DIET OF THE HOTTENTOTS, ETC. 193 



with a sufficient number of .little balls of cheese, or rather of 

 hard curd, which they occasionally dissolve in water; and 

 this unsubstantial meal will support for many days the life, 

 and even the spirits of the patient warrior.* 



FREDERICK. 



Herodotus mentions a tribe of Babylonians who dried their 

 fish in the sun, then beat it very small in a mortar, sifted it 

 through a fine cloth, and formed it into cakes, and baked it 

 like bread.f 



MRS. F. 



That is very much the manner which some of the Indians 

 of the Orinoco still pursue. They fry their fish, dry it in the 

 sun, and reduce it, bones and all, to a powder. When they 

 wish to eat it, they mix water with it, to make into a paste, 

 which they call " manioc de pescado," or fish bread.:}: But 

 did you ever hear of ants being eaten 1 ? 



ESTHER. 



Yes; the Hottentots eat them both boiled and uncooked; 

 the Africans parch them in an iron pot, stirring them about, 

 as is done in roasting coffee. In this state they eat them as 

 we do comfits; and a traveller who tasted them, says that 

 they are very nourishing and wholesome; in taste, much 

 resembling sugared cream, or sweet almond paste. In some 

 parts of Sweden, ants are distilled with rye, to flavor the 

 inferior kinds of brandy;j| and Sir Stamford Raffles states that 

 white ants are a common article of food in Java,^f and that 

 they are sold generally in the public market. Their extensive 

 nests are opened to take out the chrysalis; or they are watched 

 and swarms of the perfect insect are conducted into basins or 

 trays, containing a little water, in which they soon perish. 



* Gibbon. t Clio. | Humboldt. 



Smeathman. |] Kirby and Spence's Entomology. 



U History of Java, vol. i. 

 17 



