In the next order of insects, the locust tribe, as they are the
greatest destroyers of food, so, as some recompense, 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 locust-eaters. The generic
name of the locusts, _Gryllus_, sounds like an invitation to cook
them. Pliny relates that they were in high esteem as meat amongst the
Parthians. When there is a scarcity of grain, as a substitute for flour
the Arabs grind locusts in their hand-mills, or pound them in stone
mortars. They mix this flour with water into a dough, and make thin
cakes of it, which they bake like other bread. They also eat them in
another way; they boil them first a good while in water, and afterwards
stew with oil or butter into a kind of fricassée of no bad flavour.
The large kinds of locust are made use of in several quarters as food,
and in the markets of the Levant fresh and salted locusts are vended.
Hasselquist tells us, that when corn is scarce, the Arabians grind the
locusts in hand-mills, or pound them in stone mortars, and bake them as
bread; and that even when there is no scarcity of corn, the Arabs stew
them with butter and make them into a kind of a fricassée, the flavour
of which is by no means disagreeable. Why should land shrimp sauce not
be equal to sea shrimp sauce?
Locusts, Cumming tells us, afford fattening and wholesome food to man,
birds, and all sorts of beasts. The hungry dogs and hogs feed greedily
on them,--so that there are plenty of enemies to prey in time upon
these wholesale depredators. Young turkeys live almost entirely on them
in some parts of America, and become very fat when they are plentiful.
Hence, if so many animals thrive upon them, they must necessarily be
dainty food.
It is not only by the inhabitants of the Great Desert that the locusts
are hailed with joy. The Kafirs also give them a hearty welcome, and
make many a good meal upon them too,--not only eating them in large
quantities, but making a sort of coffee-colored soup of their eggs.
Locusts are cooked in various ways--roasted, boiled, and fried. They
are also salted and smoked, and packed away against a time of scarcity.
It is said, they taste very much like fish, and are particularly light,
delicate, and wholesome food. They are carried into many of the towns
of Africa by waggon-loads, as we bring poultry to market.
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 coffee-coloured soup.
In the Mahratta country in India, the common people salt and eat them.
This was anciently the custom with many of the African nations, some
of whom also smoked them.
Dishes of locusts are generally served up at the principal tables in
Barbary, and esteemed a great delicacy. They are preferred by the Moors
to pigeons; and a person may eat a plateful of 200 or 300 without
feeling any ill effects. They usually boil them in water half-an-hour,
having thrown away the head, wings, and legs, then sprinkle them with
salt and pepper and fry them, adding a little vinegar.
Another traveller describes the way they are prepared for food in the
desert of Zahara.--‘In and about this valley were great flights of
locusts. During the day, they are flying around very thickly in the
atmosphere; but the copious dews and chilly air in the night render
them unable to fly, and they settle down on the bushes. It was the
constant employment of the natives in the night to gather these insects
from the bushes, which they did in great quantities. My master’s
family, each with a small bag, went out the first night upon this
employment, carrying a very large bag to bring home the fruits of their
labor. My mistress, Fatima, however, and the two little children,
remained in the tent. I declined this employment, and retired to rest
under the large tent. The next day, the family returned loaded with
locusts, and, judging by the eye of the quantity produced, there
must have been about fifteen bushels. This may appear to be a large
quantity to be gathered in so short a time, but it is scarcely worth
mentioning when compared with the loads of them gathered, sometimes,
in the more fertile part of the country over which they pass, leaving
a track of desolation behind them. But as they were the first, in
any considerable quantity, that I had seen, and the first I had seen
cooked and eaten, I mention it in this place, hoping hereafter to give
my readers more particular information concerning these wonderful and
destructive insects, which, from the days of Moses to this time, have
been considered, by Jews and Mahometans, as the most severe judgment
which Heaven can inflict upon man. But, whatever the Egyptians might
have thought in ancient days, or the Moors and Arabs in those of modern
date, the Arabs who are compelled to inhabit the desert of Zahara, so
far from considering a flight of locusts as a judgment upon them for
their transgressions, welcome their approach as the means, sometimes,
of saving them from famishing with hunger. The whole that were brought
to the tent at this time were cooked while alive, as indeed they always
are, for a dead locust is never cooked. The manner of cooking is by
digging a deep hole in the ground, building a fire at the bottom, as
before described, and filling it up with wood. After it is heated
as hot as is possible, the coals and embers are taken out, and they
prepare to fill the cavity with the locusts, confined in a large bag. A
sufficient number of the natives hold the bag perpendicularly over the
hole, the mouth of it being near the surface of the ground. A number
stand round the hole with sticks. The mouth of the bag is then opened,
and it is shaken with great force, the locusts falling into the hot
pit, and the surrounding natives throwing sand upon them to prevent
them from flying off. The mouth of the hole is then covered with sand,
and another fire built upon the top of it. In this manner they cook all
they have on hand, and dig a number of holes sufficient to accomplish
it, each containing about five bushels. They remain in the hole until
they become sufficiently cooled to be taken out with the hand. They are
then picked out, and thrown upon tent-cloths or blankets, and remain
in the sun to dry, where they must be watched with the utmost care to
prevent the live locusts from devouring them, if a flight happens to
be passing at the time. When they are perfectly dried, which is not
done short of two or three days, they are slightly pounded, and pressed
into bags or skins, ready for transportation. To prepare them to eat,
they are pulverized in mortars, and mixed with water sufficient to
make a kind of dry pudding. They are, however, sometimes eaten singly,
without pulverizing, by breaking off the head, wings, and legs, and
swallowing the remaining part. In whatever manner they are eaten, they
are nourishing food.’
Captain Stockenstrom, in a paper in the _South African Journal_ on
these insects, observes, ‘Not only the locust-bird, but every animal,
domestic and wild, contributes to the destruction of the locust
swarms; fowls, sheep, horses, dogs, antelopes, and almost every living
thing, may be seen devouring them with equal greediness; whilst the
half-starved Bushmen, and even some of the colonial Hottentots,
consider them a great luxury, consuming great quantities fresh, and
drying abundance for future emergencies. Great havoc is also committed
among the locusts by their own kindred; for as soon as any one of them
gets hurt, or meets with an accident which impedes his progress, his
fellow travellers nearest to him immediately turn upon him, and devour
him with great voracity.’
Mr. Moffat (_Missionary Labours in South Africa_) states--‘The locusts
for food are always caught at night, when they are at rest, and
carried in sacks to the nearest encampment or village, to be prepared
for keeping. A very small quantity of water is put into a pot, and the
locusts, piled up to the very brim, are covered very closely, so that
they are rather steamed than boiled. They are next carefully separated
and laid out to dry, which the heat of an Arabian or African sun does
thoroughly and speedily; after which they are winnowed to get rid of
the wings and legs, when they are laid up in heaps, or packed in bags
of skin for future use. Sometimes the dry locusts are beaten into a
powder, of which, with water and a little salt, a kind of pottage is
made.’
Mr. R. Gordon Cumming, in the course of his rambles in Africa, fell in
with swarms of locusts, and gives interesting accounts respecting them.
Here are some extracts from his work:--
‘The next day, as we crossed a vast plain, a flight of locusts passed
over our heads during upwards of half-an-hour, flying so thick as to
darken the sun. They reached in dark clouds as far as we could see, and
maintained an elevation of from 6 to 300 or 400 feet above the level of
the plain. Woe to the vegetation of the country on which they alight!
* *
‘On the march we crossed a swarm of locusts, resting for the night on
the grass and bushes. They lay so thick that the waggons could have
been filled with them in a very short time, covering the large bushes
just as a swarm of young bees covers the branch on which it pitches.
Locusts afford fattening and wholesome food to man, birds, and all
sorts of beasts; cows and horses, lions, jackals, hyænas, antelopes,
elephants, &c., devour them. We met a party of Batlapis carrying heavy
burdens of them on their backs. Our hungry dogs made a fine feast on
them. The cold frosty night had rendered them unable to take wing until
the sun should restore their powers. As it was difficult to obtain
sufficient food for my dogs, I and Isaac took a large blanket, which we
spread under a bush, whose branches were bent to the ground with the
mass of locusts which covered it, and having shaken the branches, in
an instant I had more locusts than I could carry on my back. These we
roasted for ourselves and dogs. Soon after the sun was up, on looking
behind me, I beheld the locusts stretching to the west in vast clouds,
resembling smoke; but the wind soon after veering round, brought them
back to us, and they flew over our heads, for some time actually
darkening the sun. * * * * * * * *
‘The dullness of the scene, however, was enlivened by a wondrous flight
of locusts, the largest I had ever beheld. The prospect was obscured
by them as far as we could see, resembling the smoke arising from a
thousand giant bonfires; while those above our heads darkened our path
with a double flight, the one next the ground flying north, while the
upper clouds of them held a southerly course. The dogs, as usual, made
a hearty meal of them. * * * *
‘We crossed the Limpopo, and having followed it for five miles, we at
length got into a country so densely covered with locusts that the
spore was no longer visible. A large herd of elephants had, during
several previous nights, however, been there feasting upon these
insects.’
According to Niebuhr, the Arabians distinguish several kinds of
locusts, to which they give separate names. They refer only to the
delicacy of its flesh, and not to the nature of the insect. The red
locust is termed _Merrken_, as it is esteemed by the epicures much
fatter and more succulent than the light locust, which is called by
them _Dubbe_, because it has a tendency to produce diarrhœa. The
inhabitants of Arabia, Persia, Africa, and Syria, are accustomed to
eat them. The Turks have an aversion to this kind of food; but if the
Europeans express the same, the Arabians remind them of their fondness
for crabs, &c. This kind of food, however, is supposed to thicken the
blood, and produce melancholy.
The custom of feeding upon locusts seems more generally diffused than
is supposed, and is not merely confined to Africa and Arabia. They are
eaten by the Nanningetes in the Malay Peninsula.
Dampier states that, on islands near Timor, ‘They make also a dish of
locusts, which come at certain seasons to devour their potatoes. They
take them with nets, and broil or bake them in an earthen pan. This
dish,’ he adds, ‘eats well enough.’
And the author of _A Mission to Ava_ speaks of them as a Burmese dainty.
‘The most notable viand produced consisted of fried locusts. These were
brought in, hot and hot, in successive saucers, and I was not sorry to
have the opportunity of tasting a dish so famous. They were by no means
bad, much like what we might suppose fried shrimps to be. The inside is
removed, and the cavity stuffed with a little spiced meat.’
The Rev. R. Sheppard caused some of our large English grasshoppers,
or field crickets, to be cooked in the way here recommended, only
substituting butter for vinegar, and found them to be excellent food.
From these statements it will be seen, that the locusts which formed
part of the sustenance of John the Baptist, and about which there has
been much controversy among learned men, could be nothing else but the
animal locust, so common a food in the East, and even in Africa, to the
present day. They are eaten even by the North American Indians.
‘Among the choice delicacies with which the California Digger Indians
regale themselves during the summer season,’ (says the _Empire County
Argus_,) ‘is the grasshopper roast. Having been an eye witness to the
preparation and discussion of one of their feasts of grasshoppers,
we can describe it truthfully. There are districts in California,
as well as portions of the plains between Sierra Nevada and the
Rocky Mountains, that literally swarm with grasshoppers, and in such
astonishing numbers that a man cannot place his foot to the ground,
while walking there, without crushing great numbers. To the Indian
they are a delicacy, and are caught and cooked in the following
manner:--A piece of ground is sought where they most abound, in the
centre of which an excavation is made, large and deep enough to
prevent the insect from hopping out when once in. The entire party
of diggers, old and young, male and female, then surround as much of
the adjoining grounds as they can, and each with a green bough in
hand, whipping and thrashing on every side, gradually approach the
centre, driving the insects before them in countless multitudes, till
at last all, or nearly all, are secured in the pit. In the meantime,
smaller excavations are made, answering the purpose of ovens, in
which fires are kindled and kept up till the surrounding earth, for
a short distance, becomes sufficiently heated, together with a flat
stone, large enough to cover the oven. The grasshoppers are now taken
in coarse bags, and after being thoroughly soaked in salt water for a
few moments, are emptied into the oven and closed in. Ten or fifteen
minutes suffice to roast them, when they are taken out and eaten
without further preparation, and with much apparent relish, or as is
sometimes the case, reduced to powder and made into soup. And having
from curiosity tasted, not of the soup, but of the roast, really, if
one could but divest himself of the idea of eating an insect, as we do
an oyster or shrimp, without other preparation than simple roasting,
they would not be considered very bad eating, even by more refined
epicures than the Digger Indians.’