102 UTILIZATION OF MINUTE LIFE. 



their visits are most common, excellent repasts. 

 The Arabs, the Egyptians, the Tartars, the inhabi- 

 tants of Barbary, etc., relish these locusts as much 

 as the Greeks enjoy their Cicada; hence locusts are 

 always to be found for sale in the market-places of 

 these people. Indeed cart-loads of them are brought 

 to Fez as a usual article of food ; and the Africans, 

 far from dreading their invasions, look upon a dense 

 cloud of locusts as we should so much bread and 

 butter in the air. They smoke them, or boil them, 

 or salt them, or stew them, or grind them down as 

 corn, and get fat upon them ! 



The custom has prevailed for many centuries, 

 for Diodores tells us that from this circumstance 

 was derived the denomination of Acrydophaghi, or 

 eaters of locusts, given to some Ethiopian tribes.* 



Locusts belong to the family of Orthoptera. 



Cicada, another race of insects belonging to the 

 family of Hemiptera (or bugs), were formerly em- 

 ployed as an article of food. 



Aristotle, Aristophanes, Athenaeus, and ^Elian 

 among the ancients, mention Cicada as an article of 

 diet. These noisy insects were formerly much 

 relished by the Greeks, but their taste for them 

 appears to have been neglected from some unknown 



* The camels of the Arabs eat cooked locusts readily ; deprived 

 of their heads, legs, and wings, and stewed in butter, they are 

 eaten by the Arabs themselves. 



