The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-08

eggs of the insect. which are deposit
 ed on sedges, are also collected and eaten for food. On Lake Chalco
 certain sedge is cultivated on which
 the eggs of species of fly are deposit
 ed. Bundles are made of these and placed in Lake Texcoco for the pur-
 pose, and, when covered, the sedge is
 beaten over pieces of cloth and the eggs secured. These are collected and ground into meal, also called ahuau,
 and are in great demand on tast days,
 when fish is required, the insects or eggs not being considered flesh, as they come from the water. The food IS made into small cakes and tastes not
 unlike caviare. Not only the eggs, but the larvae, themselves a disagree able looking worm, are used as food under the name of puxi.
 The civilized man, perhaps, turns from such food with disgust but 1t is l well to remember that epicures in
 many countries, and especially in England and America are particularly fond of cheese when inhabited by the
 larvae of a great common fly. In the United States the large octopus or squid, common on the Pacific Coast, offends the American palate, but the l Italian, Frenchman or Portuguese eats , it with avidity and considers it deli cacy. The meat is clear and white, like chicken, and has the flavor of crab.
 l The question of national taster is an
 interesting one, and the contrast be-
 tween those of China and America is remarkable. The objects displayed ill
 the Chinese quarter as dainties are Cften repugnant to Americans. We , find the Chnaman selling eggs of un-
 known age, especially duck eggs con- taining ducklings ready to be matched. Shark fins-a tough disagreeable food are in demand, while deer horns in
 the velvet and lizards of various kinds are eaten. The nest of the swallow.
 with its embedded secretion of the mouth glands of the bird, is nearly worth it's weight in gold. Trepang, the 1 tough, impossible holothurian, is eaten
 and it's collection is an important in- i dustry along the Malay coast, valued at at least $1C0C00 per annum.
 ] In France the sea anemone is used
 as food; stuffed like peppers and bell
 1t calls to mind crab or craytish, The ehinus of various species is also used, cooked in the shell, like an egg, and eaten with spoon. In nearly all the | old countries of Europe of the type of 1 spain and Italy the poor are so poor
 that everything in the nature of food
 is utilized. Absolutely nothing is i wasted and meat is rare. The writer recalls the surprise of an Italian | fisherman who landed in California af-
 ter trip around the Horn, and was amazed, not at the country but with
 the abundance of food. He found his i countrymen eating meat twice. per- haps three times, day, when he rare- | ly had it once month. He saw ! hundreds of pounds of fish wasted, and 1 discarded merely because the people
 did not care for 1t. when in Italy even 1 the heads would would be boiled and
 eaten. He saw big tunnies lowed out to sea and thrown away because they were tough, when in his own land
 every scrap of this fish was saved.
 America was indeed the land of plenty 1 to the poor of other nations.
 Certain Indians consider earthworms
 a dainty. They are dried and rolled
 together into peculiar flour. In Ba-
 hama and some of the Florida keys the
 conch is eaten-]by far the toughest
 food known; more like India rubber
 than anything else, having to be beaten
 and pounded before it can be caticated
 or even cooked,--Scientific America.