For the information of those who have never seen this delicious insect, I
take leave to mention here, that, when full grown, it is a large dingy
brown--coloured beetle, about two inches long, with six legs, and two f
eelers as long as its body. It has a strong anti--hysterical flavour,
something between rotten cheese and assafoetida, and seldom stirs aboard
when the sun is up, but lies concealed in the most obscure and obscene
crevices it can creep into; so that, when it is seen, its wings and body
are thickly covered with dust and dirt of various shades, which any culprit
who chances to fall asleep with his mouth open, is sure to reap the benefit
of, as it has a great propensity to walk into it, partly for the sake of
the crumbs adhering to the masticators, and also, apparently, with a
scientific desire to inspect, by accurate admeasurement with the aforesaid
antennae, the state and condition of the whole potato trap.
At the same time I felt something gnawing the toe of my boot, which I
inferred to be a rat--another agreeable customer for which I had a special
abhorrence; but, as for beetles of all kinds, from my boyhood up, they had
been an abomination unto me, and a cockroach is the most abominable of all
beetles; so between the two I was speedily roused from my state of supine,
or rather dogged endurance; and, forgetting the geography of my position, I
sprung to my feet, whereby I nearly fractured my skull against the low deck
above.
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