2 i6 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



tioned here merely as a matter of curious interest. Sinclair 

 remarks as follows (in The Cambridge Natural History): " It 

 is hard to believe that any human being could under any cir- 

 cumstances eat Centipedes, which have been described by one 

 naturalist as 'a disgusting tribe loving the darkness'. Never- 

 theless, Humboldt informs us that he has seen the Indian 

 children drag out of the earth Centipedes eighteen inches long 

 and more than half an inch wide and devour them. This, I 

 believe, is the only account of human Beings using the Myria- 

 poda as food, if we except the accounts of the religious fanatics 

 among the African Arabs, who are said to devour Centipedes 

 alive; though this is not a case of eating for pleasure, for the 

 Scolopendras are devoured in company with leaves of the prickly 

 pear, broken glass, &c., as a test of the unpleasant things that 

 may be eaten under the influence of religious excitement." 



CRUSTACEANS (CRUSTACEA). This group is of obvious im- 

 portance as a source of food, as the mention of Crab, Lobster, 

 Prawn, and Shrimp is enough to show, A few details will be 

 given in a later section, and it is enough to say here that a 

 very large number of species are eaten in one country or 

 another. One would scarcely expect Barnacles to be used in 

 this way (though they are often mentioned in old accounts of 

 shipwrecks), but certain species are exposed for sale in Spain 

 and South America. 



BRISTLE- WORMS (CH^ETOPODA). The only marine Annelid 

 used to any great extent as human food is the Palolo Worm 

 (Palolo viridis] in the Samoa and Fiji islands. The chief facts 

 regarding it are thus summarized by Benham (in The Cambridge 

 Natural History)*. "The worm . . . lives in fissures among 

 corals on the reefs, at a depth of about two fathoms. At certain 

 days in October and November they leave the reefs and swim 

 to the shores of the above islands, probably to spawn; and this 

 occurs on two days in each of the above months the day on 

 which the moon is in her last quarter, and the day before. The 

 natives, who call the worm ' Mbalolo ', give the name ' Mbalolo 

 laili ' (little) to October, and ' Mbalolo levu ' (large) to Novem- 

 ber, thereby indicating the relative abundance of the worms in 

 these two months. The natives eat them either alive or baked, 

 tied up in leaves; and they are esteemed so great a delicacy 

 that presents of them are sent by the chiefs who live on shore 



