58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 56 
and preserve them, number the labels, obtain the ethnological data, 
preserving the connections by referring to the label numbers, and the 
specimens could then be determined accurately by specialists. 
That many of the western Indians did not formerly disdain insects 
as a part of their diet is well known. Hoffman’s comments! are of 
interest in this connection: ; 
Some of the tribes will adhere to the most disgusting varietiesof food. . . . Some 
of the Shoshonees obtain some food from the settlements, but subsist chiefly upon what 
game and fish they can secure in addition to lizards, grasshoppers, etc. 
Their mode of preparing grasshoppers is in this wise: A fire is built covering an area 
of from 20 to 30 feet square, and as the material is consumed to coals and ashes all the 
Indians start out and form an extensive circle, driving the grasshoppers with blankets 
or bunches of brush toward the center, where they are scorched or disabled, when 
they are collected, dried, and ground into meal. With the addition of a small quan- 
tity of water this is worked and kneaded into dough, formed into small cakes, and 
baked in the sand undera fire. . . . The Pah-Utes in the southwestern portion 
of Nevada, and even across the line into California, consume the larvee of flies found 
upon the borders of some ‘‘alkali lakes.’’ The organic matter washed ashore is soon 
covered with flies, where they deposit their eggs; there being not sufficient nourish- 
ment for all the worms, some die, when more eggsare deposited, and so on ad infinitum, 
until there is a belt of swarming, writhing worms from 2 to 4 feet broad and from an 
inch to3 inches in depth. . . . Atsuch localities the Indians congregate, scoop 
up and pack all that can be transported for present and future use. When thoroughly 
dried, it is ground into meal, and prepared and eaten as by the Shoshonees. 
Where conditions of life are as hard as in many parts of the South- 
west, it would be surprising indeed if, during times of special scarcity 
of food, all the Indians inhabiting the region have not been forced 
to rely on food which ordinarily they did not use; yet from the fact 
that Indians of various tribes have frequently been known to show a 
preference for raw entrails of large game animals and seem really 
fond of meat that has become somewhat tainted, one can not always 
feel certain that the use as food of things which are revolting to other 
people may not be due to choice. 
The following Tewa names of kinds of insects were obtained: 
Kune refers to any kind of ant. Color- or size-denoting adjec- 
tives are often added. An anthill is called hufizte bi-ut (kutizx, ant; 
te’, house; 674, mound of small size; ef. bowe, large mound). The 
Jemez, however, have two names for ant species: ’@my and wa’dym. 
Hodge gives as Ant clans at various pueblos: Nambe, Au’yi-tdoa; 
Pecos, Amz#’+; Acoma, Sit-hanog; Sia, Sti-héno; San Felipe, 
Sii-hdno. 
Pezt'ada, bumblebee. These insects make honey. They are 
ground up and put into a dog’s food in order to make him a good 
hunter, according to a San Ildefonso informant. 
1 Hoffman, W. J., Miscellaneous Ethnographic Observations on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, 
and Arizona, Tenth Ann. Rep. U. 8S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr. for 1876 (Hayden Survey), pp. 465-66, 1878. 
