Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1889-07-12
DELICIOUS uTTLe PURPLE WORMs.
An Article of Food Which the Piute'
Gather i'm Large Quantities.


Gather in Large Quantities.
When. in 1919, the California gold fever
was making itself felt throughout the coun-
try. J. NJ. Keller was young man living in
the east. He was not proof against the inn
pulse to seek his fortune in the mines, and
came to New York with the hope Of findine
partners In this he was not disappointed
and with a number Of others he chartered
New Orleans packet, stocked it with pro-
visions to last year and a half, sailed around
Cane Horn and reached the Golden Gate in
safety Since then Mr.. Keller has lived al
most continuously in California, but is now
visiting this city, and has brought with him
many fine meteorological specimens
After showing these to areporter the other
day, he handed to the latter a small bottle,
saying: 'Do you know what those things
areF In the bottle were a dozen or more
dark colored objects, shriyeled but juicy
looking. The average length was about one
inch, and they had the appearance Of lus-
cious raisins. The reporter said he supposed
that was what they were. The Californian
smiled. too, as he said; "No, they are not
they're worms" Then he went on to say
that they were considered a great luxury by
the Piute Indians
81 call them the nut pine worm, because
they feed on the nut pine tree; what the
scientific name is l do not know. On the
eastern slope Of the Sierra Nevada mountains
in Southern California, between Bodie and
Bishops creeks is a great stretch Of these nut
pine trees. They bear a small nut extremely
rich in oil. So rich are they that you dom
want to eat many of them. In August thu
ground under the trees begins to be covered
with green worms, as thick as mans hngel
and from one and half to two and hal
inches in length. The worms soon grow
wings and fly into the trees. The worm
which should now be dignifed by the mann
of butterfly, does not leave the tree, but soar
around among the branches extracting tn
| oil from the nuts. In about a month tn
body is full of oil; so full, in fact, that thu
entrails have been forced out Then the
wings fall off.
1T is about this time that the Piutes maxi
their appearance and camp among the trees
! They come in large numbers and provided
with sacks. The worm having lost its wing
again, it crawls along the limbs of the tree t
/ the trunk and falls to the ground. Incl
dentally it falls into a trap prepared by tn
/ Indians. To prevent the worms from escap
/ ing they dig trenches around the roots Of tn
/ tree, the trenches having concave sides.
/ have known of a bushel of worms being takel
from one of these trenches. When the GRO
of worms has been harvested the Indians bull
fires on flat stones or the hard earth. Whel
the bed has become hot, not hot enough t
roast the worms are spread upon it ant
dried They are then placed in the sacks am
carried to the Piute camps. A friend of min
once told me that he had one season estimate
that fifty tons of these worms were gathere
and dried"
GLOW do the Indians use the worms"
SIN soups. The Piutes seem never to tir
of soup. They have it almost every day.
buck is allowed two worms and a squaw on
for each dish of soup. Sometimes a gallan
Indian gives a pretty or popular squaw or
of his portion. The worms are not cate
until the soup has been consumed, they hein
reserved as final tid-bit, have tasted tn
worms and found them very palatable The
are rich and oily like the nut upon which the
feed New York Tribune.