im almost certain some culture prizes ground lion testies (or similar) as an aphrodisiac. theyre just hard to acquire
I'm glad that you're back, Superfreak (where's James?) and that once again, you are able to turn a somewhat mundane topic back onto a more scholarly tack.
I have never heard of lion testicles being used as an aphrodisiac, but I'm sure that there are a lot of things going on in Sidney that I don't know about (do they work?).
I made a mental list of religions that might permit this. The eating of testicles is not considered traif under mosaic law, and Samson was able to get honey out of a lion, so who knows what other parts of the carcass he might have found useful?
For Muslims, Samson's lion would have been out of bounds (haram) because, first it was dead when found (come to think of it, it wasn't really a kosher lion, was it?), and because all fanged animals (like the elephant, honest!) are haram, and so are those with claws (like the rabbit, and again, I kid you not) so I imagine that all Muslims would leave the testicles well alone. You will be excited to learn, though, that though sheep and goat testicles are haram for the Shia, they are halah for the Suni, "which should tell you something about the Suni," says Mija.
Hindus hold the cow to be sacred but they keep surprizingly quiet about lion testicles, and Buddhists woulfd prefer that you just eat soyburgers.
I am poorly informed about African dietary practices, but I do know that in Kenya, when the Kikuyu, Mau Mau rebellion broke out, Gray Leakey, relative of the famous one, "was killed and buried after some of his extremities were eaten." The Britsh press, though, were far too delicate to say just what "extremities" ended up on the barbie.
That leaves the Chriistians, who certainly eat bull testicles in the US as "prairie oysters" and would most certainly snag a lion if they had the chance, as the most likely suspects. Hope that helps.
Here's one more small detail that might interest you. Under mosaic law, if a girl were to snip off her fiance's testicles, whether she ate them or not, he would not be allowed to marry her, or anyone else, though that is pretty much an academic point (
pace Pope's "Eloise to Abelard"). This an excellent example of a ball breaker being a deal breaker.
