IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 357 
they would serve up roasted or even raw — spiders. " Horrid !" did 
you say ? Well, it does seem disgusting to us, but people who have 
eaten them, say they are delicious, and taste like nuts. I've read 
of one young lady, in Europe, who never saw a spider in its web 
but she caught it, and ate it at once, as yo i would a cherry. I 
don't know that spiders are any worse than grubs, which are great 
fat worms, as big as a man's thumb. In Ind a, you would see them 
roasted, and served instead of fruit, at desert. In some parts they 
add caterpillars to their dainties. 
Would you fancy eating roasted ants by handfulls, as you eat 
sugar plums ? They taste like sweetened cream, so travelers say 
— I never tried them. But really, when you come to think of it, 
none of these insects that we consider so disgusting and horrible, 
look any worse than lobsters and crabs, which we eat freely. It is 
a good deal a matter of fashion after all, and I dare say, if you had 
been brought up in India you would enjoy digging up a centipede, 
eighteen inches long, and eating it, like a stick of candy, as the 
children do there, according to Humboldt. 
But I won't say another word about it ; partly because I don't 
want to make you quite sick, and partly because that really is the 
very worst thing I ever heard of. 
