304 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



some Ethiopian tribes having been named from this cir- 

 cumstance Acridophagi (locust-eaters) a . Pliny also re- 

 lates that they were in high esteem as meat amongst the 

 Parthians b . Hasselquist, in reply to some inquiries 

 which he made on this subject with respect to the Arabs, 

 was informed that at Mecca, when there was a scarcity 

 of corn, as a substitute for flour they would grind locusts 

 in their hand-mills, or pound them in stone mortars; 

 that they mixed this flour with water into a dough, and 

 made their cakes of it, which they baked like their other 

 bread. He adds, that it is not unusual for them to eat 

 locusts when there is no famine ; but then they boil 

 them first a good/ while in water, and afterwards stew 

 them with butter into a kind of fricassee of no bad fla- 

 vour . Leo Africanus, as quoted by Bochart, gives a 

 similar account d . Sparrman informs us that the Hot- 

 tentots are highly rejoiced at the arrival of the locusts in 

 their country, although they destroy all its verdure, eat- 

 ing them in such quantities as to get visibly fatter than 

 before, and making of their eggs a brown or coffee-co- 

 loured soup. He also relates a curious notion which 

 they have with respect to the origin of the locusts that 

 they proceed from the good will of a great master-con- 

 juror a long way to the north, who, having removed the 

 stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit, lets loose 

 these animals to be food for them 6 . This is not unlike 

 the account given by the author of the Apocalypse, of the 

 origin of the symbolical locusts, which are said to ascend 

 upon an angel's opening the pit of the abyss f . Clenard, 



* Diod. Sic. 1. iii. c. 29. Strahonis Geog. 1. xvi. &c. 



b Hist. Nat, 1. xi. c. 29. c Travels, 232. d Hieroz. ii. 1. 14. c. 7- 



c Sparrman, i. 367. f Rev. ix. 2, 3. 



