Eugenius, Lindamor.
Eug.
WHilst every body else is commending these Oysters, either with his Tongue or with his Teeth, so that one of the Company sticks not to say, that they are as much worth as if they contain’d each of them a Pearl, you onely seem as unconcern’d a Spectator, as if you thought their proper use, like that of Flowers, were, rather to be looked on than to be eaten.
Lind.
I confess, Eugenius, that I found my self more inclinable to reflect on what you are doing, than to keep you company in it, and whilst I saw such persons so gustfully swallow these extoll’d Fishes, the sight lead me to take more notice than perhaps you have done of the strange power of Education and Custom.
Eug.
And what, I pray you, has Custom to do with Oysters?
Lind.
You will soon know that, if I tell you, that I was considering, on this occasion, how forward we are to think other Nations absurd or barbarous for such practices, that either the same, or little better, may be found unscrupled at among our selves; and I acknowledge it to be one of the chief advantages I account my self to have obtain’d by my Travels, that as I do not easily admire, so I am not forward to deride, the Practice of any People for being New, and am not apt to think, their Customs must be therefore worse than ours, because they widely differ from them.
I could give you store of Instances to justifie this impartiality, but because the circumstances of eating and drinking are those which make men, with the greatest confidence, term other Nations Brutish and Barbarous, I will confine may self to some Examples of that nature.
We impute it for a barbarous custom to many Nations of the Indians, that like Beasts they eat raw Flesh. And pray’ how much is that worse than our eating raw Fish, as we do in eating these Oysters? Nor is this a practice of the rude Vulgar onely, but of the politest and nicest persons among us, such as Physicians, Divines, and even Ladies. And our way of eating seems much more barbarous than theirs, since they are wont to kill before they eat, but we scruple not to devour Oysters alive, and kill them not with our Hands or Teeth, but with our Stomachs, where (for ought we know) they begin to be digested before they make an end of dying. Nay sometimes when we dip them in Vinegar, we may, for sauce to one bit, devour alive a schole of little Animals, which, whether they be Fishes or Worms, I am not so sure, as I am, that I have, by the help of convenient Glasses, seen great numbers of them swimming up and down in less than a Sawcer full of Vinegar.
We detest and despise some other Nations, for feeding upon Caterpillars, Grass-hoppers, and other Insects; and others, for feeding upon Carrion, and stinking food.
And do not many of us do as bad, when we not onely eat, but extoll, rotten Cheefe, whose Livid Colour sufficiently betrays its Putrefaction, and whose odious smell offends most mens Noses, and turns some mens Stomachs? Nay, when this Cheese is grown to that high degree of rottenness that our critical palats like it best in, we then devour whole hundreds of Mites, which are really crawling Insects, bred out of Putrefaction, and these too are so numerous and little, that our greediness makes us swallow many of them alive.
Among the Savagest Barbarians we count the Cannabals, and as for those among them that kill men to eat them, their inhumane cruelty cannot be too much detested; but to count them so barbarous merely upon the score of feeding on man’s flesh and bloud, is to forget that woman’s milk, by which alone we feed our sucking Children, is, according to the received Opinion, but blanched Bloud; and that Mummy is one of the usual Medicines commended and given by our Physicians for falls and bruises, and in other cases too. And if we plead that we use not Mummy for food, but Physick, the Indians may easily answer, that by our way of using man’s flesh, we do oftentimes but protract sickness and pain, whereas they by theirs maintain their health and vigour. And there is no reason why it should be allowable to eat Broth, for instance, in a Consumption, and be condemnable to feed upon it to maintain health.
But lastly, as the highest degree of Brutishness, our Travellers mention the practice of the Soldanians at the Cape of Good hope, who not onely eat raw meat, but, if they be hungry, eat the guts and all of their Cattle, with the Dung in them. I will not answer, that I know several among us, (and perhaps some fair Ladies too) that to prevent the Scurvy and the Gout, drink their own or Boy’s Urine: nor that women themselves do oftentimes take Parmacitty inwardly, though the Latin name (Sperma Ceti) sufficiently declare what excretion of a Whale it is (though perhaps mistakenly) believed to be: nor yet that under the name of Album Graecum, Dogs dung is commonly given to Patients of all sorts and qualities against sore Throats: nor will I mention, that in Holland ‘tis usual, as I have seen my self, to mingle Sheep’s dung with their Cheeses, onely to give them a colour and a relish: But I will rather demand, how much less we do our selves, than what we abominate in those Savages, when we devour Oysters whole, guts, excrements, and all; nay, when not for Physick, but onely for Delicacies, our Courtiers and Ladies themselves are wont to make sawce for the bodies of Lobsters of that green stuff, which is indeed their Dung: And to these I could add other Examples, if I were not afraid to divert you too long from so much pleasure as the Company seems to take in eating raw Fish.
Eug.
You put me in mind of a fancy of your Friend Mr. Boyle, who was saying, that he had thoughts of making a short Romantick story, where the Scene should be laid in some Island of the Southern Ocean, govern’d by some such rational Laws and Customs as those of Utopia or the New Atlantis, and in this Country he would introduce an Observing Native, that upon his return home from his Travels made in Europe, should give an account of our Countries and manners, under feign’d Names, and frequently intimate in his Relations, (or in his Answers to Questions that should be made him) the reasons of his wondring to find our Customs so extravagant and differing from those of his Country. For your Friend imagin’d, that by such a way of proposing many of our practices, we should our selves be brought unawares to condemn, or perhaps laugh at them, and should at least cease to wonder to find other Nations think them as extravagant, as we think the manners of the Dutch and Spaniards, as they are represented in our Travellers Books.
Lind.
I dislike not the project, and wish it were prosecuted by some Body, that being impartial were more a friend to Fables. For when I consider, that the name of Barbarian was given by the two Noblest Peoples of the Earth, the Greeks and Romans, not onely to all the rest of the World, but to one another, though both those Nations were highly civiliz’d, and the courtly Persians, and other voluptuous Asiaticks, were perhaps no less so than they; I doubt that most Nations in stileing one anothers Manners extravagant and absurd, are guided more by Education and Partiality than Reason, and that we laugh at many Customs of Strangers onely because we never were bred to them, and prise many of our own onely because we never consider’d them. And we may well believe that Custom has much a larger Empire than men seem to be aware of, since whole Nations are wholly swai’d by it, that do not reckon themselves among its Subjects, nor so much as dream that they are so.
← Reflections, Section 6, Reflection II · Contents · Reflections, Section 6, Reflection IV →