120 HALF HOURS AVITH INSECTS. [Packard. 
5. Utltble Insects. 
mHE Crustacea afford in- the northern lobster, the spiny 
lobster of the tropics, and numerous kinds of shrimps 
and crabs, many choice bits for our larder. Whether, 
however, any of the insects, or their allies the spiders, or 
even the worms, will ever afford food to civilized man is a 
matter of grave doubt. While the bulk of our animal food 
is given us by the vertebrated animals, the ox, sheep, fowl 
and game being our 4nain dependence, the mollusks afford 
us the delicious oyster which we shall never be able to give 
up, the less aristocratic clam, handed over to the Pilgrim 
Fathers by the sagamores and their followers, the delicious 
though rare scallop and the quahaug, while mussels, snails 
and whelks regale our transatlantic friends. Honey is uni¬ 
versally sought, and that is an insect product, but the flesh 
of insects is, upon the whole, repugnant to our feelings. 
This is certainly unreasonable, for multitudes of the locust 
or grasshopper of the East are eaten by Arabs and the 
savages in other parts of Africa. We look with repugnance 
upon a roasted grasshopper, but an Arab is said to have 
expressed his abhorrence at our eating raw oysters. While 
in their sudden flights the grasshoppers cover the ground 
and eat up every green thing, the natives adopt the sensible 
course of devouring them in turn. The Bushman, who is.no 
farmer, sings 
“Yea, even the wasting locust-swarm, 
Which mighty nations dread, 
To me nor terror brings nor harm; 
I make of them my bread.” 
He collects them, according to Andersson, by lighting large 
fires directly in the path of their swarms. As the insects 
pass over the flames, their wings are scorched and they fall 
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