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.

As man, however, advanced in knowledge, his skill in the art of cooking rendered any or all objects used for nourishment by other mammalia fit subjects of diet for himself. This may appear a sweeping assertion, but the statements of reliable travelers prove its truth. The fact should be carefully considered by those who advocate a diet exclusively of vegetables, and by those few enthusiasts who preach that man was not "intended" to be a cooking animal.

Whatever else may be clouded with doubt, it is certain that man was so fashioned as to be compelled to eat in order to sustain life! In the beginning, instinct must have taught him that the consumption of food was the sine qua non of his existence.

When was the beginning?

The Biblical chronology of events prior to the Deluge is not accepted by scientists. The students of to-day believe, and seek to prove, that the earth has existed for several million years, and has passed through many different stages; that animal life was first evolved from the "inanimate" state of matter; that man is the most highly finished creature that has as yet been attained in the ascending scale of evolution, and that he will, in the natural course of events, make place for a still more nearly perfect being.

The exact date of the first appearance of man cannot now be ascertained. Geological research has led to the assertion that he probably existed thousands of years before the time usually assigned. But if we commence our history from the last great glacial visitation we find that the conceded date of its occurrence, about 5,000 years before the birth of Christ, coincides rather closely with the date of the creation as given in the book of Genesis. Assuming then that the neolithic, or stone age followed not only the ice visitation, but the creation (to use a familiar phrase), the theory of many scientists and the story of the Bible agree on the one, to us, essential point—the birth of the first people.

Horace, in his third satire (first book), gives his views of the first food of the human race. (At that time, six hundred years before the Christian era, it was held that man was not created in a perfectly developed form, but was engendered from beings of a different kind.) He says: "When first these creatures crawled out of the ground, dumb and foul brutes, they fought for nuts, first with nails and fists, then with sticks, and later with weapons made of metal." This coincides with the deduction made in the third paragraph, that nuts have a just claim to the title of one of the "first foods."

These savages must have suffered from exposure to the occasional inclemency of the weather. To protect themselves, they, being endowed with an ever-increasing power of reason, resorted to the skins of wild animals for covering. Failing to obtain a sufficient number from the carcasses of those which had died a natural death, they conceived the idea of destroying life in order to obtain the coveted article. They may not at first have availed themselves of anything but the outer covering, leaving the flesh to be eaten by other animals or birds, but the flesh adhering to the hide would soon become offensive from decomposition, and what is more probable than that their common sense soon directed them to remove it directly after being stripped from the slaughtered animal? The teeth of the primitive man were constantly in use for many purposes; so, in tearing off the pieces of flesh with them, may the first appetite for meat as food have been acquired.

It is difficult to determine when food was first subjected to the influence of heat; it is still more useless to attempt to explain how the properties of fire were first discovered. It is presumed that the first fire witnessed by man, was caused by the fall of a meteorite, a volcanic eruption or a lightning flash. The observation of its peculiar effects excited the still dormant inventive spirit of the neolithic, and he essayed the production of it himself. Evidence proves that he first attained his end by striking pieces of flint against iron pyrites and letting the sparks fall upon some combustible material, placed accidentally or intentionally beneath. It is easy to imagine that it was soon learned that fire would destroy human life and that the pleasing odor of the burning flesh led to the use of cooked meat as food.

The cradle of the fathers of the human race was undoubtedly the southern portion of Asia. They were nomadic in their habits and satisfied their acquired cravings by hunting and fishing. The stone floors of the caves in which they made their temporary abodes were admirably suited to the building of their rude fires.

Ultimately these neolithics became owners of flocks and herds, usually of sheep and goats, and moved about from place to place in search of fresh pastures. Members of these flocks were slain from time to time as convenience dictated. When for any reason food was scarce, their other domestic animals, even their dogs, fell a prey to the insatiable appetite for blood. The forests abounded with living things, now generally classified under the title of "game," and these also contributed materially to the food supply.

No fancy methods of preparing meats or game were then practiced. Everything was either roasted or cooked by means of hot stones. The roasting was in all probability accomplished by suspending the whole carcass of the animal, denuded of the skin, over burning embers, composed of the limbs of trees broken up into suitable lengths—as indeed do the gypsies of Europe to the present day. The roasted meat was at first separated from the body by the hand, later by sharpened sticks or flint flakes, subsequently by flint knives. There is no evidence of any metal being used for that purpose before the Deluge.

Though these first people are known to have partaken freely of the flesh of animals and of the fruits of trees, both of the nut and pulp varieties, there is nothing that leads one to believe that fish was used as an article of food until after the Deluge.

Turning again to the Scriptures, many interesting things may be noted. The first mention made of a flesh offering and of the ownership of domestic animals is in Genesis, when Abel "gave of the firstlings of his flocks and of the fat thereof," while Cain brought "of the fruits of the ground." The earliest mention of cooked animal flesh is found in Genesis 8: 21, when Noah offered up "burnt offerings of every clean beast and every clean fowl" after the Deluge. In the story of the creation, man is enjoined to sustain life by vegetable food: "Every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed" were given to him "for meat." Nothing was said about the flesh of animals. But, after the Flood, "God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them: * * * Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herbs have I given you all things."

So in many ways scientists and the Bible agree on the habits of the neolithics. Both state that the primitive food of man consisted of nuts and fruits; both mention the subsequent possession of flocks and herds, and both refer to the knowledge obtained later of the effects of fire on meat—with the one difference that the evolutionists seek to prove that the meat so roasted was eaten, while the Biblical man prior to the Deluge offered it untouched to his Maker.

Although it is now generally acknowledged that the Deluge was not universal, it is undeniable that it marked an all-important epoch, for from it may be said to date the recorded history of the present race of men. From the posterity of Noah sprang up the principal nations which have made the world what it is to-day.

THE COMING OF THE NATIONS.

If we accept the biblical chronology of the events which immediately followed the Deluge, we find that Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, landed on Mt. Ararat and fixed their habitations in the plains directly below. A formal division of the earth into three portions was made by Noah about a hundred years later, when he was still in the prime of life and when men were beginning to multiply sufficiently to form colonies and settlements. One portion was assigned to each of his sons with his posterity.

The three territories may be roughly classed as the northern, or the region of the "ruddy men;" the central, the region of the "tawny men," and the southern, the region of the "blacks."

To the offspring of Japheth was allotted Garbia (the north)—Spain, France, the countries of the Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians and Armenians. The offspring of Shem were given the central region—Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samaria, Babel or Babylonia, and Hedjaz (Arabia). The sons of Ham received the southern division—Teman (or Idumea), Africa, Nigritia, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Scindia and India.

Various causes scattered the posterities of the three brothers, and nations were founded in many parts of the world.

Ultimately six great monarchies were established, Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Media and Persia.