RoTH] ANIMAL FOOD PALL 
collected a particular kind of grasshopper, the kairau, which they 
devoured raw. 
224. Among beetles, species of Passalus and Cassandra are con- 
sidered delicacies and eaten raw by the Wapishana of the Takutu 
(SR, u, 58). The larve of different weevils, as well as the beetles 
feeding on the water lily, are eaten by the Surinam Carib (AK, 
188). But the most important article of diet supplied by this class 
of insect is the grub of the Calandra palmarum, known to the Creoles 
as the gru-gru. In Surinam it is called the cabbage-tree worm (St, 
1, 23). The Warrau speak of it as mo and the Arawak as oto- 
kuma. This Arawak name has nothing whatever to do with that 
of tabuka, the term applied to the heart of any hard-timbered wood, 
nor has the Warrau term any connection with that of the drink. 
Warrau ohiju-hobi, derived from the mauritia palm (cf. IT, 267). 
To get this grub out of the ite palm, which has to be felled for the 
purpose, a hole some 6 inches in diameter is cut right down the 
heart at a distance of about 5 or 6 feet from the cut end, the dis- 
tance varying with the hardness or softness of the trunk, the former 
portion being useless. The beetle will enter here to lay its eggs, 
and the Indian will return in about a month or five weeks’ time to 
remove the grubs, which are eaten. The beetle is not especially asso- 
ciated with this particular tree, except that for some reason or 
another more eggs (30 to 40) come to growth and maturity than 
with the turu (@nocarpus), kokerit (Maximiliana), and many other 
palms, even the coconut, all of which must be previously felled to 
harbor the insect. In the case of the coconut, however, it must 
be noted that the incision is made just above where the nuts are 
borne. Splitting open the worms and baking them with boiled rice 
is mentioned by Duff as a favorite Indian dish (DF, 121). 
225. The winged females of the Atta | Oecodoma| cephalotes, the 
kushi ant of the Creoles, when seeking new colonies, are much sought 
after, the abdomen being bitten off and eaten raw or cooked (SR, 1, 
240). When roasted or boiled they are considered a great delicacy by 
the Indians (ScE, 174). Gumilla speaks of the bodies of flying ants, 
in large quantity, being fried, the contained fat being sufficient with 
which to cook them (G, m1, 268). The Z’ermes destructor are likewise 
eaten (SR, m, 111, 112). On the Pomeroon the bodies of the female 
wood ants, which they call kakuli, are eaten by the Arawak. At 
Karakarang village, near the Cotinga, some of the Indians employed 
themselves during the day in catching numbers of the large species 
of termite, which build low mounds of earth, and, after roasting, ate 
them with evident relish. They captured these insects by inserting a 
dry grass stalk into their nests, to which the termites adhered by 
their mandibles and were drawn out in hundreds (BB, 127). 
