THE MANNA OF NATURE. 
171 
the rounded, swelling figure, make their slaves bring them a supply of 
Blaps* and idling in their gardens, to the music of leaping fountains, 
imbibe from the succulent insect an eternal youthfulness. 
“ In Brazil, the Portuguese extracts from the Malalis of the bamboo, 
when the tree wears its nuptial flower, a kind of fresh butter for the 
table ; and eats the ants in sweetmeats, at the moment that their wings 
uplift them on the breeze like an aspiration of love. 
“ But generally the insect, apart from its real value, has been hunted 
by the peasants whose tillage it destroyed. It plundered them of their 
food, and, in revenge, they themselves have fed upon it. The terrible 
locust, whose vast increase has so often imperilled the East, has been, 
on that very account, the more eagerly pursued and devoured by the 
Orientals. The story runs that the Caliph Omar, when seated at his 
family table, observing a locust alight there, read inscribed upon its 
wing :—‘ We hatch nine and ninety eggs ; if we laid a hundred, we 
should devastate the world.’ 
“ Fortunately the locust is the manna of Asia. Who does not 
know that the prophets, musing in the caves of Carmel, ate nothing 
else ? The Mohammedan anchorites adopted the same regime. One 
day a person said to Omar:—‘ What think you of locusts ? ’ ‘ That I 
would fain have a. basketful.’ Soon afterwards the supply failed him. 
It was with difficulty his servant found a single insect; whereupon he, 
delighted and grateful, exclaimed, ‘ Allah is great! ’ 
“ Even at the present day locusts are sold throughout the East, and 
are eaten in the caf^ as a dessert and a delicacy. Ships are loaded 
with them, and they are bought and sold by the cask. 
“ Here, then, we have insects exceptionally nutritious and sub¬ 
stantial. What prevents us from making use of them ? What scruple 
hinders us from active and useful reprisals against them ? ” 
At this part of his discourse, the orator found his audience, consist¬ 
ing mainly of intelligent Norman peasants, wrapped in deep attention, 
as at those points of the debates of the British Parliament when the 
accustomed cry arises of “Hear ! Hear ! ” 
* The women of Egypt, it is said, eat the Blaps sulcata cooked with butter. 
