212 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



repulsive than the last tribe, form an article in Sparrman's list of the 

 Boshies-man's dainties^; and Labillardiere tells us that the inhabitants of 

 New Caledonia seek for and eat with avidity large quantities of a spider 

 nearly an inch long (which he calls Aranta edulis), and which they roast 

 over the fire.^ Even individuals amongst the more polished nations of 

 Europe are recorded as having a similar taste ; so ihat, if you could rise 

 above vulgar prejudices, you would in all probability find them a most 

 delicious morsel. If you require precedents, Reaumur tells us of a young 

 lady who when she walked in her grounds never saw a spider that she 

 did not take and crack upon the spot.^ Another female, the celebrated 

 Anna Maria Schurman, used to eat them like nuts, which she affirmed 

 they much resembled in taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she 

 was born under the sign Scorpio.^ If you wish for the authority of the 

 learned, Lalande the celebrated French astronomer was, as Latreille wit- 

 nessed^, equally fond of these delicacies. And, lastly, if not content with 

 taking them seriatim, you should feel desirous of eating them by handfuls, 

 you may shelter yourself under the authority of the German immortalized 

 by Rosel^, wlio used to spread them upon his bread like butter, observing 

 that he found them very useful, " urn sich auszulaxiren.'^ These edible 

 Aptera and Arachnida are all sufficiently disgusting: but we feel our 

 nausea quite turned into horror when we read in Humboldt that he has 

 seen the Indian children drag out of the earth centipedes eighteen inches 

 long and more than half an inch broad, and devour ihem.'^ 



After all I have said, you may perhaps still feel a prejudice against 

 insects as food ; but I think, when you recollect that Oberon and his 

 queen Titania, that renowned personage Robin Goodfellow, " with all 

 the fairy elves tliat be," number insects amongst their choicest cates, you 

 will no longer be heretical in this article, but yield with a good grace ; 

 and as a reward I will copy out for you a beautiful poetical description 

 of Oberon's feast, -vhich was pointed out to me by a learned bibliogra- 

 phical friend, John Crosse, Esq. of Hull, in Herrick's Hesperidcs, 1658. 



Shapcot. to thee the fairy state 



I with discretion dedicate ; 



Because ihou prizest things that are 



Curious and unfamiliar. 



Take first the feast ; these dishes gone, 



We'll see the fairy conn anon. 



A little mushroom table spread ; 



After short prayers, they set on bread, 



A moon-parch'd s;rain of purest wheat, 



With some small ^lit'ring grit to eat 



His choicest bits with; then in a trice 



They make a feast less great than nice. 



But all this while his eye is serv'd, 



We must not think his eat was starv'd ; 



But that there was in place to stir 



His spleen, the chirring grasshopper, 



The merry cricket, pulmg fly, 



The piping gnat for minstrelsy : 



And now we must imagme first 



The elves present, to quench his thirst, 



' Sparrman, i. 201. * Voyage d la Recherche de la Pemvse, ii. 240. 



» Ri'Mum ii. 312. * * Shaw. Nar. Misc. 



» Hist. Nnt. VII. 227. « Rosel, iv. 257. 



' Personal Travels, ii. 205. 



