256 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



transmitted such numbers of fine insects from Mexico to 

 M. Chevrolat of Paris, prepare a liquor from a beetle ( Cicindela 

 curvata) by macerating it in water or spirit, which they 

 apparently use as a stimulating beverage.^ 



In the next order of insects, the Orthoptera, the Gryllus, 

 or locust tribe, as they are the greatest destroyers of food, so 

 as some recompence they furnish a considerable supply of it 

 to numerous nations. They are recorded to have done this 

 from the most remote antiquity, some Ethiopian tribes having 

 been named from this circumstance ^cWt/ojoA^^z (locust-eaters).^ 

 Pliny also relates that they were in high esteem as meat amongst 

 the Parthians.^ Hasselquist, in reply to some inquiries which 

 he made on this subject with respect to the Arabs, was informed 

 that at Mecca, when there was a scarcity of corn, as a substitute 

 for flour they would grind locusts in their hand-mills, or pound 

 them in stone mortars ; that they mixed this flour with water 

 into a dough, and made their cakes of it, which they baked 

 like their other bread. He adds, that it is not unusual for 

 them to eat locusts when there is no famine ; but then they 

 boil them first a good while in water, and afterwards stew 

 them with butter into a kind of fricassee of no bad flavour.^ 

 Leo Africanus, as quoted by Bochart, gives a similar account.'' 

 Sparrman informs us that the Hottentots are highly rejoiced 

 at the arrival of the locusts in their country, although they 

 destroy all its verdure, eating them in such quantities as to 

 get visibly fatter than before, and making of their eggs a 

 brown or coflee-coloured soup. He also relates a curious 

 notion which they have with respect to the origin of the 

 locusts — that they proceed from the good will of a great 

 master-conjuror a long way to the north, who, having re- 

 moved the stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit, lets 

 loose these animals to be food for them.^ This is not unlike 

 the account given by the author of the Apocalypse, of the 

 origin of the symbolical locusts, which are said to ascend 

 upon an angel's opening the pit of the abyss. ^ Clenard, in his 



1 Silbermann, Revue Entom. i. 238. 



2 Diod. Sic. 1. iii. c. 29. Strabonis, Geog, 1. xvi. &c. 



3 Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 29. Travels, 232. 5 Hieroz. ii. 1. 14. c.7. 

 6 Sparrman, i. 367. 7 Rev. ix. 2, 3. 



