wonderful, with what alacrity and perfeverance, these people perform the most fatigueing journeys at all feasons of the year.* "I wonder'd," fays Busbequius, who, haveing a mind to pass through the fhambles of the Turkish camp, that he might fee what flesh was fold there, faw onely four or five wethers at most hung up; they were the fhambles of the janizarys, who were, at least, 4000, "fo little flefh could fuffice fo many; and was answer'd, they use'd but little flesh, but great part of their diet was brought from Conftantinople. When i demanded what that was, they fhew'd me a janizary, near at hand, who was lyeing down, and boiling turnips, leeks, garlick, parfnips, and cucumbers. He feafon'd them with falt and vinegar, and, hunger being his best fauce, ate them as heartily as if they had been partridge or pheasant."† This temperance, as Grelot observes, is of great advantage to the Turks, efpecially in war. For they never burthen their camp with any other provifions than rice, butter, or fome few dry'd fruits, &c.; and, at home, a tun of rice, with a fmall quantity of butter and dry'd fruits wil ferve * Lemprieres Tour to Morocco, p. 303. a numerous family for a whole twelvemonth. For my part, he ads, i cannot attribute the ftrength and plum nefs of the Levantines to any other caufe than their temperance.* The The Tartars are ftout, hardy, fpirited and fearless; and no people can be more abflemious. Millet and mares-milk is their habitual food, and yet they are exceedingly carnivorous. Tartar foldier, with his fifty days provifion, in a bag of roafted millet, endures, without a murmur, the feveritys of a long winter campaign, of which the mildest and least fatigueing day not all the boafted beef and pudding of an Engleifh dragoon would enable him to fupport. The Negros, it is wel known, are a most stout and vigorous race: their food is, chiefly, if not wholely, rice, millet, and other vegetables. The Negro inhabitants of the Philippine-ilands, who are thought to be the aborigines of the country, are a strong and nervous people: the fruits and roots they find in the woods are their * Voyage to Conflantinople, p. 241. Memoirs of baron de Tott, I, 66. That is, they are ravenous devourers of a dead horse, but wil not, except on solemn occafions, kil one for the purpose of food. ‡lbi, I, 166. Adanfons Voyage to Senegal. onely food. The Spaniards have attempted to reduce them to fubjection without effect.* The Gentoos, indeed, who abftain from animal food, are, generally fpeaking, a weak, tis morous, inactive people; but that this is the effect of climate, and not of food, becomes evident when it is confider'd that the Moguls of Tartars and Arabs, who live amongst them, are neither ftronger, more laborious, nor more active: and yet, though they eat nothing bur milk, butter, and vegetables, they are rather fat, and M. Toreen obferve'd Bramins and Banians with very prominent bellys. The Maltefe, who, though rather fhort, are very ftrong and nervous, think themselves fuperlatively hapy if they can eat their fil of white onions and garlick; joy and contentment being their conftant companions.t The mineërs in Cornwall are remarkablely ftrong, wel-made and laborious. Their chief food is potatos. * Raynal iii, 74. "That men may live, and be ftrong to labour, with little or ne animal food, is evince'd by the field-negros in the middle ftates of North-America, who are a healthy and hardy race of people; and whose labour is conftant and fevere; allthough they are fed allmoft entirely on vegetables." Sir F. M. Edens State of the poor, I, 522. + Riedfels Travels through Sicily, p. 52. The common food of the country people on the east coast of Scotland is oatmeal, milk and vegetables, chiefly red-cabbage in the winter feafon, and cole-worts for the fummer and fpring. At ten or twelve miles distant from a town, flesh is never seen in the houfees of the common farmers, except at a baptisim, a weding, Christmas, or Shrovetide. Yet are they "ftrong and active, fleep found, and live to a good old age."* The native Irish are allow'd to be as ftrong, lufty, hardy, and healthy people as any in the world; they do not taste a mouthful of animal food for, frequently, a whole year together, nor do they require it, while they can get any thing elfe. They fubfift chiefly, and many of them entirely, on butter-milk, potatos, and springwater.t "It has fometimes hapen'd," fays the authour * Douglases Defcription of the east coast of Scotland: Paisley, 1782. He gives "a farmers bill of fare for a day," which is curious, and does not contain a particle of animal food. + See Twilses Tour in Ireland, p. 30. "It is a fact, and one of the greatest importance, that potatos and water alone, with common falt, can nourish men completely." Report of the board of agriculture. (Sir F. M. Edens State of the poor, I, 503). of a late journey through Sweden,* "that i have travel'd for four-and-twenty hours through woods and rocks, in which i have literally feen no other habitations than thofe of the Chivergoors, a fet of peafant poft-masters, who live at the distance of two, three, and fometimes of four, leagues from each other, in wooden cabins, that hold themselves, their horfees, and their corn, place'd in a fmall fquare fpot of ground, in which they plant hops. Thefe people fcarcely know the use of herbs, and eat only bread diluteed with milk or water; yet with this they and their familys feem cheerful and contented, and can hardly conceive a hapyer mode of existence than their own. They are good-nature'd and honest beyond example, and are very robust and healthy, efpecially in Dalecarlia " * A Dutch officer. Translateëed from the French by mister Radcliffe, London, 179, p. 25. To this may be aded the testimony of doctor Sparrman. "I have feen," fays he, a great number of Dalecarlians, who wrought for a long time together at a hard and laborious busyness, fubfifting allmoft entirely upon haftey-pudding and beer, without even a morfel of bread; neither was this in the leaft confider'd by them as hard fare. I have allfo met with many poor cottageers in Uplandia, who, for a long time together, even wanted bread, particularly for their children, fo that they were oblige'd to bring them up upon pancakes and frumenty without milk." (Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, II, 235.) |