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THE UNIVERSE. 



The Salanganes, or esculent swallows, which inhabit China 

 and the neighboring islands, build nests which resemble so 

 many little bowls, which they affix by thousands to inacces- 

 sible rocks, or in sombre caverns, as if to hide their chaste 

 loves from every gaze. 



These nests are formed of a dirty white substance, which 



136. Edible Nests of the Salanganes: Hirundo esculenta (Latham). 



seems exactly analogous to isinglass reduced to filaments 

 agglutinated to one another ; this singular appearance has 

 made people ascribe them to the most diverse sources. 

 They seemed so odd to Kaempfer that he would not be- 

 lieve in them ; the celebrated explorer of Japan insisted 

 that they were made artificially from the flesh of various 

 Polypi. 



