LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 123 



they resemble, in consistence and flavor, the yelks of hard- 

 boiled hens' eggs.^ 



Capt. Beecliey tells us he saw many asses, heavily laden 

 with Locusts for food, driven into the town of Mesurata, in 

 Tripoli.^ 



Barth, in Central Africa, saw whole calabashes filled with 

 roasted Locusts, which, he says, occasionally form a consider- 

 able 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.^ 



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 dif- 

 ferent ways of dressing them — some pounding and boiling 

 them in milk, others only boiling them on coals.* 



Dr. Sparrman says the Hottentots rejoice greatly upon 

 the arrival of the Locusts, although they never fail to de- 

 stroy every particle of verdure on the ground. But, con- 

 tinues the doctor, they make themselves ample amends for 

 this loss, for, seizing these marauding animals, they eat them 

 in such numbers as, in the space of a few days, to get visi- 

 bly fatter and in a better condition. The females are prin- 

 cipally 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.^ 



Dr. Sparrman also relates a curious notion which the 

 Hottentots about the Yisch 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.*^ This is not unlike the account, given by the author 

 of the Apocalypse, of the origin of the symbolical Locusts, 



1 Riley's Narrat., p. 237. 



2 Exped. to Africa, p. 107. 



3 Cent. Africa, ii. 30. 



* Pinker ton' a Col. of Voy. and Trav., xvi. 034. 

 s Travels to C. of Good Hupe, i. 203. 

 « Ibid. 



