194 DIET OF THE PARTHIANS, ETC. 



HENRIETTA. 



I cannot fancy people eating such things. 



MRS. F. 



Nor would you probably like bees, which are eating 1 in 

 Ceylon, or spiders (Jlranea edulis} nearly an inch long, which 

 a traveller* relates that the inhabitants of New Caledonia eat 

 with avidity, and roast over the fire. Lalande is said to have 

 been equally fond of these strange dainties and mention is 

 made of a German who would spread them upon his bread 

 like butter. 



FREDERICK. 



And then there are the Locusts, which were eaten by the 

 Parthians. 



ESTHER. 



And also at Mecca, where in times of scarcity they are 

 pounded and mixed with flour for bread, or fricasseed in 

 butter. The Hottentots make them into soup, and find them 

 fattening; so do they also in the Mahratta country. The 

 Moors sometimes eat two or three hundred locusts at a time; 

 and in the markets even of Greece, they appear to have been 

 exposed for sale. 



FREDERICK. 



But the Greeks used to eat crickets. 



ESTHER. 



They could not have been very good; Humboldt states that 

 he saw the Indian children drag centipedes eighteen inches 

 long, out of the earth, and devour them. 



MRS. F. 



Some nations also eat serpents. Stedman says that the 

 negroes wanted to eat one that he shot, and the negroes of 

 Congo and Angola feast upon the boas, and prefer them to 



* Labillardiere. 



