Looking Glass Insects Taxidermy Set

Looking Glass Insects Taxidermy Set

Label Notes:
Rocking-Horse-Fly (Diptera equumgestatio)
Bread-and-Butter-fly (Panis papilio)
Snap-Dragon-Fly (Anisoptera dracovinum)

Locality: Looking Glass World, Forth Square
Collector: Prof. R. Tursiart



'Half way up that bush, you'll see a Rocking-horse-fly, if you like. It's made entirely of wood, and gets about by swinging itself from branch to branch.'
'What does it live on?' Alice asked, with great curiosity.
'Sap and Sawdust,' said the Gnat.

'Look on the branch above your head,' said the Gnat, 'and there you'll find a Snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of Plum-pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy.'
'And what does it live on?' Alice asked, as before.
'Frumenty and mince-pie,' the Gnat replied; 'and it makes its nest in a Christmas-box.'

'Crawling at your feet,' said the Gnat, 'you may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. It's wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar.'
'And what does it live on?'
'Weak tea with cream in it.'
A new difficulty came into Alice's head. 'Supposing it couldn't find any? she suggested.
'Then it would die, of course.'
'But that must happen very often,' Alice remarked thoughtfully.
'It always happens,' said the Gnat.

Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Chapter 3.


Some Annotations by Professor Tursiart:
At the time Lewis Carroll write this work, Snap-Dragon was a popular parlor game played during the winter, particularly on Christmas Eve. Brandy was heated and placed in a wide shallow bowl; raisins were then placed in the brandy which was then lit on fire. The object of the game was to pluck the raisins out of the burning brandy and eat them, at the risk of being burnt. In some variations, a plum pudding was placed in the center of the bowl with the raisins around it. Frumenty is a Wheat Pudding that for centuries was part of the traditional Celtic Christmas meal.