126 HALF HOURS WITH IXSECTS. [Packard. 



mention their being eaten ; and ^lian is extremely angry 

 with the men of his age, tliat an animal sacred to the muses 

 should be strung, sold and eagerly devoured." Kirby, from 

 whom we quote, cites Peter Collinson as saying that the 

 winged form of the seventeen year Cicada was in his time 

 (1763) eaten by the Indians of North America. Lastly, 

 the gravid, enormously distended female of the white ant is 

 regarded as a delicious morsel by the Hottentots, and 

 Smeathman "thought them delicate, nourishing and wliole- 

 some, being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the 

 palms." 



Roasted spiders are eaten by the natives of New Caledo- 

 nia. Kirby says that "even individuals amongst the more 

 polished natives of Europe are recorded as having a similar 

 taste, so that if you could rise above vulgar prejudices, you 

 would in all probability find them a most delicious morsel. 

 If you require precedents, Reaumur tells us of a young lady 

 who, when she walked in her grounds, never saw a spider 

 that she did not take and crack upon the spot. Another 

 female, the celebrated Anna Maria Scherman, used to eat 

 them like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in 

 taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she was born 

 under the sign Scorpio. If you wish for the authority of the 

 learned, Lalande, the celebrated French astronomer, was, as 

 Latreille witnesses, equally fond of these delicacies." Even 

 the centipedes are not neglected, as Humboldt records the 

 fact that "he has seen the Indian children drag out of the 

 earth centipedes eighteen inches long and more than half an 

 inch broad, and devour them." 



Even the eggs of certain insects are eaten. In Mexico 

 the eggs of the Corixa, or water boatman, are often used as 

 food, and in the same country the Indians prepare a liquor 

 from the Cicindela (of which we figure a species) " by mac- 

 erating it in water or spirit, which they apparently use as a 

 stimulating beverage." 



30 



