[159] Hessey, op. cit. p. 87 sqq.
[160] Roberts, Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England, p. 244 sqq.
[161] Buckle, History of Civilization in England, iii. 276.
CHAPTER XXXVII
RESTRICTIONS IN DIET
TRAVELLERS have often noticed with astonishment the immense quantities of food which uncivilised people are able to consume. Sir George Grey has described the orgies which follow the stranding of a whale in Australia, when the natives remain by the carcase for many days, fairly eating their way into it.[1] The Rocky Mountain Indians, though they often subsist for a great length of time on a very little food, will at their feasts “gorge down an incredible quantity.”[2] A Mongol “will eat more than ten pounds of meat at one sitting, but some have been known to devour an average-sized sheep in the course of twenty-four hours.”[3] The Waganda in Central Africa “sometimes gorge themselves to such an extent that they are unable to move, and appear just as if intoxicated.”[4] It has been justly observed that what would among ourselves be condemned as disgusting gluttony is, under the conditions to which certain races of men are exposed, quite normal and in fact necessary. As Mr. Spencer observes, “where the habitat is such as at one time to supply very little food and at another time food in great abundance, survival depends on the ability to consume immense quantities when the opportunities occur.”[5] When this is the case gluttony can hardly be stigmatised as a vice; and I find no direct evidence that it is so even among savages who are described as generally moderate in their diet. The lack of foresight, which is a characteristic of uncivilised peoples, must prevent them from attaching much moral value to temperance. On the other hand, gluttony is sometimes said to be regarded with admiration. Mr. Torday informs me that the Bambala in South-Western Congo, when praising a man for his strength, are in the habit of saying, “He eats a whole goat with its skin.”
[1] Grey, Journals of Expeditions in North-West and Western Australia, ii. 277 sqq.
[2] Harmon, Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North America, p. 329.
[3] Prejevalsky, Mongolia, i. 55.
[4] Wilson and Felkin, Uganda, i. 185.