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h.ive fed on locufts. Thcfc people, as Diodovvn Siciuus 

 {lib. iii. c. Zi). torn. i. p. ly,. VA. AVclVcling.) delcribcs 

 tliein, were of a low (laturi.-, and n meaj^re black afpeft. In 

 the fpring they provided themfelves with a fiipply of large 

 loculU, by fetting fire to wood and other eomhullible nia- 

 ttrials, which they dcpofitcd in a large and deep valley, fo 

 that when fwarms of locnrts were driven by the fouth-wtil 

 ■winds over this valley, they were fuffocatcd by the fmoke. 

 Thefe locufts, which covered the ground to a confiderable 

 extent, were coUeAed and faked, and in this Hate furnidied 

 a fiipply of food for the whole year : and, indeed, it was the 

 onlv food upon wliich they fubfifted, as they had neither 

 herds nor flocks ; and being far from the fea, they had no 

 fupply of fifh. I'licy were an aclive people, and ran with 

 great fwiftnefs ; but th.e duration of their lives wa? (liort, 

 not exceeding forty yearj ; and they generally fell facrifices 

 to a malady of a very peculiar kind. They were devoured 

 by winged infefts of different fpecies, and of very hideous 

 forms, which were generated in their bodies, and which 

 ilTued forth in various parts, occafioning exquillte torture, 

 and at length a very painful death. Whether this dreadful 

 inalady was owing to the food of the people, or to the pclH- 

 lential air of the climate in which they livtd, it is not eafy 

 to determine. See Strabo, (Geog. 1. xvi. torn. ii. p. IllS.) 

 and St. Jerome againft Jovinian, lib. ii. and on St. Jolui, 

 cap. iv. Pliny (H. N. torn. i. p. 609. Ed. Hard.) alfo 

 fpeaks of Acridopliagi, in Parthia, and St. Jerome, in 

 Lybia. Although the circumftances of thefe people may in 

 fome vefpefts be fabulous ; yet may the Acridophagia be 

 true ; and to this day they are faid to eat locufts in fome 

 parts o? the eaft. This is confirmed by the accounts of the 

 Danilh million, in Niebuhr's defcription de 1' Arabic, p. i JO, 

 &c. In Abyfiinia loculls are eaten, both freHi and faked. 

 Some of them are dried in the fun, and thus prepared for 

 ufe. In Arabia alfo, as Niebuhr informs us, they preferve 

 them in the fame manner. Dr. Shaw (Travels, &c. p. 188.) 

 obferves, that the Jews were allowed to cat them ; and that 

 when they are fprinkled with fait and fried, their tafte re- 

 fembles that of our frelh water cray-fifli : and RulTel ( Hill. 

 Aleppo, p. 62.) fays, that the Arabs fait them, and eat 

 t'hem as a delicacy. From Haflelquift, who travelled in 

 Syria and Egypt fo lately as the year 1752, we learn, that 

 when corn is fcarce, the Arabians grind the loculls in hand- 

 mills, or (lone-mortars, and bake them in the form of cakes, 

 which they ufe as bread ; and that he has frequently feen 

 tkcm boiled and Hewed with butter, and made into a kind 

 of fricalTee. Amongft the Hottentots, as Dr. Sparrman 

 informs us, (Voyage to the Cape, vol. i. p. 36.) they are 

 made into a brown coffee-coloured foup, which acquires 

 from the eggs of the females, that are chiefly ufed for this 

 pui-pofc, a fat and greaTy appearance. Thefe people com- 

 penfate themfelves for the damage done by the flights of 

 loculls, by converting large quantities of them into a nutri- 

 tious food. Thefe fafts remove every difficulty in deter- 

 mining the food of John tlie Baptift, who is fajd to have 

 lived on locufts, axpto;?, and wild honey. Matt. chap. iii. 

 V. 4. Yet the rendering of ay.fiJs; by locufts, as the Englifh 

 Iranflators have done, has been much controverted. Ifidore 

 of Pelufium, in his 123d epiftle, fpeaking of this food of 

 St. John, fays, it was not animals, but the tops of .herbs ; 

 and even charges thofe who underftand the word otherwifc 

 with ignorance : but St. Auguftine, Beda, Ludolphus, and 

 others, are of a different opinion. Accordingly the Jefuits 

 df Antwerp rejeft, with contempt, the opinion of the 

 Ebionites, who, for axpij;?, put lyxt'^'^i 3 delicious diet 

 prepared of honey and oil ; that of fome other innovator, who 



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read «x«r''^-'> °'' X'^-f'5:> ff'-^raLf ; and that of Beza, who 

 reads a;i^ap.3s,-, •:'■'/•/ peari. The term axpiJr,-, fays Dr. 

 Shaw, [ubi fiipra) docs not denote the tops of plants, a« 

 fome have contended, but it is applied to the locurt on ac- 

 count of its appulte for fuch food. The word is ufed by 

 Arillotle (Hill. Anim. lib. vi. c. 28.) and other hiftorians 

 in the fame fenfe. The Scptuagint interpret H^'l.S'. ttriiih, 

 by the fame word ; and therefore the writers of tlie New 

 Teftament may be fuppofed to have taken it in the fame 

 fignificatiou. He adds, if loculh appeared in the Holy 

 Land, during the fpring, as they did in Barbaiy, it may be 

 prefumed that St. John entered upon his miffion, zniJLfU'fd 

 liwifclf lo j^;-i7/7(Luke i. 20.) at that ftafon. 



AClllI'OLIUM, in Bolany, fignifics any prickly leaved 

 plant. 



ACRII Montct, in Ancient Geography, mountains of Si- 

 cily, called alfo Henri. 



ACRILI.^'L, a city of Sicily, between Acrx and Agri- 

 gentum, not far from Syracufe. This is probably the fame 

 with Accila, mentioned by Plutarch in Marcello. See 

 Livy, 1. xxiv. c. 35. torn. iii. p. 899. Ed. Drakenb. 



ACRIMONY, that quality of fubllancea which renders 

 them acrid to the tafte. The acrimony of the bile is fnp- 

 pufed to be the caul'e of divers diforders ; and a catarrh is 

 reprefeiited to be a defluxion of acrimonious humour. The 

 Brillol water is recommended by Dr. Randc-lph for temper- 

 inor the bad eflefts of acrimonious blood. This he mentions 

 as its lirll and principal virtue in his inquir)' into the medi. 

 cinal virtues of Briftol water, Svo. 1750. 



Acrimony, in Maliclne, means a Hate of the fluids of 

 the body, which may become the caufe or effect of feveral 

 difeafes. This ftate of the fluids or humours has been af- 

 fumed by the humoural pathologifts, of which feft Boer- 

 haave may be confidered as the lall and moft refpedlable 

 teacher, in order to explain ertiptions on the lurface of the 

 body, Sea-Scuny, Rhcumatifm, Gout, Heftic Ft;ver, &c. — 

 At prefent the exiftence of fuch a caufe is confidered aa 

 hypothetical. 



ACRIOTERI, in Ancient Geo^rap/yy, a marlh of Afia 

 Minor, in the greater Phr)'gia, upon the frontiers of Pifidia. 



ACRIS, cixfi;, fignifies a locuft, the top of a mountain, 

 and the extremities of fraftured bones. 



ACRISIUS, m Fabulous HiJIory, a king of Argos, who, 

 being warned by the oracle that he Ihould be killed by his 

 grandchild, lliut up his only daughter Danac in a brazen 

 tower : but Jupiter defeending to her in a golden (hower, 

 fhe was delivered of Perfeus ; who, having flain the Gor- 

 gons, carried Medufa's head to Argos, and transformed 

 Acrifius into a ftatue of rtone. This golden fljower was 

 probably a bribe to thofe who guarded the tower. Some 

 fuppofe that her uncle Praetus foimd means to corrupt 

 them, and to get admittance to Danac. Acrifius is faid to 

 have been buried in the Acropolis at Argos. The name, 

 (fays Mr. Bryant,) is a metathefis of Acrifius, or Arcafius, 

 by which is meant the great Arkite, the perfon there wor- 

 fhipped. 



ACRISTIA, in Geography, a town of Sicily, t\venty- 

 three miles W. N. W. of Mazara, built upon the ruins of 

 the ancient town of Schritea. 



AC RITAS, in Ancient Geography, a promontory of 

 Melfenia, now Capo di Gallo, between Methone to the 

 weft, and Corone to the eaft, where the Sinus Coronxus 

 begins. It is alfo the name of a cape of Bithynia, north of 

 the gulf of Aftacus. 



ACRIVIOLA, in Bstany.. See Nasturthjm In- 

 dicum- 



ACROAMA, 



