% 68 Mr. smeathman’s Account of 
On the following morning, however, as I have obfervea. 
they are to be feen running upon the ground in chace of each 
other ; 
1 have not found the Africans fo ingenious in procuring or cl re fling them. They 
are content with a very fmall part of thole which, at the time of fwarming, or 
rather of emigration, fall into the neighbouring waters, which they fkim off with 
calabafhes, bring large kettles full of them to their habitations, and parch them 
in iron pots over a gentle fire, ftirring them about as is ufually done in roafting 
coffee. In that ftate, without fauce or any other addition, they ferve them as 
delicious food ; and they put them by hands-full into their mouths, as we do com- 
fits. I have eat them drefled this way feveral times, and think them both delicate, 
nourifhing, and wholefome ; they are fomething fweeter, but not fo fat and cloy- 
ing as the caterpillar or maggot of the Palm-tree Snout-beetle , Curculio Palmarum , 
which is ferved up at all the luxurious tables of Weft Indian epicures, particularly 
of the French, as the greateft dainty of the Weftern world. 
According to the Baron de geer, Mr. sparrman fays, that the Hottentots 
eat Jfnefe infects, and even grow fat upon them; but does not fay w'hat methods 
they take to procure or drefs them, de geer, Memoires des Infeffes, tom, VII. p. 49* 
(2.2) piso, de lae r , marcgrave, and other writers, mention their being an 
article of diet in different parts of South America. 
“ Alia prseterea datur grandis fpecies Tama-ioura diifta digit! articulum adee- 
44 quans. Quarum etiam dunes deflecantur et friguntur pro bono alirnentoA® 
p.iso, Hift. Natural, lib. I. p. 9. lib. V. 291. 
.(23) MARCGR. Hift. Nat. 56. 
(24) “ Denique formica hie vifuntur grandiflimse, quas indigense vulgo come-. 
44 dunt ; et,in foris venales habent,” de lae t. Americas Utriufque Defcriptio, 
P- 333 * 
“ Formicis vefeebantur, eafque ftuaiofe ad.vithim educabant. Ibid. p. 379/’ 
( 2 5 ) Sir hans sloane fays, the filk-cotton-tree worm is efteemed by the Indians 
and negroes beyond marrow. This worm is no more than a large maggot, being 
the Caterpillar of a large Capricorn Beetle, or Goat Chafer : the Larva of a 
pretty large Cerambix (the LamiaTribulus of fabricius) which is alfo brought 
from Africa, -.where I have eaten thofe worms roafted. This infedt is moft pro- 
bably to be found in all countries where the fdk-cotton-tree ( Bombax ) is indi- 
genous, sloane’s Jamaica, vol B II, p. 193. 
;I have 
