Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 11

Jackson says the poor people, when obliged to live altogether on this kind of food, become meager and indolent.[401]

In Morocco, the price of provisions falls when the Locusts have entered the neighborhood.[402]

The authority of Capt. Riley is, that Locusts are esteemed very good food by the Moors, Arabs, and Jews of Barbary, who catch large numbers of them in their season, and throw them, while alive and jumping, into a pan of boiling argan oil, where they are allowed to remain, hissing and frying, till their wings are burned off and their bodies sufficiently cooked; they are then poured out and eaten. Riley says they resemble, in consistence and flavor, the yolks of hard-boiled hens' eggs.[403]

Capt. Beechey tells us he saw many a.s.ses, heavily laden with Locusts for food, driven into the town of Mesurata, in Tripoli.[404]

Barth, in Central Africa, saw whole calabashes filled with roasted Locusts, which, he says, occasionally form a considerable part of the food of the natives, particularly if their grain has been destroyed by this plague, as they can then enjoy not only the agreeable flavor of the dish, but also take a pleasant revenge for the ravages of their fields.[405]

Adanson, after describing an immense swarm of Locusts that covered an extent of several leagues which he saw, says the negroes of Gambia eat these insects, and have different ways of dressing them--some pounding and boiling them in milk, others only boiling them on coals.[406]

Dr. Sparrman says the Hottentots rejoice greatly upon the arrival of the Locusts, although they never fail to destroy every particle of verdure on the ground. But, continues the doctor, they make themselves ample amends for this loss, for, seizing these marauding animals, they eat them in such numbers as, in the s.p.a.ce of a few days, to get visibly fatter and in a better condition. The females are princ.i.p.ally eaten, especially when about to migrate, before they are able to fly, when their wings are short and their bodies heavy and distended with eggs.

The soup prepared of these is of a brown coffee color, and, when cooled, from the eggs has a fat and greasy appearance.[407]

Dr. Sparrman also relates a curious notion which the Hottentots about the Visch River have with respect to the origin of the Locusts: that they proceed from the good will of a great master-conjurer a long way to the north, who, having removed the stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit, lets loose these insects in order to furnish them with food.[408] This is not unlike the account, given by the author of the Apocalypse, of the origin of the symbolical Locusts, which are said to ascend upon an angel's opening the pit of the abyss.[409]

The Korannas and Bushmen of the Cape save the Locusts in large quant.i.ties, and grind them between two stones into a kind of a meal, which they mix with fat and grease, and bake in cakes. Upon this fare, says Mr. Fleming, they live for months together, and chatter with the greatest joy as soon as the Locusts are seen approaching.[410]

Locusts in Madagascar are greatly esteemed by the natives as food.[411]

The account of the missionary Moffat differs somewhat from and is much more complete than Mr. Fleming's and Dr. Sparrman's. He says the natives of S. Africa embrace every opportunity of gathering Locusts, which can be done during the night. Whenever the cloud alights at a place not very distant from a town, the inhabitants turn out with sacks, and often with pack-oxen, gather loads, and return next day with millions. The Locusts are then prepared for eating by simple boiling, or rather steaming, as they are put into a large pot with a little water, and covered closely up; after boiling for a short time, they are taken out and spread on mats in the sun to dry, when they are winnowed, something like corn, to clear them of their legs and wings; and, when perfectly dry, are put into sacks, or laid upon the house floor in a heap. The natives eat them whole, adding a little salt when they can obtain it, or pound them in a wooden mortar; and, when they have reduced them to something like meal, they mix them with a little water and make a cold stir-about.

When Locusts abound, the natives become quite fat, and would even reward any old lady who would say that she had coaxed them to alight within reach of the inhabitants.

Mr. Moffat thinks the Locust not bad food, and, when well fed, almost as good as shrimps.[412]

The plan of gathering Locusts by night is occasionally attended with danger. "It has happened that in gathering them people have been bitten by venomous reptiles. On one occasion a woman had been traveling for several miles with a large bundle of Locusts on her head, when a serpent, which had been put into the sack with them, found its way out.

The woman, supposing it to be a thong dangling about her shoulders, laid hold of it with her hand, and, feeling that it was alive, instantly precipitated the bundle to the ground and fled."[413]

Pringle, in his song of the wild Bushman, has the following lines:

Yea, even the wasting Locust-swarm, Which mighty nations dread, To me nor terror brings nor harm; I make of them my bread.[414]

Flights of Locusts are considered so much of a blessing in South Africa, that, as Dr. Livingstone states, the _rain_-doctors sometimes promised to bring them by their incantations.[415]

Carsten Niebuhr says that all Arabians, whether living in their own country or in Persia, Syria, and Africa, are accustomed to eat Locusts.

They distinguish several species of insect, to which they give particular names. The red Locust, which is esteemed fatter and more succulent than any other, and accordingly the greatest delicacy, they call _Muken_; another is called _Dubbe_, but they abstain from it because it has a tendency to produce diarrha. A light-colored Locust, as well as the Muken, is eaten.

In Arabia, Locusts, when caught, are put in bags, or on strings, to be dried; in Barbary, they are boiled, and then dried upon the roofs of the houses. The Bedouins of Egypt roast them alive, and devour them with the utmost voracity. Niebuhr says he saw no instance of unwholesomeness in this article of food; but Mr. Forskal was told it had a tendency to thicken the blood and bring on melancholy habits. The former gentleman also says the Jews in Arabia are convinced that the fowls, of which the Israelites ate so largely of in the desert, were only clouds of Locusts, and laugh at our translators, who have supposed that they found quails where quails never were.[416]

The wild Locusts upon which St. John fed have given rise to great discussion--some authors a.s.serting them to be the fruit of the carob-tree, while others maintain they were the true Locusts, and refer to the practice of the Arabs in Syria at the present day. "They who deny insects to have been the food of this holy man," says Ha.s.selquist, "urge that this insect is an unaccustomary and unnatural food; but they would soon be convinced of the contrary, if they would travel hither, to Egypt, Arabia, or Syria, and take a meal with the Arabs. Roasted Locusts are at this time eaten by the Arabs, at the proper season, when they can procure them; so that in all probability this dish has been used in the time of St. John. Ancient customs are not here subject to many changes, and the victuals of St. John are not believed unnatural here; and I was a.s.sured by a judicious Greek priest that their church had never taken the word in any other sense, and he even laughed at the idea of its being a bird or a plant."[417]

Mr. Forbes incidentally remarks that in Persia and Arabia, roasted Locusts are sold in the markets, and eaten with rice and dates, and sometimes flavored with salt and spices.[418]

The _Acridites lincola_ (_Gryllus aegypticus_ of Linnaeus) is the species commonly sold for food in the markets of Bagdad.

In fact, Locusts have been eaten in Arabia from the remotest antiquity.

This is evinced by the sculptured slabs found by Layard at Kouyunjic; for, among other attendants carrying fruit, flowers, and game, to a banquet, are seen several bearing dried Locusts fastened on rods. And being thus introduced in this bas-relief among the choicest delicacies, it is most probable they were also highly prized by the a.s.syrians.

Layard has figured one of these Locust bearers, who upon the sculptured slab is about four and a half feet in height.[419]

The Chinese regard the Locust, when deprived of the abdomen, and properly cooked, as pa.s.sable eating, but do not appear to hold the dish in much estimation.[420]

Mr. Laurence Oliphant, in Tientsin, China, saw bushels of fried Locusts hawked about in baskets by urchins in the streets. Locust-hunting, he a.s.serts, was a favorite and profitable occupation among the juvenile part of the community. He thought the taste not unlike that of periwinkle.[421]

Williams says: "The insect food (of the Chinese) is confined to Locusts and Gra.s.shoppers, Ground-grubs and Silk-worms; the latter are fried to a crisp when cooked."[422]

Dampier says in the Bashee (Philippine) Islands, Locusts are eaten as a regular food. The natives catch them in small nets, when they come to devour their potato-vines, and parch them over the fire in an earthen pan. When thus prepared the legs and wings fall off, and the heads and backs, which before were brownish, turn red like boiled shrimps. Dampier once ate of this dish, and says he liked it well enough. When their bodies were full they were moist to the palate, but their heads cracked in his teeth.[423]

Ovalle states that in the pampas of Chili, bread is made of Locusts and of Mosquitos.[424]

According to Mr. Jules Remy, our Western Indians eat in great quant.i.ties what are generally there called _Crickets_, the _dipoda corallipes_.[425]

In the southern parts of France, M. Latrielle informs us, the children are very fond of the fleshy thighs of Locusts.[426]

The Arabs believe the Locusts have a government among themselves similar to that of the bees and ants; and when "Sultan Jeraad," King of the Locusts, rises, the whole ma.s.s follow him, and not a solitary straggler is left behind to witness the devastation. Mr. Jackson himself evidently believed this from the manner he has narrated it.[427] An Arab once a.s.serted to this gentleman, that he himself had seen the great "Sultan Jeraad," and described his lordship as being larger and more beautifully colored than the ordinary Locust.[428]

Capt. Riley also mentions that each flight of Locusts is said to have a king which directs its movements with great regularity.[429]

The Chinese believe the same, and affirm that this leader is the largest individual of the whole swarm.[430]

Benjamin Bullifant, in his observations on the Natural History of New England, says: "The Locusts have a kind of regimental discipline, and as it were commanders, which show greater and more splendid wings than the common ones, and arise first when pursued by fowls, or the feet of a traveler, as I have often seriously remarked."[431]

The truth, however, is found in the Bible. They have no king.[432]

The Saharawans, or Arabs of the desert, "whose hands are against every man,"[433] and who rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations, when they behold the clouds of Locusts proceeding toward the north are filled with the greatest gladness, antic.i.p.ating a general mortality, which they call _El-khere_, the good, or the benediction; for, when Barbary is thus laid waste, they emerge from their arid recesses in the desert and pitch their tents in the desolated plains.[434]

Pausanias tells us, that in the temple of Parthenon there was a brazen statue of Apollo, by the hand of Phidias, which was called Parnopius, out of grat.i.tude for that G.o.d having once banished from that country the Locusts, which greatly injured the land. The same author a.s.serts that he himself has known the Locusts to have been thrice destroyed by Apollo in the Mountain Lipylus, once exterminating them by a violent wind; at another time by vehement heat; and the third time by unexpected cold.[435]

At a time when there were great swarms of Locusts in China, as we learn from Navarette, the Emperor went out into his gardens, and taking up some of these insects in his hands, thus spoke to them: The people maintain themselves on wheat, rice, etc., you come to devour and destroy it, without leaving anything behind; it were better you should devour my bowels than the food of my subjects. Having concluded his speech, the monarch was about to put them in a fair way of "devouring his bowels" by swallowing them, when some that stood by telling him they were venomous, he n.o.bly answered, "I value not my life when it is for the good of my subjects and people to lose it," and immediately swallowed the insects. History tells us the Locusts that very moment took wing, and went off without doing any more damage; but whether or not the heroic Emperor recovered leaves us in ignorance.[436]

Mr. J. M. Jones gives the following ludicrous account of the capture of a Locust in the Bermudas. While walking one hot day in the vicinity of the barracks at St. George's, with his lamented friend, the late Col.

Oakly (56th Regt.), on the lookout for insects, a very fine specimen of the Locust sprung up before them. The former chased it for a while unavailingly, but determined not to be balked of his prey; the colonel then joined in the pursuit, and after a sharp and hot chase, bagged his game right before a sentry-box; the sentry, as in duty bound, standing with arms presented, in the presence of a field officer, who was, however, in a rather undignified position to receive the salute. They had gained their prize, however, and had a hearty laugh, in which we fancy the sentry could scarcely help joining.[437]

Capt. Drayson, in his South African Sporting, tells the following anecdote: A South African, riding through a flock of Locusts, was struck in the eye by one of them, and, though blinded momentarily in the injured eye, he still kept the other on the insect, which sought to escape by diving among the crowd on the ground. So, dismounting, he captured it, pa.s.sed a large pin through its body, and thrust it in his waistcoat pocket; and whenever the damaged eye smarted, he pulled it out again, and stuck the pin through it in a fresh place.[438]

Darwin tells us that when the "Beagle" was to windward of the Cape de Verd Islands, and when the nearest point of land, not directly opposed to the trade-wind, was Cape Blanco on the coast of Africa, 370 miles distant, a large Gra.s.shopper--_Acrydium_--flew on board![439] But Sir Hans Sloane mentions a much more remarkable flight in his History of Jamaica; for when the a.s.sistance frigate was about 300 leagues to windward of Barbados, he says a Locust alighted on the forecastle among the sailors![440]

Several species of Locusts are beautifully marked; these were sought after by young Jewish children as playthings.[441]

The eggs of the _Chargol_ Locust, _Truxalis nasuta_?, the Jewish women used to carry in their ears to preserve them from the earache.[442]

The word _Locust_, Latin _Locusta_, is derived by the old etymologists from _locus_, a place, and _ustus_, burned,--"quod tactu multa _urit_ morsu vero omnia erodat." True Locusts are the _Acridium_, or _Criquets_, of Geoffroy, and the _Gryllus_ of Fabricius. The Migratory-locust, _Locusta migratoria_, a rather small insect, is the most celebrated species of the family. To it almost all the devastations before mentioned have been attributed. It is most probable, however, many species have been confounded under the same name.

In Spain, as we are told by Osbeck, the people of fashion keep a species of Locust--called there _Gryllo_--in cages--_grillaria_,--for the sake of its song.[443] De Pauw says that, like Canary birds, they were kept in cages to sing during the celebration of ma.s.s.[444]

The song of a Spanish Gryllo on one occasion, if we may credit the historian, was the means of saving a vessel from shipwreck. The incident evinces the perilous situation of Cabeza de Vara, in his voyage toward Brazil, and is related by Dr. Southey in his history of that country as follows:

"When they had crossed the Line, the state of the water was inquired into, and it was found, that of a hundred casks there remained but three, to supply four hundred men and thirty horses. Upon this, the Adelantado gave orders to make for the nearest land. Three days they stood toward it. A soldier, who had set out in ill health, had brought a Gryllo, or ground cricket, with him from Cadiz, thinking to be amused by the insect's voice; but it had been silent the whole way, to his no little disappointment. Now, on the fourth morning, the Gryllo began to sing its shrill rattle, scenting, as it was immediately supposed, the land. Such was the miserable watch which had been kept, that upon looking out at the warning, they perceived high rocks within bowshot; against which, had it not been for the insect, they must inevitably have been lost. They had just time to drop anchor. From hence they coasted along, the Gryllo singing every night, as if it had been on sh.o.r.e, till they reached the Island of St. Catalina."[445]