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 tjie 

 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 l are of 

 interest in this connection : 



Some of the tribes will adhere to the most disgusting varieties of 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 under a fire. . . . The Pah-Utes in the southwestern portion 

 of Nevada, and even across the line into California, consume the larvae of flies found 

 upon the borders of some &quot;alkali lakes.&quot; 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 eggs are 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 to 3 inches in depth. ... At such 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: 



Kun% refers to any kind of ant. Color- or size-denoting adjec 

 tives are often added. An anthill is called Tcun%te bi J,\ (tcun%, ant; 

 te-, house; bi dl, mound of smah 1 size; cf. bo-de, large mound). The 

 Jemez, however, have two names for ant species: dmy, and wa aym. 



Hodge gives as Ant clans at various pueblos : Nambe, Ku n y i-td6a; 

 Pecos, Amu +; Acoma, Sii-hanoq ch ; Sia, Sii-hdno; San Felipe, 

 Sii-hdno. 



P%a4a, 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. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Ten. for 1876 (Hayden Survey), pp. 465-66, 1878. 



