321.WHO WERE THE FIRST BAKERS OF BREAD?
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS BAKING BREAD
Wherever you go in the world, from the most primitive savage tribes to the most elegant restaurants in the big cities, you will find that people eat bread in one form or another. Bread is simply the flour or meal of cereals after it has been mixed into a dough and baked.
The Egyptians were probably the first to make bread, about 3000 B.C. While the Hebrews were also making bread in ancient times, it was the Egyptians who discovered yeast. By using yeast, they were able to make the dough rise, and so had “loaves” of bread, while the Hebrews baked their bread in thin sheets.
320.WHO STARTED SHORT HAIRCUTS FOR MEN?
The dressing and decoration of hair by human beings is as old as civilization itself. Even in the very earliest times women had combs. In fact, the most primitive people somehow managed to make combs of one kind or another, of wood, bone, and metal.
But what about hair styles? It is a curious thing to notice how important the style of hair worn by men and women has been down through the ages. Savage tribes in all parts of the world have developed peculiar hair styles which have great significance for them. The Chinese originally wore their hair in a knot at the top of the head. But when the Manchu conquered their country, they were forced to wear the pigtail as a sign of slavery. Eventually this style became popular among the Chinese and they kept it.
319.WHO INVENTED COSMETICS?
Since the reason for using cosmetics has always been to make women look more attractive, we must remember that different ideas of “beauty” created different kinds of “cosmetics” all over the world.
For example, a savage African woman who cuts her skin and rubs black paint into the cuts is making herself beautiful according to the standards of her people. And when an Eskimo lady rubs grease and fat into her skin, she is using “cosmetics,” by Eskimo standards!
