HUMAN FOODS 29 



it worth while to gather them, and because the winged adults 

 are so fuzzy as to fill the mouth with dust. Caterpillars of 

 several kinds are eaten by the African bushmen, by the Aus- 

 tralian natives, and by the Chinese. The caterpillar of the 

 goat-moth used to be a favorite with the Romans. The Chi- 

 nese and the Indian raisers of the Tussar silk moth eat the 

 chrysalids after the silk has been unwound. 



The "manna" of the ancients appears to be a term applied 

 to several different foods of insect origin. The grub of a cer- 

 tain weevil which lives on acacia roots when about to trans- 

 form into the adult climbs the stem and, finding a suitable 

 position, surrounds itself with a thick froth which hardens into 

 a white and snowy mass within which is the pupa. These 

 white masses, with the pupae in them, still found in the mar- 

 kets of the near East, are probably the "manna" to which 

 most frequent reference is made. But another sort, the se- 

 cretion of a scale insect growing on the tamerisk in the same 

 regions, is also there still used as food. 



In many of the salt and alkaline ponds and lakes in our 

 western country, from Washington to Mexico, there lives 

 abundantly a small aquatic fly known as the Ephydra. When 

 the maggot, which lives in submerged or very wet decaying 

 vegetation, is fully grown — about half an inch in length — 

 its outer skin hardens and turns brown, forming a protection 

 for the included pupa, which shows through as a yellowish 

 kernal like a small yellowish grain of rice. Mono Lake, Cali- 

 fornia, is subject to violent winds in the latter part of the 

 summer, and the disturbance of the lake loosens many of the 

 puparia so that they float to the surface and wash ashore 

 where they drift up in heaps, and hundreds of bushels may be 

 collected. The Indians come from all around to gather them 

 for food. They are dried in the sun, and the shell rubbed off 

 by hand, leaving the small yellow rice-like pupae. These are 

 oily, very nutritious, and not unpleasant to the taste. Until 

 not so very long ago this fly formed an important article of 

 food for the Indians in the regions where it is abundant. 



