The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-13 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Post-office London Directory for 1859. Kelly and
Company.
The London Directory has become one of the in-
dispensable requisites of the man of business, and
the edition for the coming year fully maintains the
reputation of its predecessors. It is greatly to the
credit of the enterprising proprietors, that not con-
tent with the established character and success of
their Directory, they are indefatigable in endea-
vouring to increase its utility and to improve and
enlarge it in every possible manner. One of
the chief additions in the new volume is
in the list of stockbrokers, where a dis-
tinguishing mark has been added to the names
of those gentlemen who are members of the Stock
Exchange. This will be useful to those who are
desirous of obtaining sound information respecting
the character and standing of the stockbrokers they
employ. The system of giving the old as well as
the new numbers of streets, where the numbering has
been altered by the Board of Works, has been con-
tinued, and will greatly facilitate reference to
those localities. The classification and ar-
rangement of the work are, as usual, ad-
mirable, and by its judicious division under
appropriate heads, the individual consulting it is
able to turn immediately to the part he wants, with-
out the wearisome search which might be antici-
pated from the size and variety of the contents of
the volume. The map of London is in all respects
worthy of it. It is clear and comprehensive, and
the distinction of the postal districts will be easily
understood. It is a most valuable auxiliary to the
London Directory, and while the book and the map
are alike indispensable to the Londoner, the tra-
veller who is perfectly unacquainted with the
metropolis, will, by their aid, be enabled readily to
find his way to any individual or any locality he
may require.

The Precocious Piggy. By the late Thomas Hood.
Illustrated by his Son. Griffith and Farran.
A most fascinating volume for very juvenile
readers, narrating the " Headlong Career and
Woful Ending of Precocious Piggy," in mirth-
moving strains. It is cleverly illustrated by Thos.
Hood the younger, who has represented his hero
in every variety of costume,.and with most comical
surroundings. He appears in ball dress, in the
costume of the Merry Monarch, in labourer's
country dress, in riding, driving, and gardening
toilet—all remarkable for the striking contrast
and variety of their colours. The little incidental
groups are very funny ; and in the last tableau we
catch a mournful glimpse of Piggy's ghost, in white
robes, with outstretched feet, hovering over the
deserted farmyard. Doubtless many little people
will laugh and cry over his career, and the Christ-
mas feast will be incomplete unless Piggy form a
part of it.

The Curiosities of Food. By P. Lund Simmonds,
F.R.G.S., F.S.S., author of " A Dictionary of
Trade Products," &c., &c. Bentley.
Epicures of the present day are not likely to be
particularly gratified by the literature provided for
their edification. Dr. RasselPs terrible revelations
were sufficient to disgust the fastidious reader with
most kinds of European dainties, but it remained
for Mr. Simmonds to show the startled traveller
what horrible compounds he may partake of under
the most innocent titles. Snakes, slugs, lizards,
are among a few of the captivating delicacies that
offer themselves to the inventor of culinary novel-
ties. Considerable ingenuity is displayed in the
compilation of the volume, which is founded on a
lecture delivered by the author at several of the
metropolitan literary institutions. It was received
with favour, merited by the novelty of the subject
and the skill with which it was treated. Should
this volume meet with equal success, the author
promises us a similar treatise on the Curiosities of
Vegetable Food, which will be more agreeable, if
less astounding in its revelations. We can hardly
call it a pleasant work, but, as the author observes,
it proves the truth of the old adage, " one half the
world does not know how the other half lives," and
it certainly proves how many things are capable of
affording nourishment which we look upon with.
contempt and disgust. • We subjoin a few of the
most striking specimens :

"A kind of red ant is eaten fried, or with their thiedfish,
and a worm, which in the lower provinces of Burmah is
found in the heart of a shrub, is considered such a delicacy,
that every month a great quantity is sent to the capital to
to be served up at the table of the emperor. It is eaten
either fried or roasted.

" According to Sir John Bowring, the Chinese have no
prejudices whatever as regards food ; they eat anything and
everything from which they can derive nutrition. Dogs,
especially puppies, are habitually sold as food. In the
butchers' sheps large dogs skinned and hanging with their
viscera, may be seen by the side of pigs and goats. Even
to the flesh of monkies and snakes they have no objection.
"The sea slug is an aristocratic and • costly delicacy,
which is never wanting, any more than the edible birds'-
nests, at a feast where honour is intended to be done to the
guests. These birds'-nests aro worth twice their weight in
silver. They are glutinous compositions formed by a kind
of swallow, in vast clusters, found in ,tava, Sumatra, and
the rocky islets of the Indian Archipelago. Dried sharks'
fins and fish maws are also highly prized.
" Ono of the spider monkeys, the marimonda (Ateles
belzebuth,Desm.) is termed aru by the Indians of the Rio
Guiana and is a favourite article of food with the natives
of the borders of the Cassiquiare, the higher Orinoco, and
other rivers, and its boiled limbs are commonly to be seen
in their huts.
"The howling monkeys (Mycetes), which are of larger
size, and fatter than some of the other species, arc in groat
request with the Indians as food. Mr. Gorse states that
the flavour of their flesh is like that of kid. The Aturian
Indians, as well as those of Esmeralda, eat many kinds of
monkeys at certain seasons of the
.year, and especially the
couxio, or jacket monkey (Pythecia sayulatt, Train).
"Mr. Grant, in his History of Brazil, states that apes
and monkeys are esteemed good food by the natives.
" The negroes and natives of New Granada, according to
Bonny castle, also eat the monkey.
" To prepare this dish, the body is scalded in order to
remove the hair, and after this operation has been per-
formed, it has the exact appearance of a young dead child,
and is so disgusting, that no one, excepting those pressed
by hunger, could partake of the repast. It is not at :all
improbable that many savage nations who have been -ac-
cused of canibalism, have been very unjustly charged with
it, for, according to Ulloa, the appearance of the monkey of
Panama, when ready to be cooked, is precisely that of a
human body.

" It is not only by the inhabitants of the Great Desert
that the locusts are hailed with joy. The Kafirs also give
them a hearty welcome, and make many a good meal upon
them too,—not only large eating them in quantities, but
making a sort of coffee-coloured soup of their eggs.
" Locusts are cooked in various ways—roasted, boiled,
and fried. They are also salted and smoked, and packed
away against a time of scarcity. It is said, they taste very
much like fish, and are particularly light, delicate, and
wholesome food. They are carried into many of the towns
of Africa by waggon-loads, as we bring poultry to market
"The large saubas (red-ants) and white ants are an oc-
casional luxury to the Indians of the Rio Negro ; and when
nothing else is to be had in the wet season, they eat large
earth-worms, which, when the lands in which they live are
flooded, ascend trees, and take up their abode in the hollow
leaves of a species of Tillandsia, where they are often
found accumulated by thousands. Nor is it only hunger
that makes them eat these worms, for they sometimes boil
them with their fish to give it an extra relish.
" After the enumeration I have given you of food deli-
cacies who shall venture to determine what is good eating ?
Sonic 'Europeans chew tobacco, the llindoo takes to betel-
nut and lime, while the Patagonian finds contentment in a
bit of guano, and the Styrians grow fat and ruddy on
arsenic. English children delight in sweetmeats and sugar
candy, while tho eof Africa prefer rock salt. A French-
man likes frogs and snails, and we eat eels, oysters, and
whelks. To the Esquitnaux, train oil is your only delicacy.
The Russian luxuriates upon ;his hide or tallow ; the
Chinese upon rats, puppy dogs, and sharks' fins ; the Kafir
upon elephant's foot .and trunk, or lion steaks; while the
Pacific Islander places cold missionary above every other
edible. Why then shoitld we be surprised at men's feeding
upon_ rattlesnakes and monkeys, and pronouncing theta
capital eating? "