VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 365 



gentlemen to dinner, and gave them a curry and croquet 

 of locusts. They passed for Cabul shrimps, which in 

 flavour they much resembled, but the cook having inad- 

 vertently left a hind leg in a croquet, they were found 

 out, to the infinite disgust of one of the party and amuse- 

 ment of the other." 



These testimonies as to the past and present use of 

 locusts as human food might be multiplied almost in- 

 definitely, but I have said enough to prove that the 

 nature of this food is by no means disagreeable. In 

 short, not to waste time in further details, I can safely 

 assert, from my own personal experience, that the Rocky 

 Mountain locust is more palatable when cooked than 

 many animals that we habitually use on our tables. I 

 mention this species more particularly because the flavour 

 will doubtless differ according to the species, or even 

 according to the nature of the vegetation the insects were 

 nourished on. I have made no chemical analysis of this 

 locust food, but that it is highly nourishing may be 

 gathered from the fact that all animals fed upon the 

 insects thrive when they are abundant ; and the further 

 fact that the locust-eating Indians, and all other locust- 

 eating people, grow fat upon them. Locusts will hardly 

 come into general use for food except where they are 

 annually abundant, and the Western farmers of America 

 who occaaionally suffer from them will not easily be 

 brought to a due appreciation of them for this purpose. 

 Prejudiced against them, fighting to overcome them, 

 killing them in large quantities, until the stench from 

 their decomposing bodies becomes at times most offensive 

 — they find little that is attractive in the pests. For 

 these reasons, as long as other food is attainable, the 

 locust will be apt to be rejected by most persons. Yet 

 the fact remains that they do make very good food. 

 When freshly caught in large quantities, the mangled 

 mass presents a not very appetising appearance, and 

 emits a rather strong and not over pleasant odour ; but 

 rinsed and scalded, they turn a brownish red, look more 

 inviting, and give no disagreeable smell. 



