308 MOLLUSKS USED AS FOOD. 



assertion of the learned Bacon, in his ' Experiment solitary 

 touching Cuttle-ink,' that the " Cuttle is accounted a 

 delicate meat, and is much in request," * I should say 

 that it is as indigestible and innutritious, as it is certainly 

 tough and uninviting. Cephalopods, however, are eaten 

 at the present day on some parts of the Mediterranean 

 coast ; and in Hampshire I have seen the poor people 

 collect assiduously the Sepia, and employ them as food. 

 Besides using a small kind of salted beans, the natives of 

 the Meia-co-shimahs flavour the balls of Rice and of Sweet- 

 Potatoes, which constitute the principal articles in their 

 system of dietetics, with a peculiar composition, very 

 similar in taste to " Blachong," the universal sauce of 

 the inhabitants of the Oriental Archipelago, a substance 

 made out of decomposed Shrimps and small Fish, fer- 

 mented, and dried in the sun. Notwithstanding the 

 proverbial partiality of the Japanese for Soy, I never saw 

 that condiment employed at any of the entertainments 

 of the Me'ia-co-shimites. 



The common Snail of the Meia-co-shimahs is eaten by 

 the natives, as the Helix aspersa and pomatia are occa- 

 sionally in Europe. The Malays are fond of the Cerithium 

 telescopmm and palustre, found in the Mangrove swamps. 

 They throw them on their wood fires, and, when suffi- 

 ciently cooked, break off the sharp end of the spire, and 

 suck the tail of the animal through the opening. The 

 Haliotis is taken trom the shell, dried in the sun, strung 

 together on rattan, and is eaten raw by the same people. 



The poorer people of the Philippines are fond of the 

 Area inequivalvis, boiling them as we do Cockles and 

 * Works. Nat. Hist. p. 167. Bolm's Ed. 



