Insects that have offorded Food to Man. 139 



They were not, he says, of a predatory kind, and differed from the 

 red locust which destroys vegetation ; they were three inches long, 

 the body and head were of a bright yellow. The Plain of Bushire 

 was covered by the poorer inhabitants, men, women, and children, 

 who came out to gather locusts, which they eat; they dry and salt 

 them, and afterwards sell them in the bazaars as the food of the 

 lowest peasantry : when boiled the yellow ones turn red ; they eat 

 like stale and decayed shrimps. 



Forbes states in his Oriental Memoirs, " It is well known that 

 locusts there are an article of food in Persia and Arabia at the 

 present day; they are fried until their wings and legs fall off, and 

 in that state are sold in the markets, and eaten with rice and dates, 

 sometimes flavoured with salt and spices." — Vol. i. p. 82. 



As to the modern Arabs, they eat locusts when fresh, and esteem 

 them, when salted, a great delicacy ; the flavour is similar to that 

 of fried herrings, but more delicious.* — Vid. Horneman's Travels 

 in Fez. 



It would indeed be easy to multiply modern authorities re- 

 specting locustal food; one more authority shall suffice, from which 

 it will appear that the Arabs make a sort of locust bread. Mad- 

 den, in his interesting travels, tells us, " The Arabs make a sort of 

 bread of locusts; they dry them and grind them to powder, then 

 mix this powder with water, forming them into round cakes, which 

 serve for bread." — Vid. vol. ii. pp. 31 and 218. 



* Burkhardt more particularly details the method of dressing locusts in Arabia. 

 " All the Bedouins of Arabia and the inhabitants of the towns of Nedgd and 

 Hadjaz are accustomed to eat locusts. I have seen," he savs, " at Medina and 

 Tayf, locust shops, where these animals were sold by measure. In Egypt and 

 Nubia they are only eaten by the poorest beggars. The Arabs, in preparing 

 locusts as an article of food, throw them alive into boiling water with which a 

 good deal of 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 

 from the salt, and perfectly dried ; afrer which process, whole sacks are filled with 

 theui by the Bedouins. They are sometimes eaten broiled in butter, and tliey 

 often contribute materials for a breakfast, when spread over uuleavened bread 

 mixed with butter." — Vid. Burkhardt's Notes on the Bedouins and Wahatays, 

 vol. ii. p. 91. 



Salt also, in his voyage to Abyssinia, p. 172, writes as follows : " During our 

 stay in this quarter a large flight of locusts came over to one of the islands, and 

 in a few days destroyed nearly half the vegetation upon it, not sparing even the 

 bitter leaves of the rack tree. These locusts are called Jarad in Yemen and Anne 

 in Dankali, and are commonly used as food by the wandering tribes of both these 

 nations, who, after boiling them, separate the heads from the bodies, and devour 

 the latter in the same manner as Europeans eat shrimps and prawns." — Vid. Salt's 

 Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 172. 



