On the other hand, dried peas and lentils were high in favour, as they were said to impart good humour. The fat and frivolous were dieted partially on turnips, in order to curtail their physical tendency to ponderosity, and their mental leaning towards superabundance of spirits. To cabbage a thousand virtues were ascribed, and the idea that the consumption of animal food produced coarseness of mind and body was responsible in great measure for the disgust with which the foreign habit of flesh-eating was regarded. Knowing what I now did of the peculiar religious beliefs of New Amazonians, I could easily conceive that the most scrupulous attention would be paid to dietetic and sanitary matters, since a healthy body was supposed to facilitate the perfecting of the spirit, and its final glorification. The importance attached to diet and sanitation reminded me forcibly of the old Mosaic laws, and I enquired if great importance was attached to the Testamentary records of Ancient History handed down to us in the Bible. “Certainly,” replied the Principal, very emphatically, “but we also heed Herodotus and Josephus; and our greatest classical work on ancient history has been compiled by twelve New Amazonian savants, who compared all come-at-able records with such strict impartiality and absence of special bias, that we flatter ourselves upon possessing the most accurate and reliable records of ancient history extant.” “But you surely reverence the Bible?” “Yes, we reverence it, most assuredly. But where historical accuracy seems to be slightly at fault, we are not above being instructed from other sources.” “Then what do you think of Moses as a historian, as a law-giver, and as a general?” “In all these respects we think that he was truly great. But, being human, it was not impossible for him to adopt an erroneous opinion on a given subject, or to commit a grave error of judgment. Many things for which we can now find natural explanations must have seemed miraculous in his days, and in no case do we believe that he placed anything on record which he did not believe to be exactly as he described it. Still, this does not prevent us from recognising some errors in his accounts of the doings in former times. That he forsook the precincts of a Court, in order to cast in his lot with his own downtrodden and oppressed people, is proof sufficient of his innate nobility, and his fearless defence of the ill-treated Israelitish labourers showed that he had also plenty of the courage required in a great leader.” “And what of David?”