196 SINGULAR DIET OF THE CHINESE. 



discolored. These masses will hardly keep a week, unless 

 smoked, when they can be preserved to a much longer period. 

 With these, the native tribes load themselves during the 

 season of feasting, and thrive and fatten upon this strange 

 nourishment. The Bugong moth is also a great favorite with 

 the cows, who often dispute their possession with the 

 natives.* 



Thank you, mamma. I never before heard of a moth being 

 eaten in its perfect state, though the caterpillar of the Goat 

 moth is supposed to have been eaten by the Romans, and the 

 Chinese eat the chrysalis of the silk-worm, after having., 

 wound off the silk. 



MRS. F. 



Fried grasshoppers and silk-worms are preferred by the 

 inhabitants of Madagascar to any other food; and then there 

 is the Grugru worm of the cabbage palm, and the worms 

 furnished to the Javanese by the teak and other trees; but I 

 really believe, that the Chinese eat more strange animals, 

 than any other civilised nation in the world. Dogsf and cats 

 are made into soups; and rats are also eaten by them,^: if we 

 may credit a recent account, s rved up with worm sauce. 



ESTHER. 



The South Americans used to eat the mute dogs of their 

 country, at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, and so, I 

 believe, do theTartars; but, speaking of the Chinese, I find 

 that they eat the fins and tail of the shark, which are vory 

 glutinous, and are, indeed, much liked by our seamen. 

 When dried, they form an article of commerce to China, 

 where they are used in soups. The shark is also eagerly 

 aten by the natives of the Polynesian islands, who often 

 feast upon it in a raw state. 



* Bennett's Wanderings in New South Wales, 

 t Dogs are also much eaten on the Gold Coast. 

 | Bennett's Wanderings in New South Wales, 

 HumhnUU. 



