THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. %7 



of the spot where they are produced are not suf- 

 ficient to sustain them. Thus being obliged to 

 find out other countries, they traverse the sandy 

 deserts, where they can find no sustenance : still 

 meeting with nothing to allure them from their 

 height, they proceed forward across the sea, and 

 thus come into Europe, where they alight upon 

 the first green pastures that occur. 



In some parts of the world the inhabitants turn 

 what seems a plague to their own advantage. 

 Locusts are eaten by the natives in many king- 

 doms of the East ; and are caught in small nets 

 provided for that purpose. They parch them 

 over the fire in an earthen pan ; and when their 

 wings and legs are fallen off, they turn reddish, 

 of the colour of boiled shrimps. Dampier has 

 eat them thus prepared, and thinks them a tole- 

 rable dish. The natives of Barbary also eat them 

 fried with salt ; and they are said to taste like 

 cray-fish. 



There is a locust in Tonquin, about the bigness 

 of the top of a man's finger, and as long as the 

 first joint. It breeds in the earth, in low grounds ; 

 and in the months of January and February, 

 which is the season for taking them, they issue 

 from the earth in vast swarms. At first they can 

 hardly fly, so that they often fall into the rivers 

 in great numbers : however, the natives in these 

 months watch the rivers, and take them up in 

 multitudes in small nets. They either eat them 

 fresh, broiled on the coals, or pickle them for 

 keeping. They are considered as a great deli* 

 cacy in that part of the world, as well by the rich 



