EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA.—INSECTS. 99 
sought for. ‘* The whole of tropical Africa,” observes 
Mr. Smeathman, “ is one immense forest, except where 
the sandy plains are too unsettled to afford a proper 
footing for vegetation. Whenever a plantation is to be 
made, the trees are cut down and burned to fertilise 
the ground (a practice common throughout South 
America). The people never sow two years together 
on the same spot; but suffer the trees to grow again 
for two or three years by way of fallow, before they 
get another crop. It is these spots (called recent: 
plantations) which afford such an amazing variety of 
insects ; yet so rapid is vegetation, that in the second 
and third year these cleared lands become impassable 
to human feet.” ‘There are several edible insects in 
- these countries, which supply a wholesome, if not a 
delicious, food. The larve, or caterpillars, of all those 
beetles which feed upon decayed wood, Mr. Smeathman 
affirms to be rich and delicate eating; so that every 
forest affords the traveller plenty of wholesome nourish- 
ment, did he but know where to seek it. Of this kind 
are the Termites, or white ants; and even the locusts, 
in general, are not only wholesome, but palatable to 
many. The native children, at the proper season, are 
always busily employed in digging out of the ground 
the females of a particular sort of cricket, which is 
then full of eggs, and so enclosed in a bag as to re- 
semble part of the roe of a large fish ; these, when 
roasted, are considered delicate food. The great num— 
ber of locusts and cicadas is particularly remarkable ; 
but in the sandy plains, thinly covered with grass, they 
appear altogether innumerable, and their chirping is 
almost deafening. In such situations they are seen of 
various kinds, sizes, and colours, skipping or flitting 
about in all directions, at every step of the traveller.* 
While upon this subject, we may observe, generally, 
that those prodigious numbers of locusts mentioned in 
history, which have astonished and afflicted mankind at 
remote intervals, have principally taken flight from this 
* Smeathman. 
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