GRYLLID^ — GRASSHOPPERS. 99 



leeches, bats, Grasshopers, spiders, bees, and raw, sodden, 

 and roasted lice. They spare no living creature whatso- 

 ever, but they eat it."^ 



"Among the choice delicacies with which the California 

 Digger Indians regale themselves during the summer sea- 

 son," says the Empire County Argus, "is the Grasshopper 

 roast. Having been an eye-witness to the preparation and 

 discussion of one of their feasts of Grasshoppers, we can 

 describe it truthfully. There are districts in California, as 

 well as portions of the plains between Sierra Nevada and 

 the Rocky Mountains, that literally swarm with Grasshop- 

 pers, and in such astonishing numbers that a man cannot 

 put his foot to the ground, while walking there, without 

 crushing great numbers. To the Indian they are a deli- 

 cacy, and are caught and cooked in the following manner : 

 A piece of ground is sought where they most abound, in 

 the center of which an excavation is made, large and deep 

 enough to prevent the insect from hopping out whejQ once 

 in. The entire party of Diggers, old and young, male and 

 female, then surround as much of the adjoining grounds as 

 they can, and each with a green bough in hand, whipping 

 and thrashing on every side, gradually approach the center, 

 driving the insects before them in countless multitudes, till 

 at last all, or nearly all, are secured in the pit. In the 

 mean time smaller excavations are made, answering the pur- 

 pose of ovens, in which fires are kindled and kept up till the 

 surrounding earth, for a short distance, becomes sufficiently 

 heated, together with a flat stone, large enough to cover the 

 oven. The Grasshoppers are now taken in coarse bags, and, 

 after being thoroughly soaked in salt water for a few mo- 

 ments, are emptied into the oven and closed in. Ten or 

 fifteen minutes suffice to roast them, when they are taken 

 out and eaten without further preparation, and with much 

 apparent relish, or, as is sometimes the case, reduced to pow- 

 der and made into soup. And having from curiosity tasted, 

 not of the soup, but of the roast, really, if one could divest 

 himself of the idea of eating an insect as we do an oyster or 

 shrimp, without other preparation than simple roasting, they 

 would not be considered very bad eating, even by more re- 

 fined epicures than the Digger Indians."-^ 



1 Voy., ii. 239. Wanley's Wonders, ii. 878. 



2 Quoted in Simmond's Curios, of Food, p. 304. 



