232 INSECTS. 
All anfwered, that they have partly feen them cat 
them, and partly heard it faid that they were a 
common food amongft the Arabians. But the in 
formations I had from Greeks, who had travelled to 
mount Sinai, are thole I can mod depend on; ft* 
the Grecian church has a noted convent there. Tbs 
Arabians live in the places adjacent and near i r > 
wherefore they have a good opportunity of inform' 
ing themfelves of their cultoms : I at length met 
w jth a perfon who gave me better informations, and 
ft ranger affurances than all the reft. This was a 
Scheck, with whom I was acquainted at Cairo ; one 
of the raoft learned and moll ingenious of anY 
there, who had been fix years at Mecca. Him * 
alked, in the prefeuce of Mr. Le Grand, the prim 
cipal French interpreter at Cairo ; and Mr. Four' 
tnont (nephew to the learned Fourmont in Paris, 
who was fent hither at the expence of the royal 
French academy, to learn the Eaftern language^ 
whether he knew’ that the Arabs fed on Locufts ■ 
And he gave me the following anfwer: “At Mecca, 
which is furnilhed with corn from Egypt, there 
frequently rages a famine, when there is a fear city 
in Egypt. The people here are then obliged, as i® 
all other places of the world, to fupport b ^ 
* with unufual food. Locufts obtain a place the 
amongft their victuals : they grind them to B.o^ c 
in their hand mills, or powder them in ft° 0 ^ 
mortars : they, mix this flower with water to 
dough, and make thin cakes of it, which they ba k 
like° other bread, on a heated griddle; and 
lerves inftead of bread, to fupport life, for want _ 
fomething better.” I further enquired whether t 
Arabs do not ufe Locufts, without being driven J 
neceffity ? He anfwered, that it is not uncommon ^ 
fee them eat Locufts, when there is no famine: 
