list of animals whose flesh was forbidden might be drawn up. For
example, in Old Egypt the sheep could not be eaten in Thebes, nor the
goat in Mendes, nor the cat in Bubastis, nor the crocodile at Ombos,
nor the rat, which was sacred to Ra, the sun-god. However, the people
of one place had no scruples about eating the forbidden food of another
place. And this often led to religious disputes.

"Among the vegetables avoided as food by the Egyptians may be mentioned
the onion, the garlic, and the leek. Lucian says that the inhabitants
of Pelusium adored the onion. According to Pliny the Egyptians relished
the leek and the onion. Juvenal exclaims: 'Surely a very religious
nation, and a blessed place, where every garden is overrun with gods!'
The survivals of totemism among the ancient Greeks are very
interesting. Families named after animals and plants were not uncommon.
One Athenian gens, the Ioxidae, had for its ancestral plant the
asparagus. One Roman gens, the Piceni, took a woodpecker for its totem,
and every member of this family refused, of course, to eat the flesh of
the woodpecker. In the same way as the nations of the Congo Free State,
the Latins had an antipathy to certain kinds of food. However, an
animal or plant forbidden in one place was eaten without any
compunction in another place. 'These local rites in Roman times,' says
Mr. Lang, 'caused civil brawls, for the customs of one town naturally
seemed blasphemous to neighbors with a different sacred animal. Thus
when the people of dog-town were feeding on the fish called
oxyrrhyncus, the citizens of the town which revered the oxyrrhyncus
began to eat dogs. Hence arose a riot.' The antipathy of the Jews to
pork has given rise to quite different explanations. The custom is
probably a relic of totemistic belief. That the unclean
animals--animals not to be eaten--such as the pig, the mouse, and the
weasel, were originally totems of the children of Israel, Professor
Robertson Smith believes is shown by various passages in the Old
Testament.

"When animals and plants ceased to be held sacred they were endowed
with sundry magical or mystic properties. The apple has been supposed
to possess peculiar virtues, especially in the way of health. 'The
relation of the apple to health,' says Mr. Conway, 'is traceable to
Arabia. Sometimes it is regarded as a bane. In Hessia it is said an
apple must not be eaten on New Year's Day, as it will produce an
abscess. But generall