310 THE INSECT WOELD. 



And so locusts and fish are the only creatures which God allows 

 the Mussulman to eat without being skinned. They must, how- 

 ever, have been killed by one of the faithful, for otherwise their 

 flesh is impure ! The Arabs eat, and are very fond of locusts. 

 When he was asked his opinion on this article of food, the Caliph 

 Omar-ben- el-Khottal said : " I only wish I had a basket full of 

 them, wouldn't I scrunch them ! " 



According to General Daumas, locusts, fresh or preserved, are 

 good food for both men and camels. They are eaten grilled or 

 boiled, or prepared in the kous-koussou, after their legs, wings, 

 and heads have been taken off. Sometimes they are dried in the 

 sun, and reduced to powder, which is mixed with milk, and made 

 into cakes with flour, dripping, or butter and salt. Camels are very 

 fond of them; and they are given to them after having been 

 dried, or roasted between two layers of ashes. Dried and salted, 

 they are in Asia and in Africa an object of commerce. At Bag- 

 dad they sometimes cause the price of meat to fall. The taste of 

 their flesh may be compared to that of the crab. Eastern nations 

 have eaten locusts from time immemorial. The Greek comic poet 

 Aristophanes tells us, in the " Acharnians," that the Greeks sold 

 them in the markets. Moses allowed to the Jews four species, 

 which are mentioned in Leviticus. Saint John the Baptist, fol- 

 lowing the example of the prophet Amos, made them his food 

 in the desert, where he found nothing but locusts and a little 

 honey. The wholesomeness of this food was, however, disputed 

 among the ancients. Strabo relates that there existed on the borders 

 of the gulf of Arabia, a people called by him Acridophagi, or 

 Locust-eating people ; but that they all came to a miserable end. 

 These people procured for themselves locusts by lighting great 

 fires, when the equinoctial winds brought these hosts. Blinded 

 and suffocated by the smoke, the locusts fell to the ground, and 

 were picked up greedily by them, and eaten, fresh or salted. 

 " These locust-eaters," says Strabo, " are, it is true, active good 

 runners ; but their life never exceeds forty years ! As they 

 approach this age, a horrible vermin issues from their bodies, 

 which eats them up, beginning from the belly, and so they die 

 a miserable death." The same tale is to be met with in a descrip- 

 tion of Admiral Drake's voyage round the world. This traveller 



