A French Delicacy.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 105, 21 September 1901, Page 3

A French Delicacy.

A correspondent of an English paper startles the world with the information that a spider is net an insect, but that it-is good to eat. In the South Pacific the arachnid m is first deprived of its legs and its hack —the hack being what corresponds in the language of beef to the part between the shin and the round. In the arachnidan there are, of course, quite a number of shins, and also of rounds, so that we presume there must be several huckfc However, what remains of the arachnidan is then smeared with butter—on the principle, we suppose, of the pill smeared with jam —and swallowed en masse. In France the prejudice against; the arachnidan died out after an attempt by a lady to poison her husband by introducing nine corpulent arachnidans into his soup. Not only did the poor man suK vive the soup, but he survived his spouse also, 'turning to I&adagascar, the arachnidan is energetically threatening sericulture. Its fine thread has for years been a godsend to the astronomer, who uses it in his most delicate instruments of measurement. It is now shown that the “ spider line” may be woven info a fabric toughUr than canvass, lighter than silk. In Rhodesia there is an; arachnidan which contains in its interior bureau three miles of thread, and after the unwinding the creature still possesses con-, siderable recuperative powers, since three times a month the process may be repeated. Such a creature will manufacture a hundred miles of thread a year-, and Rhodesia may be symbolised as a bark setting its arachnidwoven sails to the breeze of future prosperity. No wonder it is unlucky to squash a spider.