The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-06-27
DELICIOUS LITTLE WORMS.
An Article of Food Of Which the Piute In
dians are Very Fond.

aAC FCAS GOHos
When, in 1S49, the California gold
fever was making itself felt throughout
the country, J. NJ. Keeler was young
man living in the East, says the New
York Tribune. He was not proofagainst
the impulse to seek his fortune in the
mines, and came to New York with the
hope Of finding partners. In this he was
not disappointed, and with number of
others he chartered a New Orleans
packet, stocked it with provisions to
last year and half, sailed around
Cape Horn, and reached the Golden
Gate IN safety. Since then Mr.. Keeler
has lived almost continuously in Cali
fernia, but is now visiting this city, and
has brought with him many fine min
eralogical specimens. After showing
these to Tribune reporter the other
day, he handed to the latter a bottle,
saying: 'Do you know what these
things are?" In the bottle were adozen
or more dark-colored objects, shriveled,
butjuicy looking. The average length
was about one inch, and they had the
appearance of luscious raisins. The
reporter sEid De suppose supposed that was
what they were. The >Salifornian
smiled, too as he said: "No, they are
not; they're worms" Then he went on
tosay that they were considered q great
luxury by the Piute Indians.
II call them the nut pine worms, be-
cause they fed on the nut pine tree;
what the scientific name is I do not
know. On the eastern slope of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Southern
California, between Bodle and Bishops
Creek, is great stretch of these nut
pine trees. They bear small nut ex-
tremely rich in oil. So rich are they
that you don't want to eat many of
them. In August the ground under
the trees begins to be covered with
green worms as thick as mans finger
and from one and half to two and
half inches in length. The worms
soon grow wings and..fy into the trees.
The worm, which should now be dig
nifed by the name Of butterfly, does
not leave the tree, but. scars about
among the branches extracting the oil
from the nuts. In about q month the
body is full of oil-so full, in fact, that
the entrails. have been forced out.
Then the wings fall off.
ut is about this time that the Piutes
make their appearance and camp
among the trees. They come in large
numbers and provided with sacks. The
worm having lost its WINGS again, i
craWIs along the limbs OF tne JTee %
the trunk and falls to the ground.
Incidentally it falls into trap pre-
pared by the Indisns. To prevent the
worms from escaping they dig trenches
having concave sides. I have known
of bushels of worms being taken from
one of these trenches. When the crop
of worms has been harvested the In
dians build fires on fiat stones or the
hard earth. When the bed has become
hot, not hot enough to roast, the worms
are spread upon it and dried. They
are then placed in the sacks and car
ried to the Piute camps. A friend Of
mine once told me that he had one
season estimated that fifty tons of these
worms were gathered and dried?"
"How do the Indians use the worms?"
"In soups. The Piutes seem never
to tire of soup. They have it almost
every day. A buck is allowed two
worms and squaw. one for each dish
of soup. Sometimes gallant Indian
gives a pretty or popular squaw one of
his portion. The worms are not eaten
until the soup is consumed, they being
reserved as a final tid-bit. I have
tasted the worms and find them very
palatable. They are rich and oily like
the nut upon which they feed"