Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Food-getting. One of the most remarkable things in the world is the never- ending quest for food. Mankind has ransacked the whole earth; he has searched the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms; he has ascended to the very mountain tops, has gone down into the valleys, has dredged the ocean bottom, in his hunt for food. The quest began ages ago and it still continues with all the keenness and anxiety of the past. It is marvelous what curious things have been found to be palatable; how many sicknesses, how many poisonings, how many deaths, must have taken place before mankind fully learned what nature gave for such use As we look over the list of things eaten we are frequently horrified at the filthiness or disgusting character of some of them. Thus, the Australian eats marsupials, all kinds of birds, eels, fish, bats, frogs, lizards, snakes, and worms. The Bongo or Dor negro eats rats, snakes, carrion kites, bats, land scorpions, ants, and caterpillars. Schweinfurth tells some stomach- stirring tales about maggots. Tylor says: The Andamanese live upon wild food, gather fruits and honey, hunt wild pigs in the jungles, and dig turtles and fish on the coast. The low- Rocky Mountain tribes gather birds and snakes, and catch lizards from their holes with hooked sticks. Of course, food at first was eaten raw. That goes without the saying if man invented fire. Life was, with primitive man, as it is still with many savages, alternate feasting and famine.When game has been killed, a whole group of individuals squat about it, tear the raw flesh from the carcass and eat it, gorging themselves like pigs. Then, half stupid, they lie until digestion has taken place. Later they resume the feast, and when the carcass is completely gone journey until fresh...