he purpose of cleansing
them from the viscid fluids they may have imbibed from the palmiste.
Notwithstanding this discipline, the worms retain their vitality till
they are deprived of it by the culinary process. The simpler mode of
dressing them is to spit a number together on a piece of stick or a
long orange-thorn, and roast them before the fire in their own fat.
The general mode, however, is by frying them with or without a sauce,
and when dressed in this manner, they form a most savoury dish.

Groogroo worms are considered great delicacies in some parts of the
West Indies, chiefly in those whose inhabitants are of French or
Spanish origin. The good old planter at his table presents you with a
dish of worms, with as much pride as an epicure in England introduces
you to cod-sounds, eels, or high venison. Nor does it appear that
there is any peculiarity in the taste of those who relish the insects;
because it very frequently happens, that the stranger, who manifested
on his arrival the greatest disgust at the idea of eating worms,
becomes immediately converted into an extravagant lover of them.

It may appear strange, that in the tropics, especially, where nature
provides so abundantly for the wants of man, such creatures should be
resorted to as articles of consumption; but while we on this side of
the Atlantic are shocked at the idea of eating worms, the West Indian
consumer in his turn expresses surprise that human beings can use
things which resemble snakes so much as eels, and pronounces it to be
the height of uncleanness to eat frogs, as some of the continentals
do. Indeed, the groogroo worm is by no means more repulsive in
appearance than any of the other unprepossessing creatures which are
so highly prized. It would be a difficult matter to decide on the
merits of the many extraordinary things which the taste of man, in its
morbid cravings, has discovered and converted into luxurious use; and
the philosopher finds himself at last driven to take shelter from his
own unanswerable inquiries behind the concluding power of that most
true, but somewhat musty proverb: 'De gustibus non est disputandum.'

GRATITUDE OF THE COUNTRY FOR STEAM COMMUNICATION.

Mr Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, who first experimented in the
application of steam to navigation, never received any mark of
gratitude from his country; his family, though long in comparatively
reduced circumstances, remain to this day equally without requi