has had the best opportunitys of being acquainted with the fact, asferts that the Brahmans are by no means confine'd to a vegetable diet, as is generally fuppofe'd, allthough, like the Jews and Mahometans, they are forbiden to taste of many kinds of flesh and fifh.* The Bramins, as priests, have, posfiblely, emancipateëd themselves from the strictness of the law, of which they are the fole expofitors. The Birman priefts, on their induction, are enjoin'd not to deprive any animal of life; fuch deeds, they are told, being unlawful and profane. They are not to take away life even from the fmallest infect, or the vileëft reptile. "Sooner," fays the Cammuazara, "fhal the cleft rock unite its fever'd fragments, and become whole, than he who deftroys the vital principle in any animal be readmited into our facred inftitution. Avoid * Notes to the Heetopades of Veefhnoo Sarma, publish'd by O. Wilkins, p. 318. See allfo Pagés, Travels round the world, 1791, II, 23. But even among those cafts which are allow'd to eat certain kinds of animal food, and who allways do it fpareingly, to abstain from it is confider'd a virtue. "Thofe," fays the Heetopades, "who have forfakeën the kiling of all are in the way to heaven." Sketches, &c. 118, 281. In the fame work allfo "Not to kil," is call'd " a fupreme duty." And even religion define'd "Compassion for all things which have life." (P. 12.) with caution," he concludes, "this heinous transgresfion."* The religion of Fo, or Fo-é, the most common fect in China, confifts in not kiling any liveing creature.† The people of this country, for the most part, are accustom'd to live on herbs and rice onely. With flour, rice, wheat, and plain beans, they prepare a multiplicity of dishes, all different from each other, both in their appearance and taste. The bonzes, or Japonese priests, abstain from animal food; and fo do the talapoins, or priests of Siam; at least they fhed no blood; being forbiden by their religion, which teaches the transmigration of fouls: they make no scruple, however, to eat what others kil, or that which dyes of itsfelf. According to Kaempfer, this doctrine of Pythagoras being receive'd allmost univerfally, the natives of Japan eat no flesh-meat, and liveing, as they do, chiefly upon vegetables, they know how to improve the ground to much * Symeses Embassy to Ava, III, 366. + Osbecks Voyage, I, 280. + Grofiers Defcription of China, II, 248, 316. § Thevenots Travels, p. 219. || Tavernier, Indian travel, p. 191. Voyage to Siam, p. 85. See allfo Louberes Historical relation of Siam, p. 126. better advantage than by turning it into meadows and pastures for the breeding of cattle:* and though they have but few household goods, and are generally posfefs'd of many children and great poverty, yet "with some small proportion of rice-plants and roots, they live content and hapy."t The original inhabitants of Sumatra are "temperate and fober, being equally abftemious in meat and drink. The diet of the natives is mostly vegetable; water is their only beverage." The Armenian monks, whom Tavernier faw in the road between Nackfiwan and Zulfa, live'd very auftere lives, feeding upon nothing but herbs. Those of the convent of Mount-Carmel observe❜d a very severe rule; for, befide that they were remove'd from all worldly conversation, they neither ate flesh, nor drank wine.§ At Aleppo, the inhabitants chiefly fubfift upon dates, which, together with various other *History of Japan, p. 124. + Ibi, 415. Marsdens History of Sumatra, p. 171. Perfian travels, p. 17. § Thevenots Travels, p. 219. kinds of fruit, they have in great plenty and fection.* per The peasants of modern Ægypt, as we learn from Volney, are hire'd labourers, to whom no more is left than barely fufficeës to fustain life. The rice and corn they gather are carry'd to the table of their masters, and nothing referve'd for them but dourra, or Indian millet, of which they make a bread without leaven, which is taftelefs when cold. This bread is, with water and raw onions, their onely food throughout the year; and they esteem themselves hapy if they can fometimes procure a little honey, cheese, four milk, and dates. Flefh meat, and fat, which they are pasfionately fond of, make their appear. ance onely on the great festivals, and among those who are in the best circumftanceës.† The negros of Sierra-leon, as describe'd by Atkins, make cocoa-nuts, rice, yams, plantanes, pine-apples, limes, orangeës, papais, palm-nuts, wild roots, and berrys, their common fustenance, he being the greatest among them who can af * Plaisteds Journal from Calcutta to Busforab, p. 21. + Travels in Egypt and Syria, I, 188. (E. tranf.) The common food of the Egyptians is barley-flour mix'd with water. (Grangers Journey into Egypt, p. 248.) ford to eat rice all the year round.* Adanfon was inviteëd to dinner by the negro governor of Sor, a village and iland in Senegal. The feast confifted of "a large wooden bowl full of couscous [couscoufous?], a thick-grain'd pap made of two forts of millet," which they eat after the manner of the Moors in Barbary, thrusting their right hands into the dish; and, haveing been accustom❜d to a more favoury and luxurious diet, he was far from relishing the temperance and fimplicity of his hoft. However, being use'd a "he found it afterward little to the couscous, very good."+ 1 he Moors of this part of Africa, a very ancient race, distinct from the negros, are no way inferior to them in frugality. Their ordinary food is milk, either of camels, cows, goats, or sheep, with millet; and very often milkand gum alone is their whole repaft, and ferves them for meat and drink f Corn, and herbs, and fpring-water are the common food of the people of Malemba, on the coast of Africa. The most usual food of the Birians, a nation about twelve degrees north of * Voyage to Guinea, p. 49. + Voyage to Senegal, p. 55, 56. Ibi, p. 64. Ovingtons Voyage to Surat, p. 77 |