128 Union Bay 



reed which was used for making pipes and the author de- 

 scribed in detail the process of fashioning them. 



I consulted a translation of the Natural History of Pliny 

 the elder, a Roman who lived about the time of Christ. His 

 information about the use of marsh plants was not extremely 

 revealing but it required a whole week's reading to loosen 

 my grip on the book. During that time I ran wild among 

 such subjects as the evil habits of the goatsuckers, the trade 

 in trained nightingales, the intelligence, of dolphins, the 

 ortalons, diving for pearls, and the locust. Some of the in- 

 formation was fairly accurate but much of it was as fantastic 

 as the fairy stories I had read as a child. The locust, according 

 to Pliny, could move sidewise because it had feet. The locust 

 mothers die when they have given birth to a brood. A mag- 

 got, which immediately forms in the region of the throat, 

 chokes them. The males die at the same time. Although the 

 locust dies for such a trifling cause, it can, when it likes, kill 

 a snake by gripping its throat with its teeth. He spoke of 

 locusts in India which were three feet long with legs and 

 thighs which, when dried, could be used as saws. Among 

 the Parthians the locust was an acceptable article of diet. 



I considered that this. was a proper place to discontinue 

 my reading of Pliny. Mankind appears to have the ability 

 to exhaust the supply of any pleasing food offered it, and how 

 could insect pests be disposed of more simply than by build- 

 ing up an appetite for them? The legs, of course, could be 

 saved for saws. 



In the meantime, a week had passed. That was the trouble 

 with curiosity, I reflected: when I began an investigation of 

 even a thing like an ark to hold a child, it often meant a 

 search of hours. I did not withdraw but resolved to investi- 

 gate the use of marsh products further. I recalled some dis- 

 cussion of marshes in a book on the thirteenth century. There 

 was the use of water cress for the table, the construction of 

 fire screens and of numerous containers, all of osier. In the 



