LOCUSTS 157 



The Wheat-ear, too, who is so good to eat, prefers the Locust 

 to any other food. And all the little birds of passage which, 

 when autumn comes, call a halt in Provence before their great 

 pilgrimage, fatten themselves with Locusts as a preparation 

 for the journey. 



Nor does man himself scorn them. An Arab author 

 tells us : 



4 Grasshoppers ' (he means Locusts) ' are of good nourish- 

 ment for men and Camels. Their claws, wings, and head are 

 taken away, and they are eaten fresh or dried, either roast or 

 boiled, and served with flesh, flour, and herbs. 



* ... Camels eat them greedily, and are given them dried 

 or roast, heaped in a hollow between two layers of charcoal. 

 Thus also do the Nubians eat them. . . . 



* Once, when the Caliph Omar was asked if it were lawful 

 to eat Grasshoppers, he made answer : 



' " Would that I had a basket of them to eat." 



* Wherefore, from this testimony, it is very sure that, by 

 the Grace of God, Grasshoppers were given to man for his 

 nourishment.' 



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 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 the 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 



