Nature into good Sustenance to repair its Losses, and propagate its Kind, but likewise, however strange to us, are very greedily sought after by those us'd to them. Thus Persons not us'd to eat Whales, Squirrils, or Elephants, would think them a strange Dish; yet those us'd to them, prefer them to other Victuals.
Men and Women, who have not so nice a Smell as some Beasts, nor Faculties to distinguish by their Senses what is wholesome Food so well as they, were infinitely short of them in this particular, were it not for Providence, and the due use of their Reason. It was some Matter of wonder to me, to think how so many People, perhaps one fourth Part of the Inhabitants of the whole Earth, should come to venture to eat Bread, made only by baking the Root of Cassada, which is one of the rankest Poisons in the World, both to Man and Beast, when Raw. Though, I must confess, there is an instance in several Ranunculi, common in our Meadows, which when green, Blisters and Ulcerates the Flesh, and are us'd for that purpose by sturdy Beggars, to excite Compassion; these are not touch'd by Cattel, but left standing in the Fields; and yet, (as I am told) fed on greedily by all sorts of Cattel, when only dry'd into Hay. There is an Instance also of this in the Roots or Leaves of Arum, of which many kinds, uncommon to Europe, are eaten, when dry'd and prepar'd, as Colocasia, &c. and even the Roots of the common ones are eaten in Italy, when dry'd into a Flower, and made into Bread, though every body knows the great Acrimony they have when Raw. I was somewhat likewise surpriz'd to see Serpents, Rats and Lizards, sold for Food, and that to understanding People, and of a very good and nice Palate. But what of all these things was most unusual, and to my great Admiration, was the great Esteem was set on a sort of Cossi, or Timber-Worms, call'd Cotton-Tree-Worms, by the Negros and Indians; the one the Original Inhabitants of Africa, the others of America.
The Negros and Indians are not the only Admirers of these Vermine, for I find the most polite People in the World, the Romans living in a Neighbouring Country, accounted them so great a Dainty, as to feed them with Meal, and endeavour breeding them up. That they were commonly known and used, is likely from the word Cossus, Festus tell us, used to signifie, one lazy or slow, like Worms: and a considerable Family at Rome, from the Wrinkles and Furrows in their Face was call'd Cossutia.
Pliny, where he speaks of the Diseases of Trees, lib. 17. cap. 24. says thus, Vermiculantur magis minusve quædam, omnes tamen ferè: idque aves cavi corticis sono experiuntur. Jam quidem & in hoc luxuria esse cœpit: prægrandesque roborum delicatiores sunt in cibo: cossos vocant, atque etiam farina faginati hi quoque altiles fiunt. I cannot find any mentionmade
