320 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



he had not been able to learn whether any great 

 proportion of these locusts had penetrated into 

 Russia and Etirope, but he knew that myriads 

 had perished in the sea of Marmora and the 

 Euxine. In the gulf of Smyrna he had himself 

 seen a ridge of their dead bodies, which was two 

 feet high, and which had been washed up along 

 the whole extent of the beach by the waves. The 

 smell was most noxious, polluting the air for 

 several miles inland ; and this, he thinks, may 

 partly account for the plague which occurred in 

 the following spring. There is a saying in that 

 country, but for the truth of which he does not 

 vouch, that every seven years Arabia sends a 

 swarm of those destructive insects into Asia Mi- 

 nor, though very rarely of such magnitude as that 

 of 1811 ; and that every locust-year is succeeded 

 by a plague-year of more or less severity. 



Wentworth asked him if he had ever seen 

 locusts used as food ; and he replied that 

 they are eaten in a great many parts of the 

 world, and cooked in a great variety of ways. 

 In some countries they are stewed, or fried, 

 or made into soup, or salted and preserved ; in 

 others they are ground, mixed up with flour, 

 and baked into cakes ; but he had frequently 

 seen the Arabs eat them without any prepara- 

 tion whatever, merely pulling off the head, wings, 

 and legs, just as we eat shrimps. 



My uncle and he continued to converse on 



