120 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [rAcicAUD. 



6, KtliH^ Jjl:88Ct8» 



THE Crustacea afford in the northern lobster, the spiny 

 lobster of the tropics, and numerous kinds of shrimps 

 and crabs, many choice bits for our larder. Whether, 

 however, any of the insects, or their allies the spiders, or 

 even the worms, will ever afford food to civilized man is a 

 matter of grave doubt. While the bulk of our animal food 

 is given us by the vertebrated animals, the ox, sheep, fowl 

 and game being our main dependence, the mollusks afford 

 us the delicious oyster which we shall never be able to give 

 up, the less aristocratic clam, handed over to the Pilgrim 

 Fathers by tlie sagamores and their followers, the delicious 

 though rare scallop and the quahaug, while mussels, snails 

 and whelks regale our transatlantic friends. Honey is uni- 

 versally sought, and that is an insect product, but the flesh 

 of insects is, upon the whole, repugnant to our feelings. 

 This is certainly unreasonable, for multitudes of the locust 

 or grasshopper of the East are eaten by Arabs and the 

 savages in other jiarts of Africa. We look with repugnance 

 upon a roasted grasshopper, but an Arab is said to have 

 expressed his abhorrence at our eating raw oysters. While 

 in their sudden flights the grasshoppers cover the ground 

 and eat up every green thing, the natives adopt the sensible 

 course of devouring them in turn. The Bushman, who is no 

 farmer, sings 



"Yen, even the wasting lociist-swarm, 

 Which mighty nations dread. 

 To me nor terror brings nor liarm ; 

 I m:ike of them my bread." 



He collects them, according to Andersson, by lighting large 

 fires directly in the path of their swarms. As the insects 

 pass over the flames, their wings are scorched and they fall 



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