LOCUSTIDiE — LOCUSTS. 1 2 1 



streets. Locust-hunting, be asserts, was a favorite and 

 profitable occupation among the juvenile part of the com- 

 munity. He thought the taste not unlike that of peri- 

 winkle.^ 



Williams says: "The insect food (of the Chinese) is con- 

 jBned to Locusts and Grasshoppers, Ground-grubs and Silk- 

 worms ; the latter are fried to a crisp when cooked.'" 



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.^ 



Ovalle states that in the pampas of Chili, bread is made 

 of Locusts and of Mosquitos.* 



According to Mr. Jules Remy, our Western Indians eat 

 in great quantities what are generally there called Ct^ickets, 

 the Q^dipoda corallipes} 



In the southern parts of France, M. Latrielle informs us, 

 the children are very fond of the fleshy thighs of Locusts.'' 



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 mass 

 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.'^ An Arab 

 once asserted 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.^ 



Capt. Riley also mentions that each flight of Locusts is 

 said to have a king which directs its movements with great 

 regularity.^ 



1 Lord Elgin's Miss, to China and Japan, p. 273. 

 '^ Middle Kingdom, ii. 50. 



3 Vol/., i. 430. Pinkerton's Col. of Voy. and Trav., xi. 49. 



4 Ibid., xiv. 128. 5 Vol. ii. p. 525. 

 ^ Cuvier, An. King. — Ins., ii. 205. 



7 Jackson's Morocco, p. 103. ^ md,^ p. 106. 



^ Narrative, p. 235. 



