176 AN ENTREE OF CICADAS. 



any apparent fear, precipitated themselves reck- 

 lessly to the ground, where, without loss of time, 

 they commenced digging. Their forelegs, shaped 

 somewhat after the fashion of a mole's, enable 

 them to turn up the ground with great expedi- 

 tion, ten to twelve seconds being long enough for 

 one to get entirely out of sight. How long they 

 remain in the larvas condition I am unable to say. 

 An Athenian banquet, without an entree of 

 cicadas, was deemed as great a failure as would 

 be, in these days, a Greenwich feast without 

 whitebait. The larvas and pupaa were esteemed 

 the greater dainties, but a female full of eggs, 

 artistically browned, and served up hot and juicy, 

 was a bonne-bouche the Greek epicure well knew 

 how to estimate. Even Aristotle thought the 

 dish a luscious one, ' quo tempore gusta suavissima 

 suntj and at the present time cicadse are regularly 

 sold in the markets of South America. The legs 

 and wings are stripped off, and the body of the 

 insect slowly dried in the sun. When sufficiently 

 dry, it is powdered, and made into a kind of 

 cake, and in that form sold and eaten. 



