Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-01-03
HUMAN INSECT EATERS.

eaten in Brazil, mixed with resin as sauce.
Locusts are now eaten in the Crimea,
Greece, India, Arabia, Persia, Africa and
Madagascar.
The aborigines of Australia make a cake
of the pounded bodies of a night flying crea-
ture of the moth genus.
Not contented with the honey and wax
which the bees yield, the Cingalese eat the
insects themselves.
The Chinese are fond of the larvae of
species of hawk moth, some of which, accord
ing to DR.. Erasmus Darwin, are very de-
licious
White ants are much priced as food in vari-
Gus parts of Africa. The Hottentots eat them
both raw and cooked, and thrive wonderfully
on them.
In India and the East Indies the natives
mix white ants with -four, and make them
into pastry, which is considered to be highly
nutritive.
The wire worm, the Larvae of small
beetle, is eaten in large quantities by Turkish
women, and the Chinese also eat some species
of worms.
The cicada, loudly humming four winged
insects, were largely eaten by the Greeks, and
their delicate flavor was commented on by
many writers.
One of the same species of the cossus, about
the thickness of ones finger, is still eaten in
some parts of America, Africa and the West
Indies and Mauritius
Spiders nearly an inch in length are roasted
over the fire and eaten by the natives of New
Caledonia. Even educated Europeans have
been known to eat them.
Locusts have been eaten from the remotest
antiquity, and some Ethiopian tribes, from
this circumstance. received the name of Acri-
dophagi, or locust eaters.
Snails have been used as food from very
ancient times Pliny states that they were
much appreciated in Rome, and were fat
tened on meal until they attained great size
and excellent flavor.
Plny says that the famous cossi were held
in high esteem among the Roman Patricians,
and were fattened upon -four and wine
These insects are supposed to be grubs of a
large Longicorn beetle.
Perhaps the most disgusting instance of
reptile eating is that recorded by Humboldt
| personal Travels, ii, 205), who asserts that
he saw Indian children drag out of the earth
centipedes eighteen inches in length and eat
| them.
| The nations of the lake regions of Central
Africa make a sort of cake out of the multi
tudes of small, dead insects which they gather
OIL the shores of the lakes; and in Central
America the natives make bread Of the eggs
Of a large moth.
The Chinese, who are noted for their
economy, eat the chrysalis of the silkworms,
after they have unwound their silk from the
cocoons. They fry them in butter or lard,
add the yelks of eggs, and season with pepper,
salt and vinegar.
The gals of several gall flies (cynips), which
are juicy, like apples, and crowned with
rudiments of leaves resembling the calyx Of
that fruit are esteemed in the Levant for
their aromatic flavor, and are sold in the
markets of Constantinople.
1Elian speaks Of an Indian king who set
before his guests quantity of roasted worms,
of which he said Indians were very fond, for
dessert Some Greeks who tasted them are
said to have pronounced their flavor most
delicious. Humboldt mentions that the Arabs
Of Fezzan ate some kinds Of worms.
jackson, a traveller of the last century,
says that, in 1899 locusts were generally
served up in Barbary with other dishes, and
were esteemed great delicacy. They were
preferred by the Moors to pigeon; and it was
said that person might eat plate of about
POO or 800 without feeling any i'll effect
The Hottentots are said to rejoice at the
appearance of a swarm of locusts, although
the destructive insects devour all the YER
dure in the district The natives eat them
in such quantities that they soon grow per-
ceptibly fatter. They also gather the eggs,
and make of them a kind of brown, or coif ee
colored SOUP
The Arabs, when there is famine, grind
locusts in their hand mills, or pound them in
mortars, and mix with -four and water into
a dough, which they bake as ordinary bread.
But they not only employ locusts during a
scarcity of corn, but, at other times, eat
them as a delicacy. They boil them for a
good while in water, and afterward stew
them with butter into kind of fricassee of
good havor.-The Old Gourmand.