settle at Guadenthal, before they could build ovens, according to the
custom of their country, availed themselves of the Ant-hills found in
that neighborhood; for, having destroyed the inhabitants by fire and
smoke, they scooped them out hollow, leaving a crust of a few inches in
thickness, and used them for baking, putting in three loaves at a
time.[452]
Mr. Southey says that in Brazil the Spaniards hollow out the nests of
the Termites, and use them for ovens.[453] The authority of Messrs.
Kidder and Fletcher is, that in Brazil, “the Termites’ dwelling is
sometimes overturned by the slaves, the hollow scooped wider, and is
then used as a bake-oven to parch Indian-corn.”[454]
Mr. Latrobe also tells us that the clay of which these Ant-hills are
formed, is so well prepared by the industrious Termites, _Termes
bellicosus_, that it is used for the floors of rooms in South Africa
both by the Hottentots and farmers.[455]
Mr. Southey states that in Brazil “the Spaniards pulverize the nests of
the Termites, and with the powder form a flooring for their houses,
which becomes as hard as stone, and on which it is said no fleas or
other insects will harbor.”[456] The early Spanish settlers built the
walls of their houses of the same earth; and some of which, which were
erected in the seventeenth century, are said to be still in
existence.[457]
Ant-hills, or rather the Termites which inhabit them, have also been
used as an instrument of perhaps the most infernal torture the ingenuity
of man has ever invented. For, in South Africa, at one time, the
wretched victim, whether prisoner of war or offending subject, having
been smeared with some oily substance, was partially interred in one of
these heaps, and, if not first roasted to death by the burning sun, was
literally devoured alive by the myriads of insects which have their
habitation there. It has been asserted that even some Englishmen have
met this dreadful fate.[458]
At Unyamwezi, in the lake regions of Central Africa, the natives chew
the clay of Ant-hills as a substitute when their tobacco fails. They
call this clay “sweet earth.” It is said the Arabs have also tried it
without other effects than nausea.[459]
The goldsmiths of Ceylon employ the powdered clay of Ant-hills in
preference to all other substances in the preparation of crucibles and
moulds for their fine castings, for so delicate is the trituration to
which the Termites subject this material;[460] and Knox says, “the
people use this finer clay to make their earthen gods of, it is so pure
and fine.”[461]
Termites, as an article of food, are eaten by the inhabitants of many
countries. Mr. Kœnig, in his essay on the history of these insects, read
before the Society of Naturalists of Berlin, tells us, that to catch
the Termites before their emigration, the natives of the East Indies
make two holes in the nest, one to windward, and the other to leeward;
at the latter aperture, they place a pot, rubbed with aromatic herbs. On
the windward side they make a fire, the smoke of which drives these
insects into the pots. By this method they take a great quantity, of
which they make, with flour, a variety of pastry, which they sell to the
poorer people. This author adds, that in the season in which this
aliment is abundant, the abuse of it produces an epidemic colic and
dysentery, which carries off the patient in two or three hours.[462]
The Africans, says Mr. Smeatham, are less ingenious in catching and
preparing them. They content themselves in collecting those which fall
into the water at the time of emigration. They skim them off the surface
with calabashes, filling large caldrons with them, then grill them in
iron pots, over a gentle fire, stirring them as coffee is stirred. They
thus eat them by handfuls, without sauce, or any other preparation, and
find them delicious. This gentleman has several times eaten them cooked
in this manner, and thinks them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome,
being sweeter than the grub of the palm-tree weevil (_Calandra
palmarum_), and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond
paste.[463]
The Hottentots, Dr. Sparrman informs us, eat them greedily boiled and
raw, and soon grow fat and plump upon this food.[464]
An idea may be formed of this dish by what once occurred to Dr.
Livingstone on the banks of the Zouga, in South Africa. The Bayeiye
chief Palani visiting this traveler while eating, he gave him a piece of
bread and preserved apricots; and as the chief seemed to relish it much,
he asked him if he had any food equal to that in his country. “Ah!” said
the chief, “did you ever taste White-ants?” As the doctor never had, he
replied, “Well, if you had, you never could have desired to eat anything
better.”[465]
In the lake regions of Central Africa, says Burton, man revenges
himself upon the White-ant, and satisfies his craving for animal food,
which in those regions oftentimes becomes a principle of action,--a
passion,--by boiling the largest and fattest species, and eating them as
a relish with his insipid porridge.[466]
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 their first stages in, water,
_Wasser-jungfern_--Virgins of the Water. Another German name for them is
_Florfliegen_--Gauze-flies, in allusion to their net-like wings. Our
boys also call them _Snake-feeders_ and _Snake-doctors_, in the belief
that they wait upon snakes in the capacity of feeders and doctors; and
so firm are they in this belief, that frequently I have been laughed at
for asserting the contrary to them. The belief probably arose from the
manner in which the Dragon-fly sometimes falls a prey to the snakes.
Hovering over ponds, they are fond of alighting on little sticks and
twigs just out of the water, and mistaking the heads of snakes, which
probably swam there for the purpose, for such twigs, they are instantly
caught by the snakes.
On the 30th and 31st of May, 1839, immense cloud-like swarms of
Dragon-flies passed in rapid succession over the German town of Weimar
and its neighborhood. They were the _Libellula depressa_, a species
which, in general, is rather scarce in that part of Germany. The general
direction of this migration was from south by west to north by east. The
insects were in a vigorous state, and some of the flocks flew as high as
150 feet above the level of the River Ilm.
At Gottingen on June the 1st, at Eisenach on May the 30th and 31st of
the same year, swarms of the same species were seen flying from east to
west; and at Calais, June 14th, similar clouds, though of a different
species, were noticed on their way toward the Netherlands. At Halle,
also, on May 30th, a short time before a thunder-storm, swarms of the
Dragon-fly, _L. quadrimaculata_, were seen by Dr. Buhle, flying very
rapidly from south to north. The _L. quadrimaculata_ is not generally
found in the neighborhood of Halle.
This wonderful migration, for it is a phenomenon of rare occurrence,
extended from the 51st to the 52d degree of latitude, and was observed
within 27° 40′ and 30° east of Ferro. But the instance of Calais renders
it probable that it extended over a great part of Europe.
Another migration of Dragon-flies was observed at Weimar on the 28th of
June, 1816. The insects, in this instance, belonged also to the _L.
depressa_. They were taken then, as were they also in 1839, for locusts
by the common people, and looked upon as the harbingers of famine and
war.
In these migrations they followed the direction of the rivers, with the
currents. They did not, however, always keep close by them, since they
must spread over wide districts in order to subsist.
To account for the great multiplication of these insects, in the year
1839, is by no means difficult. From the beginning to the 21st of May
(in the latter part of which month, it will be remembered, they
appeared), the weather had been exceedingly rainy; rivers and lakes
overflowed their banks and inundated immense areas of low grounds,
whereby myriads of the _larvæ_ and _pupæ_ (which live entirely in water)
of the _Libellulæ_, which, under other circumstances, would have
remained in deep water, and become the prey of their many enemies, fish,
etc., were brought into shallow water, and hot weather following, from
May 21st to May 29th, converted these shallows and swamps into true
hotbeds for them. Their development into perfect insects was thus
rendered rapid, so that, somewhat earlier than usual, they appeared, and
in far greater, their undiminished, numbers; and, being very voracious
in their appetite, as well in the imago as the pupa state, they were
obliged to migrate immediately to satisfy it.[474]
Mr. Gosse observed in Jamaica, Oct. 8th, 1845, a swarm of Dragon-flies
in the air, about twenty feet from the level of the ground. They floated
and danced about, over the stream of water that runs through
Blue-fields, much in the manner of gnats, which they resembled also in
their immense numbers.[475] And Rev. T. J. Bowen, on one occasion, in
descending the Ogun River (in the Yoruba country, Africa), met millions
of Dragon-flies, about one-fourth of an inch in length, making their way
up the country by following the course of the stream.[476]
It is commonly said among us, that if a Dragon-fly be killed, there will
soon be a death in the family of the killer.
Myrmeleonidæ--Ant-lions.
When children meet with the funnel-shaped pitfalls of the larva of the
Ant-lion, _Myrmeleon formicales_, they are wont to put their heads close
to the ground and softly sing _ooloo-ooloo-ooloo_, till the larva,
mistaking the sound for that of a fly escaping his trap, throws up a
shower of sand to bring its supposed victim down again.
Ant-lions are held in great esteem in many sections of our country, so
much so that they are not suffered to be in any way injured.
ORDER V.
HYMENOPTERA.
Uroceridæ--Sirex.
In a work called “_Ephemerides des curieux de la nature_,” is an
observation apparently relative to this family of insects, which, if
true, would be very extraordinary indeed. It is there said, that in the
town of Czierck and its environs, there were seen in 1679 some unknown
winged insects which, with their stings, mortally wounded both men and
beasts. They fell abruptly upon men without provocation, and attached
themselves to the naked parts of the body: the sting was immediately
followed by a hard tumor, and if care was not taken of the wound within
the first three hours, by hastily extracting the poison from it, the
patient died in a few days after. These insects killed five and thirty
men in this diocese, and a great number of oxen and horses. Toward the
end of September, the winds brought some of them into a small town on
the confines of Silesia and Poland; but they were so feeble on account
of the cold, that they did but little mischief there. Eight days after,
they all disappeared. These animals have all of them four wings, six
feet, and carry under the belly a long sting provided with a sheath,
which opens and separates in two. They make a very sharp noise in
attacking men. Some of them are ornamented with yellow circles (_Sirex
gigas_, or _S. fusicornis_? M. Latreille), and others are similar to
them in all respects, but they have the back altogether black, and their
stings are more venomous (_S. spectrum_ or _juvencus_?). The author of
these observations gives an extended description of the species with the
yellow circles, which he accompanies with figures, in which the
character of _Sirex_ may be clearly distinguished.[477]
Cynipidæ--Gall-flies.
In the spring of 1694, some Galls hung down like chains upon the oaks in
Germany, and the common people, who had never observed them before,
imagined them to be magical knots.[478]
A very old and common superstition is, that every oak-apple contains
either a maggot, a fly, or a spider: the first foretelling famine, the
second war, and the third, the spider, pestilence. Matthiolus gravely
affirms this conceit to be true;[479] and the learned Sir Thomas Browne,
in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, has thought it worth his while, with much
gravity, to explode it. He, however, while combating one popular error,
falls himself into another, for want of that philosophical knowledge of
insects which later times have succeeded in obtaining. We pass this by,
and hurry to his conclusion: “We confess the opinion may hold some
verity in analogy, or emblematical phancy; for pestilence is properly
signified by the spider, whereof some kinds are of a very venomous
nature: famine by maggots, which destroy the fruits of the earth; and
war not improperly by the fly, if we rest in the phancy of Homer, who
compares the valiant Grecian unto a fly. Some verity it may also have in
itself, as truly declaring the corruptive constitution in the present
sap and nutrimental juice of the tree; and may consequently discover the
disposition of the year according to the plenty or kinds of those
productions; for if the putrefying juices of bodies bring forth plenty
of flies and maggots, they give forth testimony of common corruption,
and declare that the elements are full of the seeds of putrefaction, as
the great number of caterpillars, gnats, and ordinary insects do also
declare. If they run into spiders, they give signs of higher
putrefaction, as plenty of vipers and scorpions are confessed to do; the
putrefying materials producing animals of higher mischief according to
the advance and higher strain of corruption.”[480]
Moufet says: “In oak acorns and spongy apples sometimes worms breed,
and astrologers presage that year to be likely to produce a great famine
and dearth.... It is strange that Ringelbergius writes, _lib. de
experiment_, that these worms may be fed to be as big as a serpent, with
sheep’s milk; yet Cardanus confirms the same, and shewes the way to feed
them, _Lib. de rer. varietat_.”[481]
There is a very curious operation performed at the present day in the
Levant with one of these Gall-flies, which is termed _caprification_.
The object of it is to hasten the maturity of figs; and the species
employed for that purpose is the _Cynips ficus caricæ_, or _Cynips
psenes_ of Linnæus; it consists in placing on a fig-tree, which does not
produce flowers or early figs, some of these last strung together with a
thread. The insects which issue from them, full of fecundating dust,
introduce themselves through the eye into the interior of the second
figs, fecundate by this means all the grains, and provoke the ripening
of the fruit.
This operation, of which some authors have spoken with admiration,
appeared to Hasselquist and Olivier, both competent observers, who have
been on the spot, to be of no advantage whatsoever in fertilizing the
fig;[482] and scientific men of the present day generally hold that it
cannot be of any utility, for each fig contains some small flowers
toward the eye, capable of fecundating all the female flowers in the
interior, and moreover this fruit will grow, ripen, and become excellent
to eat even when the grains are not fecundated.[483]
A curious kind of gall, produced on the rose-trees by the _Cynips rosæ_,
which is known by the name of _Bedeguar_, has been placed among the
remedies which may be successfully employed against diarrhœa and
dysentery, and useful in cases of scurvy, stone, and worms.[484]
The galls of commerce, commonly called _Nut-galls_, are found on the
_Quercus infectoria_, a species of oak growing in the Levant, and are
produced by the _Cynips Gallæ tinctorum_. When gathered before the
insects quit them, the nut-galls contain more astringent matter, and are
then known as Black, Blue, or Green-galls. When the insects have
escaped, they are less astringent, and are called White-galls. They are
of great importance in the arts, being very extensively used in dyeing
and in the manufacture of ink and leather. They are the most powerful of
all the vegetable astringents, and are sometimes used, both internally
and externally, with great effect in medicine. Those imported from Syria
are the most esteemed, and, of these, those found in the neighborhood of
Moussoul are considered the best.[485]
The gall of the field cirsium formerly enjoyed a very great reputation,
for it was considered, when carried simply in the pocket, as a sovereign
remedy against hemorrhages. It, no doubt, owed this virtue to its
resemblance to the principal sign of this disease, the swelling of the
vein.[486]
The galls of the ground-ivy, produced by the _Cynips glecome_, have been
eaten as food in France; they have an agreeable taste, and to a high
degree the odor of the plant which bears them. Reaumur, however, is
doubtful whether they will ever rank with good fruits.[487]
The galls of the sage (_Salvia pomifera_, _S. triloba_, and _S.
officinalis_), which are very juicy, like apples, and crowned with
rudiments of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit, are gathered
every year, as an article of food, by the inhabitants of the Island of
Crete. This is the statement of Poumefort. Olivier confirms it, and
adds: They are esteemed in the Levant for their aromatic and acid
flavor, especially when prepared with honey and sugar, and form a
considerable article of commerce from Scio to Constantinople, where they
are regularly exposed in the market.[488]
The celebrated “Dead Sea Fruits,” often called _Poma insana_, or
Mad-apples, _Mala Sodomitica_, etc., which have given rise to great
controversy among Oriental scholars and Biblical commentators, are
produced by the _Cynips insana_ on the low oaks (_Quercus infectoria_)
growing on the borders of the Dead Sea.[489]
Formicidæ--Ants.
Herodotus, who wrote in the fifth century before the birth of Christ,
tells the following fabulous story without the slightest trace of
diffidence or disbelief: There are other Indians bordering on the City
of Caspatyrus and the country of Pactyica, settled northward of the
other Indians, whose mode of life resembles that of the Bactrians. They
are the most warlike of the Indians, and these are they who are sent to
procure the gold; for near this part is a desert by reason of the sand.
In this desert then, and in the sand, there are Ants in size somewhat
less indeed than dogs, but larger than foxes. Some of them are in the
possession of the King of the Persians, which were taken there. These
Ants, forming their habitations under ground, heap up the sand as the
Ants in Greece do, and in the same manner; and they are very like them
in shape. The sand that is heaped up is mixed with gold. The Indians,
therefore, go to the desert to get this sand, each man having three
camels, on either side a male one harnessed to draw by the side, and a
female in the middle; this last the man mounts himself, having taken
care to yoke one that has been separated from her young as recently as
possible; for camels are not inferior to horses in swiftness, and are
much better able to carry burdens.... The Indians then, adopting such a
plan and such a method of harnessing, set out for the gold, having
before calculated the time, so as to be engaged in their plunder during
the hottest part of the day, for during the heat the Ants hide
themselves under ground.... When the Indians arrive at the spot, having
sacks with them, they fill these with the sand, and return with all
possible expedition; for the Ants, as the Persians say, immediately
discovering them by the smell, pursue them, and they are equaled in
swiftness by no other animal, so that if the Indians did not get the
start of them while the Ants were assembling, not a man of them could be
saved. Now the male camels (for they are inferior in speed to the
females) slacken their pace, dragging on, not both equally; but the
females, mindful of the young they have left, do not slacken their pace.
Thus the Indians, as the Persians say, obtain the greatest part of their
gold.[490]
Concerning these remarkable Ants, Strabo and Arrian have preserved the
statement of Megasthenes, who traveled in India about two centuries
later than the time of Herodotus. As given by Strabo, who is somewhat
more particular in his story than Arrian, it is as follows: Megasthenes,
speaking of the Myrmeces (or Ants), says, among the Derdæ, a populous
nation of the Indians, living toward the East and among the mountains,
there was a mountain plain of about 3000 stadia in circumference; that
below this plain were mines containing gold, which the Myrmeces, in size
not less than foxes, dig up. They are excessively fleet, and subsist on
what they catch. In winter they dig holes and pile up the earth in
heaps, like moles, at the mouths of the openings. The gold dust which
they obtain requires little preparation by fire. The neighboring people
go after it by stealth with beasts of burden; for if it is done openly,
the Myrmeces fight furiously, pursuing those that run away, and, if they
seize them, kill them and the beasts. In order to prevent discovery,
they place in various parts pieces of the flesh of wild beasts, and when
the Myrmeces are dispersed in various directions, they take away the
gold dust, and, not being acquainted with the mode of smelting it,
dispose of it in its rude state at any price to merchants.[491]