HUMAN FOODS 3 I 



There is another and very different fly called Atherix which 

 is still more important as an article of food in the west. This 

 fly, the maggot of which lives in streams, lays its eggs on the 

 branches of the bushes and trees overhanging the water. 

 Many will lay their eggs in the same place, hanging to each 

 other in such numbers as to resemble a small compact swarm 

 of bees. On the Pitt river in California the Indians are ac- 

 customed to place a Hne of logs across the stream, then go 

 up-stream and shake the flies off the willow bushes. The 

 masses of flies and eggs float down and lodge against the 

 logs in great quantities so that as many as a hundred bushels 

 may be gathered in a single day. The mixed masses of dead 

 and living flies and eggs are then steamed and cooked in holes 

 dug in the ground and heated with stones and thus prepared 

 for winter use. 



In tropical America there is a large black beetle, the palm 

 weevil, the grub of which, called the "gru-gru worm," lives 

 in palm tree tops. Wherever they are found gru-gru worms are 

 a great delicacy. They are commonly eaten raw, especially 

 by native children who regard them much as our children do 

 candy; or they may be fried in their own fat and eaten on 

 yams or potatoes. Consumed in either fashion they are very 

 good, though somewhat tough. Beetle larvae, particularly the 

 young of weevils and of rhinoceros beetles and cockchafers, 

 relatives of our common June bugs, are frequently used as 

 food in different parts of the world. During the war pickled 

 beetle grubs even formed the piece de resistance at a luncheon 

 given in Washington. In parts of Europe, especially in Ger- 

 many, adult beetles corresponding to our June bugs are often 

 caught and eaten by children, and in Africa the very large 

 beetles are roasted over a fire and greedily consumed. 



The larger grasshoppers, called locusts, are a very favorite 

 food. The Arabs eat them when they are abundant, ground 

 up in hand mills as a substitute for flour, and also boiled 

 or stewed in butter. The Hottentots feast upon them and 

 make a coffee colored soup out of their eggs. In Calcutta 



