In the vast empire of China the most terrible famines sometimes occur. Men of wealth have been reduced to sell their wives and children, furniture, and houses, to procure food, and that food, perhaps, nothing more than the rind of a tree, or a decomposed stone found occasionally on the mountains. -The Chinese assert that this stone is a miraculous production. However, there is little doubt that it is merely a soft whitish stone pulverized by the sun and air, and, if sought for, to be found at any time. M. Biot has lately taken pains to inquire into the causes of those calamities which drive an industrious people to such extremities. China contain immense plains in a high state of cultivation, with large rivers running through them, the beds of which are obliged to be kept clean, by great labor, from the perpetual deposits. While these rivers are retrained within their due bounds by the artificial banks thorn up for the purpose, they afford the means of fruitful irrigation; but when they once overflow, they spread devastation to an indescribable extent. -Hundreds of thousands of acres are involved in one common ruin, and the poor wretches that escape drowning, fly to the mountains to perish by thousands for want of food. It is in this destitution they seek out these stones, and not having previously taken the trouble to look for them, they attribute their appearance to miracles. -Colonial Magazine.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Stone Meal Used in China For Food in Time of Famine (1841)
Source: The Polynesian. Honolulu: Saturday, July 31, 1841. Page 32, Col. 1.
In the vast empire of China the most terrible famines sometimes occur. Men of wealth have been reduced to sell their wives and children, furniture, and houses, to procure food, and that food, perhaps, nothing more than the rind of a tree, or a decomposed stone found occasionally on the mountains. -The Chinese assert that this stone is a miraculous production. However, there is little doubt that it is merely a soft whitish stone pulverized by the sun and air, and, if sought for, to be found at any time. M. Biot has lately taken pains to inquire into the causes of those calamities which drive an industrious people to such extremities. China contain immense plains in a high state of cultivation, with large rivers running through them, the beds of which are obliged to be kept clean, by great labor, from the perpetual deposits. While these rivers are retrained within their due bounds by the artificial banks thorn up for the purpose, they afford the means of fruitful irrigation; but when they once overflow, they spread devastation to an indescribable extent. -Hundreds of thousands of acres are involved in one common ruin, and the poor wretches that escape drowning, fly to the mountains to perish by thousands for want of food. It is in this destitution they seek out these stones, and not having previously taken the trouble to look for them, they attribute their appearance to miracles. -Colonial Magazine.
In the vast empire of China the most terrible famines sometimes occur. Men of wealth have been reduced to sell their wives and children, furniture, and houses, to procure food, and that food, perhaps, nothing more than the rind of a tree, or a decomposed stone found occasionally on the mountains. -The Chinese assert that this stone is a miraculous production. However, there is little doubt that it is merely a soft whitish stone pulverized by the sun and air, and, if sought for, to be found at any time. M. Biot has lately taken pains to inquire into the causes of those calamities which drive an industrious people to such extremities. China contain immense plains in a high state of cultivation, with large rivers running through them, the beds of which are obliged to be kept clean, by great labor, from the perpetual deposits. While these rivers are retrained within their due bounds by the artificial banks thorn up for the purpose, they afford the means of fruitful irrigation; but when they once overflow, they spread devastation to an indescribable extent. -Hundreds of thousands of acres are involved in one common ruin, and the poor wretches that escape drowning, fly to the mountains to perish by thousands for want of food. It is in this destitution they seek out these stones, and not having previously taken the trouble to look for them, they attribute their appearance to miracles. -Colonial Magazine.
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