Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 43643-h.htm or 43643-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43643/43643-h/43643-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43643/43643-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/cu31924090142187 FOODS AND CULINARY UTENSILS OF THE ANCIENTS Compiled from standard historical works by CHARLES MARTYN. Published by The Caterer Publishing Co., New York CONTENTS. Page. "In the beginning"--The coming of the nations 3 Assyria and the other kingdoms of the "tawny men" 9 Egypt and the Egyptians 13 The "vegetable kingdom" of Ancient Egypt 25 Greece before the age of luxury 30 Rome in the days of her greatest prosperity 39 The ancient Jews 49 The Chinese 60 IN THE BEGINNING. The influence exerted by different foods over the physical and mental faculties of mankind is so marked as to verify the famous pun of the philosophic Feuerbach, "Der Mensch ist was er isst" (Man is what he eats). The advance of civilization has always been accompanied by an increased knowledge of culinary matters, until cooking has become a science and its various forms great in number. So in tracing back the history of foods, culinary utensils and their uses, we of necessity trace back the history of the world. It is of course impossible at this late date to determine what was the first food of primeval man; ignorant as we are of even the approximate date of his first appearance and of the manner and means of that appearance. But it is worthy of note that if he had not been endowed with an intelligence superior to that of the other inhabitants of the globe, his existence here would have been very brief. Nature provided him with a body which, in those days, was well nigh useless. His prehensile organs, his teeth, jaws, feet and nails, did not fit him for overcoming any of the difficulties entailed by the adoption of most foods prepared by nature. He could not tear his prey conveniently nor crack many nuts, nor grub roots, nor graze. His digestive viscera were in the middle age too bulky and heavy for the rapid movements of the carnivora; they were not long enough to extract nourishment from raw vegetables. The only foods, therefore, primarily obtainable by him which he could use to advantage were fruits and soft-shelled nuts.