70 CURCULIONID^E — WEEVILS. 



breed in the incisions, and the trunk produces, as it were, a 

 second crop.'" 



The Creoles of the Island of Barbados, says Schom- 

 burgk, consider the Grou-grou worm a great delicacy when 

 roasted, and say it resembles in taste the marrow of beef- 

 bones.'^ 



Antonio de TTlloa, in his Noticias Ame.ricanas, says this 

 grub has the singular property of producing milk in women.^ 

 The Argentina, the historic poem of Brazil, adds an asser- 

 tion which is more certainly fabulous, viz., that they first 

 become butterflies, and then mice.* 



They have a similar dainty in Java in the larva of some 

 large beetle, which the natives call Moutouke. — "A thick, 

 white maggot which lives in wood, and so eats it away, that 

 the backs of chairs, and feet of drawers, although appar- 

 ently sound, are frequently rotten within, and fall into dust 

 when it is least expected. This creature may sometimes 

 be heard at work. It is as big as a silk-worm, and very 

 white, ... a mere lump of fat. Thirty are roasted 

 together threaded on a little stick, and are delicate eating."^ 



Julian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, in- 

 stead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted worm 

 taken from a plant, probably the larva of the Galandra pal- 

 marum, a native of Persia and Mesopotamia as well as of 

 the West Indies, which he says the Indians esteemed very 

 delicious — a character that was confirmed by some of the 

 Greeks who tasted it.*' 



The trunk of the grass-tree, or black-boy, Xanthorea 

 arhorea, when beginning to decay, furnishes large quantities 

 of maiTow-like grubs, which are considered a delicacy by 

 the aborigines of Western Australia. They have a fragrant, 

 aromatic flavor, and form a favorite food among the natives, 

 either raw or roasted. They call them Bardi. They are 

 also found in the wattle-tree, or mimosa. The presence of 

 these grubs in the Xanthoi^ea is thus ascertained : if the top 

 of one of these trees is observed to be dead, and it contain 



^Gummila, i. 9. See also Sontlicy's ///W. of Brazil, i. 110. 



2 Hist, of Barbados, p. 04G. 



3 Entrctenimitnto, vi. <^W. 

 * Canto iii. 



6 Sketches of Java, 310. 



6 /Elian, ILsi. L. xiv. c. 13. 



I 



