EDIBLE INSECTS 483 
[I give here a photographic print of the tree that 
produces the well-known Tonga or Tonquin bean, 
valued for the beautiful scent produced by its seeds. 
It is a lofty forest tree bearing red papilionaceous 
flowers, and pods with a single large seed. It is 
abundant at Santarem and almost equally so in the 
Upper Rio Negro, whence the seeds are exported in 
considerable quantity, though I do not think Spruce 
found it in a wild state or even mentions it in his 
Journals. The essential oil is used by perfumers, 
and especially for scenting snuff and tobacco.] 
On Insects used for Food 
(^Journal) 
Indians of the Rio Negro, Uaupes, Casiquiari, 
Orinoco (and perhaps of the Amazon) eat the 
large grubs bred on various growing palm stems, 
but especially in Pihiguas. They are said to be 
of the size of the forefinger, and the mode of eating 
them is this. By a sudden twist of the head, it 
is pulled away along with the intestinal canal, and 
the animal is then roasted on the budari or mandi- 
occa oven. There is another grub or caterpillar 
found on Marima trees which they are very fond 
of. When this insect is in season, it constitutes 
a principal part of the food of the Maquiritari 
Indians, and Don Diego Pina related to me that, 
travelling once on Alto Orinoco with a crew of 
those Indians, he was near perishing of hunger, for 
they would neither fish nor seek after any sort of 
food but these caterpillars, and wherever they 
stopped by the way they climbed into the Marima 
trees in search of them. 
