262 



DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



man in this order are the cheese-mite (Acarus Siro) — lice, 

 which are eaten by the Hottentots and natives of the western 

 coast of Africa, who, from their love of this game, which they 

 not only collect themselves from their well-stored capital 

 pasture, but employ their wives in the chase, have been some- 

 times called PhthirophagV Insects of the class Arachnida, 

 which you will think still more repulsive than the last tribe, 

 form an article in Sparrman's list of the Boshies-man's dainties^; 

 andLabillardiere 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 Aranea 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 that, 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, La- 

 lande 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 immortalised by Rosel ^, who used to 

 spread them upon his bread like butter, observing that he 

 found them very useful, " um sicli 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 them.^ 



1 Latr, Hist. Nat. viii. 93. 2 Sparrman, i. 201. 



3 Voyage a la Recherche de la Ferouse, ii. 240. 



4 Reaiim. ii. 342. 5 Shav/, Nat. Misc. 

 6 Hist. Nat. vii. 227. 7 Rosel, iv. 257. 



® Personal Travels, ii. 205. 



