130 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



John the Baptist in the wilderness was the fruit of the Car(^b 

 tree. He writes: "If Matthew meant his readers to under- 

 stand that John fed on carob pods I hardly think he would have 

 written locusts ; especially as certain species of locusts were 

 a common article of food among the Bedawin Arabs and the 



ver}- poor of the country generally. If you have not read the 

 statement of Dr. Wni. Thompson forty years missionary in 

 Syria, vou may be interested in a quotation frc^m his classic 

 work, The Land and the Book, Vol. 2 pp. 107-8. "Do you sup- 

 i)ose that the meat of John the Baptist was literally locusts 

 and wild honey? Why not? By the Arabs they are eaten 

 to this day. The perfectly trustworthy Burchhardt [who 

 identified himself with the Arabs in his whole manner of liv- 

 ing] thus speaks on this subject: — "All the Bedawins or Ara- 

 bia are accustomed to eat locusts. I have seen at Tayf and 

 Medina locust shops where these animals were sold by meas- 

 ure. The Arabs in preparing locusts as an article of food, 

 throw them alive into boiling water with which a good deal (^f 

 salt has been mixed. After a few minutes they are taken 

 out and dried in the sun; the head, feet and wings are then 

 torn off; the bodies are cleansed of the salt and perfectly 

 dried, after which process whole sacks are filled with them 

 bv the Bedawin. They are sometimes eaten boiled in butter, 

 and they often contribute materials for breakfast when spread 

 over unleavened bread mixed with butter." Thus far Burck- 

 hardt. Then Dr. Thompson after stating that locusts were 

 eaten only by the Bedawin and the very poorest people goes 

 on to say, 'J<^hn the Baptist, however, was of this class either 

 from necessity or election. He also dwelt in the desert where 

 such food was and is still used, and therefore the text states 

 the simple truth'. Were I trying merely to prove this point 



