FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



Without^going as far as the Arab I feel prepared to say 

 that the Locust is a gift of God to a multitude of birds. 

 Reptiles also hold him in esteem. I have found him in 

 the stomach of the Eyed Lizard, and have often caught 

 the little Grey Lizard of the walls in the act of carrying 

 him off. 



Even the fish revel in him, when good fortune brings 

 him to them. The Locust leaps blindly, and without 

 definite aim : he comes down wherever he is shot by the 

 springs in his legs. If the place where he falls happens 

 to be water, a fish gobbles him up at once. Anglers 

 sometimes bait their hooks with a specially attractive 

 Locust. 



As for his being fit nourishment for man, except in the 

 form of Partridge and young Turkey, I am a little 

 doubtful. Omar, the mighty Caliph who destroyed the 

 library of Alexandria, wished for a basket of Locusts, it 

 is true, but his digestion was evidently better than his 

 brains. Long before his day St. John the Baptist lived 

 in the desert on Locusts and wild honey; but in his case 

 they were not eaten because they were good. 



Wild honey from the pots of the Mason-bees is very 

 agreeable food, I know. Wishing to taste the Locust 

 also I once caught some, and had them cooked as the Arab 

 author advised. We all of us, big and little, tried the 

 queer dish at dinner. It was much nicer than the Cicadae 

 praised by Aristotle. I would go to the length of saying 



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