More Beetles 



plane, the saw and the lathe will translate 

 into actuality. 



On Sunday afternoons, especially in win- 

 ter, when three or four logs blazing on the 

 hearth afford a pleasant change from the 

 fierce blast of the mistral, these two meet at 

 my house. We three form the village Athe- 

 naeum, the rustic Academy where everything 

 is discussed except the hateful subject, poli- 

 tics. Philosophy, morals, literature, philol- 

 ogy, science, history, numismatics, archae- 

 ology by turns furnish matter for our ex- 

 change of Ideas, in accordance with the un- 

 foreseen twists of the conversation. At one 

 of these gatherings, which lighten my soli- 

 tude, today's dinner was plotted. The un- 

 usual dish consists of Cossi, a famous deli- 

 cacy in the days of antiquity. 



The Romans, when they had devoured 

 their fill of nations, besotted by excessive lux- 

 ury, took to eating worms. Pliny tells us : 



^^Romanis in hoc luxuria esse coepit, prae- 

 grandesque rohorum vermes delicatiore sunt 

 in ciho; cossus vocant/^ ^ 



What are these worms exactly? The 

 Latin naturalist is not very explicit; he tells 



1 "Luxury had reached such a pitch among the Romans 

 that they looked upon the huge worms of the oak as a 

 delicacy; they called them Cossi." 

 174 



