126 
HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 
mention their being eaten; and iElian is extremely angry 
with the men of his age, that an animal sacred to the muses 
should be strung, sold and eagerly devoured.” Kirby, from 
whom we quote, cites Peter Collinson as saying that the 
winged form of the seventeen year Cicada was in his time 
(1763) eaten by the Indians of North America. Lastly, 
the gravid, enormously distended female of the white ant is 
regarded as a delicious morsel by the Hottentots, and 
Smeathman “thought them delicate, nourishing and whole¬ 
some, being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the 
palms.” 
Roasted spiders are eaten by the natives of New Caledo¬ 
nia. Kirby says that “ even individuals amongst the more 
polished natives of Europe are recorded as having a similar 
taste, so that if you could rise above vulgar prejudices, you 
would in all probabilit}" 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 Scherman, used to eat 
them like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in 
taste, excusing her propensity bj’ saying that she w*as born 
under the sign Scorpio. If you wish for the authority of the 
learned, Lalande, the celebrated French astronomer, was, as 
Latreille witnesses, equally fond of these delicacies.” . Even 
the centipedes are not neglected, as Humboldt records the 
fact 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.” 
Even the eggs of certain insects are eaten. In Mexico 
the eggs of the Corixa, or water boatman, are often used as 
food, and in the same country the Indians prepare a liquor 
from the Cicindela (of which we figure a species) “ by mac¬ 
erating it in water or spirit, which they apparently use as a 
stimulating beverage.” 
30 
