3664 Entomological Society. 



the soft substance of the palmiste when in a stale of decomposition. It never 

 happens, therefore, that much time passes before they discover any palmiste-tree that 

 has been felled ; and as soon as night sets in, they flock in numbers to the spot and 

 devour the whole substance. A gathering of worms, therefore, brings a hunt of 

 quencos ; and the gatherer, when his first business is over, chooses a convenient tree, 

 where he places himself in ambush. Seated on a cross branch, he awaits the coming 

 of the animals. 



" It is difficult to form an idea of the peculiar excitement of this midnight sport 

 in the thick woods of a tropical country. The usual stillness of the night, and the 

 solitude of the wilderness — the croaking of the night-birds, the movement of every 

 leaf, animated as it is by the myriads of nocturnal insects that fill the atmosphere — 

 the brilliant and fleeting fire-flies traversing the gloom— the strange animals wandering 

 in their nightly prowlings — the approach of the grunting hogs, and the incidents of 

 the hunt : all these things, combined with the idea of isolation when a man finds 

 himself alone in the wilds of a scarcely pervious forest, create an inexpressible feeling 

 of mingled fear, pleasure, and anxiety. 



" Before the worms are cooked, they are, each in its turn, carefully pricked with 

 an orange-thorn, and thrown into a vessel containing a sauce of lime-juice and salt. 

 This is for the purpose of cleansing them from the viscid fluids they have imbibed 

 from the palmiste. Notwithstanding this discipline, the worms retain their vitality 

 till they are deprived of it by the culinary process. The simpler mode of dressing 

 them is to spit a number together on a piece of stick or a long orange-thorn, and roast 

 them before the fire in their own fat. The general mode, however, is by frying them 

 with or without a sauce, and when dressed in this manner, they form a most savoury 

 dish. 



" Groogroo worms are considered great delicacies in some parts of the West Indies, 

 chiefly in those whose inhabitants are of French or Spanish origin. The good old 

 planter at his table presents you with a dish of worms, with as much pride as an 

 epicure in England introduces you to cod-sounds, eels, or high venison. Nor does it 

 appear that there is any peculiarity in the taste of those who relish the insects ; be- 

 cause it very frequently happens, that the stranger, who manifested on his arrival the 

 greatest disgust at the idea of eating worms, becomes immediately converted into an 

 extravagant lover of them. 



" It may appear strange that in the tropics, especially, where Nature provides so 

 abundantly for the wants of man, such creatures should be resorted to as articles of 

 consumption ; but while we on this side of the Atlantic are shocked at the idea of 

 eating worms, the West Indian consumer in his turn expresses surprise that human 

 beings can use things which resemble snakes so much as eels, and pronounces it to be 

 the height of uncleanness to eat frogs, as some of the continentals do. Indeed, the 

 groogroo worm is by no means more repulsive in appearance than any of the other 

 unprepossessing creatures which are so highly prized. It would be a difficult matter 

 to decide on the merits of the many extraordinary things which the taste of man, in 

 its morbid cravings, has discovered and converted into luxurious use ; and the 

 philosopher finds himself at last driven to take shelter from his own unanswerable 

 inquiries behind the concluding power of that most true, but somewhat musty 

 proverb : — ' De gustibus non est disputanduin.' " — «/. W. D. 



