Section 10. Foods tabooed.
AS MIGHT have been expected, the superstitions of the savage
cluster thick about the subject of food; and he abstains from eating
many animals and plants, wholesome enough in themselves, which
for one reason or another he fancies would prove dangerous or
fatal to the eater. Examples of such abstinence are too familiar and
far too numerous to quote. But if the ordinary man is thus deterred
by superstitious fear from partaking of various foods, the restraints
of this kind which are laid upon sacred or tabooed persons, such
as kings and priests, are still more numerous and stringent. We
have already seen that the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to eat or
even name several plants and animals, and that the flesh diet of
Egyptian kings was restricted to veal and goose. In antiquity many
priests and many kings of barbarous peoples abstained wholly from
a flesh diet. The Gangas or fetish priests of the Loango Coast are
forbidden to eat or even see a variety of animals and fish, in
consequence of which their flesh diet is extremely limited; often
they live only on herbs and roots, though they may drink fresh
blood. The heir to the throne of Loango is forbidden from infancy to
eat pork; from early childhood he is interdicted the use of the cola
fruit in company; at puberty he is taught by a priest not to partake
of fowls except such as he has himself killed and cooked; and so
the number of taboos goes on increasing with his years. In
Fernando Po the king after installation is forbidden to eat cocco
(arum acaule), deer, and porcupine, which are the ordinary foods
of the people. The head chief of the Masai may eat nothing but
milk, honey, and the roasted livers of goats; for if he partook of any
other food he would lose his power of soothsaying and of
compounding charms. 1
