138 Rev, F. W. Hope's Observations respecting 



1 1 . Locusta viridissima. 



This species has occasionally been eaten. It is seldom found 

 in great numbers, and is reported not to possess the flavour be- 

 longing to the migratorial species. 



12. Locusta Mahrattarum. 



When a cloud of locusts visit the Mahratta country, the common 

 people salt and eat them ; probably they have long been accustomed 

 to such food ; as it is evidently distinct from any African species, 

 I suggest the name of Locusta Mahrallarum. 



Meer Hassan Ali tells us, that the Mussulmauns in India eat 

 locusts. Speaking of a cloud of them, he proceeds as follows : " The 

 main body of the army of locusts must have occupied thirty mi- 

 nutes in passing over my head, but my attention was too deeply 

 engrossed to afford me time to consult my watch ; stragglers there 

 were many, separated from the flight by noises made by the ser- 

 vants and people to deter them from settling, some were caught 

 and were converted into currie for a Mussulmaun's meal. They 

 say it is no common delicacy, and is ranked among the allowed 

 animal food." — Vid. Meer Hassan All's History of the Mussul- 

 mauns, p, 165. 



As I have heard Englishmen who have been in the East Indies 

 state that the natives of India do not eat locusts, I quote another 

 authority which speaks on the point generally without alluding to 

 any particular species. Paxton gives us the following passage : 

 " Many nations in the East, as the Indians in the Bushee Islands, 

 the Tonquinese, and the inhabitants of Madagascar, make no 

 scruple to eat locusts, of which they have innumerable swarms, 

 and prefer them to their finest fish." — Vol. i. p. 327. 



The next authority I quote of people eating locusts is Ludolphus ; 

 in his History of Ethiopia we find the following quaint passage : "The 

 Habessines for sometime support themselves by feeding on locusts, 

 which they greedely eit, as well to satisfie their hunger as in re- 

 venge, for it is a very sweet and wholesom sort of dyet, by means 

 of which a certain Portuguez garrison in India, that was ready to 

 yield for want of provision, held out till it was relieved another 

 way ; and therefore it is not to be doubted but that St. John the 

 Baptist fed upon these locusts in the wilderness." — Vid. chap. 13, 

 p. 67. 



1 3. Locusta Persarum, Morier. 

 Morier informs us of a flight of locusts which visited Persia. 



