32 ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



dried locusts form a part in the preparation of most delicious 

 curries. 



White ants are eaten generally by Hottentots and other 

 Africans, raw, boiled, or parched in gentle heat, when they 

 remind you of sweet almond paste. They are also eaten in 

 the warm parts of America, and in India, especially their 

 queens. True ants of various sorts are eaten. On the Ama- 

 zons the saiiba ant is captured by the basketful for food at 

 the time of swarming and eaten raw. In India the spinning 

 ants are used in curries and also crushed and used as smelling 

 salts. 



In Africa there is a small bird called the honey indicator 

 which will guide you to the nearest bee-hive. The natives, 

 after they have feasted on the contents of the hive, consuming 

 a mixture of honey, grubs and pupae, always take care to 

 leave enough so that the little guide shall be rewarded. In 

 India the grubs and pupae, as well as the honey, of the large 

 jungle bee are eaten. 



In parts of Polynesia large centipedes are eaten, after being 

 cooked over a fire while held firmly by both ends. 



Large earth-worms on a smooth surface make a sort of 

 tinkling sound with the rings of stout hooks which encircle 

 their bodies and by means of which they crawl. While they 

 are nowhere used as food, except, perhaps, occasionally in 

 India, the singing girls of Java sometimes swallow them in 

 the hope that the tinkling sound will in some way be im- 

 parted to their voices. 



Perhaps it would be just as well not to pursue this topic 

 further. Enough has been said to show that man as an ani- 

 mal is omnivorous. All nutritive non-poisonous plant and 

 animal substances, together with many non-nutritive and others 

 more or less poisonous, are consumed by him. As a human 

 being, distinguished from the animals by the use of fire, his 

 diet has become greatly modified in accordance with his habit 

 of applying a high degree of heat to almost everything he eats. 



