to 

 Aryan invasions. 



Primitive wheats can be found growing wild in Palestine to-day, and it is 

 probable that the home of this cultivation was Mesopotamia. It also seems 

 likely that the art of bread-making was known to the Chaldeans and to the 

 Egyptians some three thousand and more years before the commencement 

 of the present era. 



According to Tibbies, rice cultivation was in existence in China some three 

 thousand years before Christ, and was introduced into India by the Aryan 

 invasion. From India it passed into Europe with Alexander the Great's 

 army in 334 b.c, and from Europe it was introduced into America in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 



Maize, on the other hand, was first cultivated in America by the ancient 

 inhabitants of Mexico and Peru, and was brought by the Spaniards to Europe, 

 and has gradually found its way all over the world. 



Millet appears to have been cultivated from very ancient days in Africa 

 and Asia, and even in the Stone Age it had extended into Middle and Southern 

 Europe. 



Beans were first cultivated by the Aryans, but the haricot bean comes from 

 South America, while lentils are of prehistoric origin, and spinach was appar- 

 ently cultivated by the Medes and Persians. Onions possibly originated in 

 India, while the potato came from Chile. 



Fruit-growing is not as ancient as cereal cultivation. 



The domestication of animals enabled man to obtain meat without being 

 compelled to roam o ver large areas in search of wild game. Man is omnivorous 

 and desires greatly to eat meat, but when this is unobtainable or in too small 

 a quantity to supply the needs of the population, as in the present war, he 

 eats the foods which are available, and is thankful, even though they are not 

 those after which his stomach hankers. 



The reason why man in Eastern countries eats so much rice must be sought 

 for in the overpopulation of the Eastern Asia of long ago, when the great 

 food difficulties began those large movements of peoples which we have noted 

 in Chapter II. 



To-day Governments place peoples on meatless days and give them food 

 tickets, and the peoples obey willingly because they understand the reason, 

 but it might have been extremely dangerous for a despotic monarch of 

 Eastern Asia to have issued orders of this nature long ago. The ruling powers 

 of those days must have invoked the aid of the religious sects, who, being 

 feared and respected by the people, were obeyed; and to-day these religious 

 maxims are still in force, and the people avoid animal food, although the over- 

 population on account of which the rulers probably originated this custom 

 has ceased to exist. 



During historic days man has attempted to improve the appearance, the 

 smell, and the taste of his food by all sorts of devices, which vary in different 

 countries. These refinements include condiments and colouring matters, 

 and form part of the basis of the science and art of modern cookery. 



But man desires not food alone, but something to cheer and exhilarate him 

 when he feels ill or depressed, and when he wishes to celebrate some occasion ; 

 and hence in all countries some form of stimulating liquid is to be found, 

 be it in the form of tea, coffee, or cocoa, of malt liquors, wines or distilled 

 spirits, and all these are of great antiquity. 



Early dealers in food materials soon learned that it was profitable to adulter- 

 ate their merchandise, as this could be done with impunity. Of late, legisla- 

 tion, aided by chemical, physical, and physiological research, is endeavouring 

 to insure that foodstuffs shall be pure, though with regard to some foods, such 

 as milk, the standard is far from perfection, and certainly in the tropics mixed 

 milk can rival sewage in the numbers of its organisms. 



With regard to quantity and composition of primitive foods, naturally but 

 little is known, and this little is entirely due to McCay, who has investigated 

 the dietary of the primitive peoples of Chota Nagpur in Bengal. Among 



