Antonio de Ulloa, in his Noticias Americanas, says this grub has the singular property of producing milk in women.[220] The Argentina, the historic poem of Brazil, adds an assertion which is more certainly fabulous, viz., that they first become butterflies, and then mice.[221]
They have a similar dainty in Java in the larva of some large beetle, which the natives call Moutouke.—“A thick, white maggot which lives in wood, and so eats it away, that the backs of chairs, and feet of drawers, although apparently sound, are frequently rotten within, and fall into dust when it is least expected. This creature may sometimes be heard at work. It is as big as a silk-worm, and very white, … a mere lump of fat. Thirty are roasted together threaded on a little stick, and are delicate eating.”[222]
Ælian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, instead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, probably the larva of the Calandra palmarum, a native of Persia and Mesopotamia as well as of the West Indies, which he says the Indians esteemed very delicious—a character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who tasted it.[223]
The trunk of the grass-tree, or black-boy, Xanthorea arborea, when beginning to decay, furnishes large quantities of marrow-like grubs, which are considered a delicacy by the aborigines of Western Australia. They have a fragrant, aromatic flavor, and form a favorite food among the natives, either raw or roasted. They call them Bardi. They are also found in the wattle-tree, or mimosa. The presence of these grubs in the Xanthorea is thus ascertained: if the top of one of these trees is observed to be dead, and it contain
any bardi, a few sharp kicks given to it with the foot will cause it to crack and shake, when it is pushed over and the grubs taken out, by breaking the tree to pieces with a hammer. The bardi of the Xanthorea are small, and found together in great numbers; those of the wattle are cream-colored, as long and thick as a man’s finger, and are found singly.[224]
Dr. Livingstone states that in the valley of Quango, S. Africa, the natives dig large white larvæ out of the damp soil adjacent to their streams, and use them as a relish to their vegetable diet.[225]
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there was published at Florence, by Prof. Gergi, the history of a remarkable insect which he names Curculio anti-odontalgicus. This insect, as he assures us, not only in the name he has given it, but also in an account of the many cures effected by it, is endowed with the singular property of curing the toothache. He tells us, that if fourteen or fifteen of the larvæ be rubbed between the thumb and fore-finger, till the fluid is absorbed, and if a carious aching tooth be but touched with the thumb or finger thus prepared, the pain will be removed; a finger thus prepared, he says in conclusion, will, unless it be used for tooth-touching, retain its virtue for a year! This remarkable insect is only found on a nondescript plant, the Carduus spinosis-simus.[226]
It is said, also by Prof. Gergi, that the Tuscan peasants have long been acquainted with several insects which furnish a charm for the toothache, as the Curculio jæcac, C. Bacchus, and Carabus chrysocephalus.
The curious facts contained in the following quotation, from Chambers’ Book of Days, were among the first that led me to attempt the present compilation. The scientific name of the insect here mentioned is, in the opinion of Prof. Gill and other scientists, a misprint for Rhynchitus auratus, and, following this decision, I have here placed it under the Curculionidæ.—“A lawsuit between the inhabitants of the Commune of St. Julien and a coleopterous insect, now known to naturalists as the Eynchitus aureus,