THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



353 



solely in crushing, burning, and burying the living harvest. 

 This happened in 1780, but the year following the pest 

 reappeared, and its ravages assumed such proportions, that 

 in order to combat it, they were obliged t_o call out the 

 entire population. Notwithstanding this, a large number 

 of districts were utterly ruined. 



Ibrahim Pacha recently employed his whole army in 

 crushing one of their cohorts and destroying the pestilential 

 remains. The great captain braved the hottest sun while 

 stimulating the zeal of his soldiers by his presence.^ 



Other insects are less remarkable for their nu.mber than 

 for the order which regulates their migrations; they act 

 as prudently as an army in the field. An intelligent 

 leader seems to direct all their movements, as may be seen 



in the excursions of the travelling termite. 



When a legion 



^ But although the migrating locust must be considered one of the greatest 

 scourges to agriculture, it still renders certain services to man. From the re- 

 motest antiquity he has used it for food, and this practice is kept up in many 

 parts of Asia and Africa, where quantities are consumed. In the 

 Bible days the .Jews doubtless ate it extensively, seeing that 

 Moses mentions four species, the use of which was permitted 

 by law. 



[Among the ancient Assyrians the locust was also an article 

 of food. On the sculptures from Kouyuujik now in the British 

 Museum, men are represented bearing dried locusts fastened on 

 sticks. The annexed engraving shows the hands of one of them 

 with the sticks of locusts.] 



There are countries where enormous quantities of locusts are 

 still eaten. In the markets of Bagdad they compete with meat. 

 In Arabia they are dried, ground, and substituted for flour in 

 the preparation of bread. In 169.3, Germany being desolated by 

 an invasion of these insects, some of the inhabitants ate them, 

 and were unanimous in the opinion that their flesli is analogous 

 to that of crayfish, and of a vei-y agreeable flavour. 



At the present time the Bushmen, one of the most degraded 

 of the human races, living in a country which is utterly naked, 

 the greatest part of them never having seen a tree, peojile who 

 have neither huts nor dress, subsist almost entirely on locusts. 

 These insects, which Livingstone even considers as a benefit conferred by Prov 

 dance, and the exquisite taste of which he praises, are their favourite food. 



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194. 



