It is somewhat singular that rice, so highly esteemed by the poor in Asia, is used chiefly by the rich in other parts of the world. Even in times of famine, our poor would think themselves very badly used if charity doled out to them the rations which the mild Hindoo or John Chinaman would think all sufficient. Even as food for pigs and poultry, rice is despised among us, and it is a singular fact that fowls fed on rice for a week only, will grow very fat, but if the diet is continued longer they will lose flesh instead of gaining it.

Rice would seem to be indigenous in Asia, although in modern times it has spread widely through the tropical regions of America, where, indeed, it has also been found in a wild state. It is never likely to be grown extensively in Europe, as it requires a combination of heat and moisture; and it seems strange that it should have become such a favourite and almost universal crop in India seeing its necessity for water. In China, we are told, a variety is grown which is not so dependent upon moisture, and which is called imperial rice, because it was discovered by one of the emperors, who, in walking through a rice field, noticed one stalk much taller and finer than the rest; this he marked, and when it was ripe it was taken and planted in the imperial gardens, cultivated with care, and became a new species. It would seem advisable to cultivate this imperial or mountain rice in such countries as India, but probably there are disadvantages attending its cultivation not noted by the historian.

According to Pliny, linseed meal was used fried and mixed with honey for bread among Asiatics, and also by the Lombards and Piedmontese, and hempseed was also fried and served for dessert. Gruel, which with us is reckoned as food for invalids only, was a national dish among the Romans. Two of the favourite invalid foods of the present day must be mentioned here, for although in very general use few people know their origin. Sago, so much in favour among the sick, and in the nursery, is the pith of the sago palm, growing in marshy land in the East Indies. One tree will produce from 500 to 600 lbs. of sago, but the tree takes fifteen years to come to maturity. Arrowroot, on the contrary, is, properly speaking, a product of the West Indies, the best coming from Bermuda, but, strange to say, very little is known of the plant which produces it, and probably it is extracted from several roots, in the same manner as cassava from the Jatropha manihot, by rasping and soaking in water till the starch is precipitated, which forms a white powder when dried in the sun. The Maranta arundinacea is the chief plant thus employed, but a spurious kind of arrowroot has been made from the root of the Cuckoo Pint.

But of all foods in ordinary use among uncivilised peoples, the bread-fruit of South Sea Islands deserves especial notice; this is the fruit of Artocarpus incisa, 'That tree which in unfailing stores The staff of life spontaneous pours, And to those southern islands yields The produce of our labour'd fields.'

The mode of cooking the bread-fruit is thus described in Murray's 'Encyclopaedia of Geography:' 'Sometimes the natives of a district assemble to prepare it in a large and common oven, when it is called opio. This is done by digging a large pit, 20 or 30 feet round, and filling it with firewood and large stones, till the heat almost brings the latter to a state of liquefaction, when the covering is removed, and many hundreds of ripe bread-fruit are thrown in, with a few leaves laid over them; the remaining hot stones are placed above them, and the whole covered with leaves and earth.* It remains in this state a day or two, when the parties to whom the fruit belongs dig a hole and take out what they want. Bread-fruit baked in this way will keep good for several weeks after the oven is opened.' In the Sandwich Islands the bread-fruit is eaten raw, or cooked by throwing it on the fire till the outer rind becomes charred and the inner opens out like a smoking loaf of bread; the taste is said to resemble hard-boiled egg. There is another way of preparing breadfruit, by throwing it in a heap and allowing it to ferment, it is then beaten into a kind of paste called mahi, and will keep for months, but is sour and indigestible.

The South Sea Islanders also make a kind of bread of the root of the Pia {Tacca pinnatifida), which is beaten to a pulp and subjected to repeated washings, when it forms a sort of arrowroot.

Taro, of which we often read in books of travel in the South Seas, is the root of Arum esculentum, which, like the manioc, requires steeping and boiling or baking to make it wholesome. It is cooked in the same way as the bread-fruit, and then beaten into a paste-like dough called Poe, which is eaten by being scooped out with the forefinger of the right hand and placed in the mouth, a practice which has caused that finger to be named the Poe finger.

In West Africa Pea-nut bread is eaten. This is made by roasting and crushing the nuts and pressing the paste into the skin of a banana.

In Abyssinia Teff-bread, made from Poa Abyssinica, is commonly eaten. This is made by placing the pounded grain mixed to a paste with water in a jar, and placing it at some distance from the fire until it begins to ferment, it is then made into large circular cakes and baked. The taste although sour is not disagreeable, and it is used at their banquets of raw meat, the meat being cut up small, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, and wrapped in the bread which is soft and spongy, and is often used as a table napkin, for Bruce says every man wipes his fingers on a piece of this Teff-bread, and leaves it for the next comer, which, he says truly, is a disgusting custom.

* This is precisely the process adopted by the Australians for cooking snakes, as described later.

The native Australians have no bread, but they crush and eat the seed of the nardu plant, so well known as having formed the sole food of the explorers Burke and Wills until they died of starvation, the seeds being inadequate to support life.

The Chinese make a bread, eaten by all from the emperor to the meanest peasant, of a paste of kidney beans made into great flat cakes like cheeses, it is very white, and is eaten raw or boiled with fish and herbs, and sometimes fried in oil, or dried and smoked and mixed with carraway seeds.*

* See 'Empire of China,' 'Navarette' Pinkerton's Travels, vol. i.