216 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 
tioned here merely as a matter of curious interest. Sinclair 
remarks as follows (in Zhe 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. 
BristTLE-Worms (CuHa&topopa).—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 Firstory):—“ 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 
