XXXI 
SOME PECULIAR FOODS 
2 79 
western and northern shores of Lake Nyassa, 
capture myriads of small midgets that come in 
clouds on the wind, and make a kind of cake from 
the dough procured by crushing the insects. In 
the same category, may be classed locusts, which are 
eaten by most native tribes, who, after plucking off 
their wings, fry and devour them. I have tried 
locusts fried in butter, as an experiment, and found 
them not distasteful. 
Many of the native tribes dwelling near rivers and 
lakes show a decided penchant for crocodiles’ eggs, 
which equal those of a duck in size, and are 
to be found in the sun-warmed sand near the 
water. 
Wild honey, of which there are several kinds, is 
eaten by almost all the native tribes with whom I 
have come in contact. First, comes the honey, 
called asari, obtained from the hive of the ordinary 
wild bee and closely resembling in flavour the 
honey produced by the garden bee in the Old 
Country. Second, I would rank that of a small 
midget which makes its hive in the cavities of trees. 
This honey, called by the most tribes insoma, but 
by the Angoni, chingwaengie, has a most delicious 
flavour with a faint odour of musk—just a delicacy 
for the epicure. Another kind, called lecama and 
resembling insoma in flavour, is the product of a 
larger midget which makes its home in ant-hills. 
