THE CICADA AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 73 
employed at the present day, in various places in northern Africa and 
eastern Asia. A similar locust is also now highly esteemed as a food 
article in the island of Madagascar. All of these locusts belong, how- 
ever, to the class of insects known as grasshoppers, and on this conti- 
nent the Rocky Mountain grasshopper or locust has also, as is well 
known, been long used as an article of food by certain Indian tribes. 
That the Cicada was eaten by the red men of America, both before 
and after the coming of the colonists, is indicated in a memorandum, 
dated 1715, left by the Kev. Andrew Sandel, of Philadelphia, who, 
referring to the use of locusts as food in eastern Asia, states also that 
the Cicada is so used by the Indians. Dr. Asa Fitch corroborates this 
statement, giving as his authority Mr. W. S. Robertson, who informs 
him "that the Indians make the different species of Cicada an article 
of diet, every year gathering quantities of them and preparing them 
for the table by roasting in a hot oven, stirring them until they are 
well browned." 
No practical test was made with the Cicada as an article of human 
food until the experiments instituted by Professor Riley and carried 
out by Dr. Howard in the early summer of 1885. The following is an 
account of Dr. Howard's experiments : 
With the aid Of the Doctor's (Kiley's) cook he had prepared a plain stew, a thick 
milk stew, and a hroil. The Cicadae were collected just as they emerged from pnpae, 
and were thrown into cold water, in which they remained over night. They were 
cooked the next morning, and served at breakfast time. They imparted a distinct 
and not unpleasant flavor to the stew, but were not at all palatable themselves, as 
they were reduced to nothing but bits of flabby skin. The broil lacked substance. 
The most palatable method of cooking is to fry in batter, when they remind one of 
shrimps. They will never prove a delicacy. 1 
Mr. T. A. Keleher, who sampled some of the dishes above described, 
has informed the writer that he found the Cicadas fried in batter to be 
most palatable, and that he much preferred them to oysters or shrimps. 
The great liking manifested by various animals for the pnpse before 
and after they have emerged and for the transforming adults has 
already been referred to. Dr. Hildreth, writing in 1830, says: 
While here they served for food for all of the carnivorous and insect-eating 
animals. Hogs eat them in preference to any other food; squirrels, birds, domestic 
fowls, etc., fatten on them. So much were they attracted by the Cicada' that very 
few birds were seen around our gardens during their continuance, and our cherries, 
etc., remained unmolested. - 
He also states that when the Cicadas first leave the earth they are 
plump and full of oily juices; so much so that they are employed in 
making soap. 
Mr. John Bar tram, writing of the brood which appeared near Phila- 
delphia in 1749 and referring to the pupae as they appeared near the 
surface of the ground toward the end of April, says that they were then 
1 Proc. 1-n t. Soc. Washington, Vol. !, p. 29, 
-Journal of Science, L830, Vol. XVIII, p. 4' 
