Insects furnish more food delicacies than is generally supposed. In the
popular _Introduction to Entomology_, by Kirby and Spence, it is well
remarked, that,
‘If we could lay aside our English prejudices, there is no reason why
some of the insects might not be eaten, for those used by various
nations as food, generally speaking, live on vegetable substances, and
are consequently much more select and cleanly in their diet than the
pig or the duck, which form a favourite part of our food. They who
would turn with disgust from a locust, or the grub of a beetle, feel
no symptoms of nausea when a lobster, crab, or shrimp is set before
them. The fact is, that habit has reconciled us to the eating of these
last, which, viewed in themselves, with their threatening claws, and
many feet, are really more disgusting than the former. Had the habit
been reversed, we should have viewed the former with appetite, and the
latter with abhorrence--as do the Arabs, who are as much astounded at
our eating crabs, lobsters, and oysters, as we are at their eating
locusts.’
Herrick, an old author, 200 years ago, in describing a feast given by
Oberon to the fairy elves, alludes to the insects as amongst their
choicest cates.
‘Gladding his palate with some store
Of emmet’s eggs: what would he more?
But beards of mice, a newt’s stewed thigh,
A bloated earwig, and a fly.
With the red-capp’d worm that’s shut
Within the concave of a nut,
Brown as his tooth;--a little moth,
Late fatten’d in a piece of cloth.’
Herrick’s _Hesperides_, 1658.