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the common wine of the country: however tho' their diet be light and their bodily exertions almost perpetual, they commonly attain old age especially in the neighbourhood of Carreggi."-Mrs. Starke's "Letters from Italy, between 1792 and 1798." let.

14.

The Manicheans were a sect of Christians who be lieved in a good and an evil principle; worshipped the sun and other glorious objects of nature; had a firm faith in the New Testament, but rejected the Old, which, they said, described the Almighty as unjust; and religiously abstained from all kinds of an. imal food. For that and some other good-natured practices and opinions, they suffered much obloquy, and were persecuted by the Catholic church.

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gainst this sect St. Augustine indulges himself in a strain of the most indecent, bitter, and illiberal in.. vective. Vide St. August. de moribus Manichæo

rum.

That the negroes excel almost all the Europeans in bodily powers needs no demonstration; and yet these strong negroes, both in Africa and America, live more on vegetables than either fish or flesh. [Des Marchais, tom i. p. 293. Projart, tom. i. p. 11, 14. De Manet, tom. i. p. 79, 87.] It is the same with the inhabitants of the South Sea islands, and the Ma. rian isles; [Cooke's last Voyage, vol. i. p. 246. Forster's Observations, p. 351. Voyage, į 315. Gobier, 46, 55.] of whom all the European travellers agree, that they would not choose to try their strength with them. The former, and especially the inhabitants of the Friendly isles, displayed such an astonishing agility and force, in wrestling and boxing, that they presently knocked or threw down the strongest and most expert of the English sailors. E

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ven women took the English under their arms, in or. der to transport them over deep streams and rivers. With equal strength, the inhabitants of the Marian isles, took every one his man, of the Europeans who had strayed from their brethren, and ran with them to their habitations with incredible ease. The strength of the latter is so extraordinary, that they can throw stones, by the mere force of their arms, deep into the solid trunk of full growing trees. Gobier, loc. cit

The Gauries are the meekest creatures in the world. The Banians, who abstain from flesh more strictly, are almost as meek as they. Diodorus mentions a people in the part of Ethiopia above Egypt, whom he calls vxopayo, or wood-eaters, as they subsisted en. tirely in the woods, eating either the fruits of the trees, or when these could not be had, chewing the tender roots and young branches.

The Armenian monks, whom Tavernier saw in the road between Nacksiwan and Zulpha, fed on vegetables. [Persian Travels, 17.] Those of the convent of Mount Carmel were removed from all worldly conversation, and neither ate flesh nor drank wine. [Thevenot's Travels.]

I perceive, says Michaelis, from Russel's Natural History of Aleppo, p. 50, that there the Jews and Turks never taste the flesh of cattle. See also his commentaries on the Laws of Moses, by Smith, vol. ii, p. 406.

Some Turks, pitiful and good-natured towards dumb creatures, buy birds on purpose to let them fly away, and return to the liberty of the woods and o pen air. Smith's Remarks on the Turks, p. 103.

At Aleppe, the inhabitants chiefly subsist on dates, which, together with various other kinds of fruit, they have in great plenty.

At Sor, a village and island in Senegal, Adanson was invited to a dinner by the negro governor. The feast consisted of a large wooden bowl full of couscous, a thick pap made of two sorts of millet. He was far from relishing the temperance and simplicity of his host, but after being a little used to the couscous, he found it very agreeable. [Voyage to Senegal, 55, 56.] The ordinary food of the moors of this part of Africa, is milk, either of camels, cows, goats, or sheep, with millet; and very often milk and gum alone is their entire repast, and serves them for meat and drink. Id. 64.

At Malemba, on the coast of Africa, corn, herbs and spring-water are the common food of the people. -Ovington's Voyage to Surat, p. 77.

The religion of Fo or Fo-é prevails in China which enjoins that no living creature be killed.-Osbeck's Voyage, i. 280. The people of this country, for the most part, are accustomed to live on herbs and rice, only. With flour, rice, wheat and plain beans, they prepare a multiplicity of dishes, all different one from another, both in appearance and taste.-Grocier's China, ii, 248, 316.

The Bramins shed no blood and eat no flesh; their diet is rice and other vegetables, prepared with: a kind of butter called ghee, and with ginger and other spices, but they consider milk the purest food, as coming from the cow, an animal for which they have a sacred veneration. "Sketches chiefly relating to the Hindoos, 1790," 8vo. p. 111.

There are certain privileged orders, however, who are allowed to eat animal food; but it is done spar ingly. To abstain entirely is considered more vir. tuous. Sketches, 118.

From shedding the blood, or taking away the life

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of any animal, both sexes of the Hindoos are strictly prohibited by their religion. Among the Wallachians, tho' there be no positive institution to the contrary, yet the women never destroy the life of any creature. Whether this custom was founded by some of their ancient legislators, or whether it originated from incidental circumstances, is uncertain; but however that be, nothing can be more suitable to the gentleness and timidity, which form this most engaging part of the female character.-Alexander's Hist. of Women, v. i, p. 366.

The Egyptians, a most ancient nation, seem to have abstained entirely from animal food; which was, probably one reason that they abominated the jews, who had continually their fingers in the fleshpots; the loss of which they lamented when banished out of the country. "The children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, freely, the cucumbers, and the melons and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.”—Num. xi, 5.

In confirmation, Diodorus says it was reported, that the Egyptians fed on nothing but roots and herbs, and colewort leaves, which grew in the fens and bogs; but, above all, and most commonly, on the herb agrostis, because it was sweeter than any other, and very nourishing to men's bodies; and it is certain he adds, that the cattle much covet it, and grow very fat with it. book i, ch. 4.

In Walachia it is common to meet with whole for. ests of fruit trees, such as pears, cherries, apricots, &c. The greatest part of the mountain resemble our best cultivated gardens. The Walachians are generally tall, well-made, robust, and of a very wholesome complexion. Diseases are very rare among

them; and the plague, tho' so frequent in Turkey, has never been known, excepting in times of war, when the disease was brought among them by the troops who came from Asia. Volney's Trav. 268.

The manners of the Walachians, as far as I have been able to judge of them, are simple, and neither embellished nor sullied by art. Temperate in their repasts, they prefer vegetables to fruits, and fruits to the most delicate meats. p. 271.

The bonzes or Japonese priests, abstain from animal food. Thevenot's Travels, p. 219 And so do the Jalapoins or priests of Siam; at least they shed no blood, being forbidden by their religion. [Travernier, Indian Trav. 191. Voyage to Siam, 85. Louberie's Siam, 126. Kaempfer also confirms this account. Hist. of Japan, 124.] And tho' they have but few household, and are generally possessed of many children and great poverty, yet with a small quantity of rice-plants and roots, they live contented and happy.-Id. 415.

In Minorca, brown wheaten bread is the principal nourishment of the poor. The general breakfast is a piece of bread, a bunch of grapes or raisins, and a draught of water.-Armstrong's History of Minorca, p. 209.

The inhabitants of the Canary Islands subsist chiefly on goffio, a mixture of wheat and barley-flour, toasted; which they mix with a little water, bring it to the consistence of dough, and then eat it. Sometimes they put the goffio in milk, or dip it in honey, or melasses. This is their common food and according to Glass, our countryman, a most excellent dish." [History of the Canary Islands, p. 201, 208.] When the natives of the Canary Islands, who were called Guanchos, wanted rain, or had too much, or

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