Buchanan says the Termes, or White-ant, is a common article of food among one of the Hindoo tribes; Mr. Forbes says, of the low castes in Mysore, and the Carnatic.[467] Captain Green relates that, in the ceded districts of India, the natives place the branches of trees over the nests, and then by means of smoke drive out the insects; which attempting to fly, their wings are broken off by the mere touch of the branches.[468]
The female Termite, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was carefully sought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee Rao, Prime-minister of Scindia, chief of the Mahrattas.[469]
The Hottentots not only eat the Termites in their perfect state, but also, when their corn is consumed and they are reduced to the necessity, in their pupa. These pupæ, which they call “rice,” on account of their resemblance to that grain, they usually wash, and cook with a small quantity of water. Prepared in this way they are said to be palatable; and if the people find a place where they can obtain them in abundance, they soon become fat upon them, even when previously much reduced by hunger. A large nest will sometimes yield a bushel of pupæ.[470]
Termite queens in the East Indies are given alive to old men for strengthening the back.[471]
Ephemeridæ—Day-flies.
The name of Ephemeridæ has been given to the insects, so called, in consequence of the short duration of their lives, when they have acquired their final form. There are some of them which never see the sun; they are born after it is set, and die before it reappears on the horizon.
These insects, indifferently called also Day-flies and May-flies, usually make their appearance in the districts watered by the Seine and the Marne, in the month of August; and in such countless myriads, that the fishermen of these rivers believe they are showered down from heaven, and accordingly call the living cloud of them manna—manna for fish, not men. Reaumur once saw them descend in this region so fast, that the step on which he stood by the river’s bank was covered by a layer four inches thick in a few minutes. He compares their falling to that of snow with the largest flakes.[472]
Scopoli assures us that such swarms are produced every season in the neighborhood of some particular spots in the Duchy of Carniola, that the countrymen think they obtain but a small portion, unless every farmer can carry off about twenty cartloads of them into his fields for the purpose of a manure.[473]
Libellulidæ—Dragon-flies.
On account of the long and slender body, peculiar to the insects of this family, they are with us sometimes called Devil’s Darning-needles, but more commonly Dragon-flies. In Scotland they are known by the name of Flying Adders, for the same reason. The English, from an erroneous belief that they sting horses, call them Horse-stingers. In France, from their light and airy motions, and brilliant, variegated dress, they are called Demoiselles; and in Germany, for the same reason, and that they hover over, and lived during