ISO UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



accepted. Wings and legs are apparently removed before the 

 toasting begins ; the long soft body and the crisp head form 

 the delicacy. I determined not to let my European prejudices 

 influence me, but to give the dish of grilled locusts a fair 

 trial. I thought how, nearly 1900 years ago, John the Baptist 

 had enjoyed them plus wild honey. The one I was eating 

 was rather nice. I agreed with my Arab servant that, should 

 the meat supply fall short, a dish of locusts would be a very 

 enjoyable substitute. By the time I was eating the second 

 locust, it seemed to me absurd why one should have a sort of 

 lurking pity for John the Baptist's daily menu, unless it be for 

 its monotony ; and I felt convinced that I should get tired of 

 honey sooner than I should of locusts. I could think of no 

 other objection against a daily dish of locusts but the one 

 which caused the Scotchman to resent the daily serving out 

 to him of fresh salmon as rations. I was getting on splen- 

 didly, and enjoying myself, philosophising the while, when 

 my Arab boy, smacking his lips, said, " Delicious ! Full of 

 eggs!" Now, a shrimp or bloater "full of eggs" is not half 

 bad, but a locust full of eggs ! Phew ! My appetite was 

 gone, and 1 did not feel inclined for more locusts, at any rate 

 that day. 



At Kitanwa, in Unyoro, the locusts arrived in their count- 

 less millions, and I noticed that the Soudanese soldiers worked 

 hard to scare these devourers off their potato-patches and corn- 

 fields, by waving branches and by moving about among their 

 crops. They showed in this respect a superior intelligence to 

 the apathetic Lur and Wanyoro, who remain sitting and look- 

 ing on indolently, whilst their crops are being ruined before their 

 very eyes — not an effort being made by them to scare off even a 

 small swarm of locusts. The Soudanese could only make the 

 locusts " move on," so to speak ; when a large swarm has once 

 settled, it will scarcely stir, and all that can be done is to drive 

 it on to the adjoining jungle. One has to witness the destruc- 

 tion caused by a large swarm in order to get even a faint 

 conception of the appearance of the ruined fields and planta- 

 tions. A field of green tender corn is left bleak and bare, the 

 corn being eaten up to the very roots. A flourishing banana 

 plantation looks as if a sudden blight had struck it; the 

 gaunt stems remain, with the bare mid-ribs of the leaves 

 sticking out. 



