delicacy; and, during the summer of 1799 and the spring of 1800, after
the plague had almost depopulated Barbary, dishes of them were served up
at the principal repasts. Their usual way of dressing these insects, was
to boil them in water half an hour, then sprinkle them with salt and
pepper, and fry them, adding a little vinegar. The body of the insect is
only eaten, and resembles, according to this gentleman, the taste of
prawns. For their stimulating qualities, the Moors prefer them to
pigeons. A person may eat a plateful of them containing two or three
hundred without any ill effects.[400] In another place, however, Mr.
Jackson says the poor people, when obliged to live altogether on this
kind of food, become meager and indolent.[401]
In Morocco, the price of provisions falls when the Locusts have entered
the neighborhood.[402]
The authority of Capt. Riley is, that Locusts are esteemed very good
food by the Moors, Arabs, and Jews of Barbary, who catch large numbers
of them in their season, and throw them, while alive and jumping, into a
pan of boiling argan oil, where they are allowed to remain, hissing and
frying, till their wings are burned off and their bodies sufficiently
cooked; they are then poured out and eaten. Riley says they resemble,
in consistence and flavor, the yolks of hard-boiled hens’ eggs.[403]
Capt. Beechey tells us he saw many asses, heavily laden with Locusts for
food, driven into the town of Mesurata, in Tripoli.[404]
Barth, in Central Africa, saw whole calabashes filled with roasted
Locusts, which, he says, occasionally form a considerable part of the
food of the natives, particularly if their grain has been destroyed by
this plague, as they can then enjoy not only the agreeable flavor of the
dish, but also take a pleasant revenge for the ravages of their
fields.[405]
Adanson, after describing an immense swarm of Locusts that covered an
extent of several leagues which he saw, says the negroes of Gambia eat
these insects, and have different ways of dressing them--some pounding
and boiling them in milk, others only boiling them on coals.[406]
Dr. Sparrman says the Hottentots rejoice greatly upon the arrival of the
Locusts, although they never fail to destroy every particle of verdure
on the ground. But, continues the doctor, they make themselves ample
amends for this loss, for, seizing these marauding animals, they eat
them in such numbers as, in the space of a few days, to get visibly
fatter and in a better condition. The females are principally eaten,
especially when about to migrate, before they are able to fly, when
their wings are short and their bodies heavy and distended with eggs.
The soup prepared of these is of a brown coffee color, and, when cooled,
from the eggs has a fat and greasy appearance.[407]
Dr. Sparrman also relates a curious notion which the Hottentots about
the Visch River have with respect to the origin of the Locusts: that
they proceed from the good will of a great master-conjurer a long way to
the north, who, having removed the stone from the mouth of a certain
deep pit, lets loose these insects in order to furnish them with
food.[408] This is not unlike the account, given by the author of the
Apocalypse, of the origin of the symbolical Locusts, which are said to
ascend upon an angel’s opening the pit of the abyss.[409]
The Korannas and Bushmen of the Cape save the Locusts in large
quantities, and grind them between two stones into a kind of a meal,
which they mix with fat and grease, and bake in cakes. Upon this fare,
says Mr. Fleming, they live for months together, and chatter with the
greatest joy as soon as the Locusts are seen approaching.[410]
Locusts in Madagascar are greatly esteemed by the natives as food.[411]
The account of the missionary Moffat differs somewhat from and is much
more complete than Mr. Fleming’s and Dr. Sparrman’s. He says the natives
of S. Africa embrace every opportunity of gathering Locusts, which can
be done during the night. Whenever the cloud alights at a place not very
distant from a town, the inhabitants turn out with sacks, and often with
pack-oxen, gather loads, and return next day with millions. The Locusts
are then prepared for eating by simple boiling, or rather steaming, as
they are put into a large pot with a little water, and covered closely
up; after boiling for a short time, they are taken out and spread on
mats in the sun to dry, when they are winnowed, something like corn, to
clear them of their legs and wings; and, when perfectly dry, are put
into sacks, or laid upon the house floor in a heap. The natives eat them
whole, adding a little salt when they can obtain it, or pound them in a
wooden mortar; and, when they have reduced them to something like meal,
they mix them with a little water and make a cold stir-about.
When Locusts abound, the natives become quite fat, and would even reward
any old lady who would say that she had coaxed them to alight within
reach of the inhabitants.
Mr. Moffat thinks the Locust not bad food, and, when well fed, almost as
good as shrimps.[412]
The plan of gathering Locusts by night is occasionally attended with
danger. “It has happened that in gathering them people have been bitten
by venomous reptiles. On one occasion a woman had been traveling for
several miles with a large bundle of Locusts on her head, when a
serpent, which had been put into the sack with them, found its way out.
The woman, supposing it to be a thong dangling about her shoulders, laid
hold of it with her hand, and, feeling that it was alive, instantly
precipitated the bundle to the ground and fled.”[413]
Pringle, in his song of the wild Bushman, has the following lines:
Yea, even the wasting Locust-swarm,
Which mighty nations dread,
To me nor terror brings nor harm;
I make of them my bread.[414]
Flights of Locusts are considered so much of a blessing in South Africa,
that, as Dr. Livingstone states, the _rain_-doctors sometimes promised
to bring them by their incantations.[415]
Carsten Niebuhr says that all Arabians, whether living in their own
country or in Persia, Syria, and Africa, are accustomed to eat Locusts.
They distinguish several species of insect, to which they give
particular names. The red Locust, which is esteemed fatter and more
succulent than any other, and accordingly the greatest delicacy, they
call _Muken_; another is called _Dubbe_, but they abstain from it
because it has a tendency to produce diarrhœa. A light-colored Locust,
as well as the Muken, is eaten.
In Arabia, Locusts, when caught, are put in bags, or on strings, to be
dried; in Barbary, they are boiled, and then dried upon the roofs of the
houses. The Bedouins of Egypt roast them alive, and devour them with the
utmost voracity. Niebuhr says he saw no instance of unwholesomeness in
this article of food; but Mr. Forskal was told it had a tendency to
thicken the blood and bring on melancholy habits. The former gentleman
also says the Jews in Arabia are convinced that the fowls, of which the
Israelites ate so largely of in the desert, were only clouds of Locusts,
and laugh at our translators, who have supposed that they found quails
where quails never were.[416]
The wild Locusts upon which St. John fed have given rise to great
discussion--some authors asserting them to be the fruit of the
carob-tree, while others maintain they were the true Locusts, and refer
to the practice of the Arabs in Syria at the present day. “They who deny
insects to have been the food of this holy man,” says Hasselquist, “urge
that this insect is an unaccustomary and unnatural food; but they would
soon be convinced of the contrary, if they would travel hither, to
Egypt, Arabia, or Syria, and take a meal with the Arabs. Roasted Locusts
are at this time eaten by the Arabs, at the proper season, when they can
procure them; so that in all probability this dish has been used in the
time of St. John. Ancient customs are not here subject to many changes,
and the victuals of St. John are not believed unnatural here; and I was
assured by a judicious Greek priest that their church had never taken
the word in any other sense, and he even laughed at the idea of its
being a bird or a plant.”[417]
Mr. Forbes incidentally remarks that in Persia and Arabia, roasted
Locusts are sold in the markets, and eaten with rice and dates, and
sometimes flavored with salt and spices.[418]
The _Acridites lincola_ (_Gryllus Ægypticus_ of Linnæus) is the species
commonly sold for food in the markets of Bagdad.
In fact, Locusts have been eaten in Arabia from the remotest antiquity.
This is evinced by the sculptured slabs found by Layard at Kouyunjic;
for, among other attendants carrying fruit, flowers, and game, to a
banquet, are seen several bearing dried Locusts fastened on rods. And
being thus introduced in this bas-relief among the choicest delicacies,
it is most probable they were also highly prized by the Assyrians.
Layard has figured one of these Locust bearers, who upon the sculptured
slab is about four and a half feet in height.[419]
The Chinese regard the Locust, when deprived of the abdomen, and
properly cooked, as passable eating, but do not appear to hold the dish
in much estimation.[420]
Mr. Laurence Oliphant, in Tientsin, China, saw bushels of fried Locusts
hawked about in baskets by urchins in the streets. Locust-hunting, he
asserts, was a favorite and profitable occupation among the juvenile
part of the community. He thought the taste not unlike that of
periwinkle.[421]
Williams says: “The insect food (of the Chinese) is confined to Locusts
and Grasshoppers, Ground-grubs and Silk-worms; the latter are fried to a
crisp when cooked.”[422]
Dampier says in the Bashee (Philippine) Islands, Locusts are eaten as a
regular food. The natives catch them in small nets, when they come to
devour their potato-vines, and parch them over the fire in an earthen
pan. When thus prepared the legs and wings fall off, and the heads and
backs, which before were brownish, turn red like boiled shrimps. Dampier
once ate of this dish, and says he liked it well enough. When their
bodies were full they were moist to the palate, but their heads cracked
in his teeth.[423]
Ovalle states that in the pampas of Chili, bread is made of Locusts and
of Mosquitos.[424]
According to Mr. Jules Remy, our Western Indians eat in great quantities
what are generally there called _Crickets_, the _Œdipoda
corallipes_.[425]
In the southern parts of France, M. Latrielle informs us, the children
are very fond of the fleshy thighs of Locusts.[426]
The Arabs believe the Locusts have a government among themselves similar
to that of the bees and ants; and when “Sultan Jeraad,” King of the
Locusts, rises, the whole mass follow him, and not a solitary straggler
is left behind to witness the devastation. Mr. Jackson himself evidently
believed this from the manner he has narrated it.[427] An Arab once
asserted to this gentleman, that he himself had seen the great “Sultan
Jeraad,” and described his lordship as being larger and more beautifully
colored than the ordinary Locust.[428]
Capt. Riley also mentions that each flight of Locusts is said to have a
king which directs its movements with great regularity.[429]
The Chinese believe the same, and affirm that this leader is the
largest individual of the whole swarm.[430]
Benjamin Bullifant, in his observations on the Natural History of New
England, says: “The Locusts have a kind of regimental discipline, and as
it were commanders, which show greater and more splendid wings than the
common ones, and arise first when pursued by fowls, or the feet of a
traveler, as I have often seriously remarked.”[431]
The truth, however, is found in the Bible. They have no king.[432]
The Saharawans, or Arabs of the desert, “whose hands are against every
man,”[433] and who rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations, when
they behold the clouds of Locusts proceeding toward the north are filled
with the greatest gladness, anticipating a general mortality, which they
call _El-khere_, the good, or the benediction; for, when Barbary is thus
laid waste, they emerge from their arid recesses in the desert and pitch
their tents in the desolated plains.[434]
Pausanias tells us, that in the temple of Parthenon there was a brazen
statue of Apollo, by the hand of Phidias, which was called Parnopius,
out of gratitude for that god having once banished from that country the
Locusts, which greatly injured the land. The same author asserts that he
himself has known the Locusts to have been thrice destroyed by Apollo in
the Mountain Lipylus, once exterminating them by a violent wind; at
another time by vehement heat; and the third time by unexpected
cold.[435]
At a time when there were great swarms of Locusts in China, as we learn
from Navarette, the Emperor went out into his gardens, and taking up
some of these insects in his hands, thus spoke to them: The people
maintain themselves on wheat, rice, etc., you come to devour and destroy
it, without leaving anything behind; it were better you should devour my
bowels than the food of my subjects. Having concluded his speech, the
monarch was about to put them in a fair way of “devouring his bowels” by
swallowing them, when some that stood by telling him they were
venomous, he nobly answered, “I value not my life when it is for the
good of my subjects and people to lose it,” and immediately swallowed
the insects. History tells us the Locusts that very moment took wing,
and went off without doing any more damage; but whether or not the
heroic Emperor recovered leaves us in ignorance.[436]
Mr. J. M. Jones gives the following ludicrous account of the capture of
a Locust in the Bermudas. While walking one hot day in the vicinity of
the barracks at St. George’s, with his lamented friend, the late Col.
Oakly (56th Regt.), on the lookout for insects, a very fine specimen of
the Locust sprung up before them. The former chased it for a while
unavailingly, but determined not to be balked of his prey; the colonel
then joined in the pursuit, and after a sharp and hot chase, bagged his
game right before a sentry-box; the sentry, as in duty bound, standing
with arms presented, in the presence of a field officer, who was,
however, in a rather undignified position to receive the salute. They
had gained their prize, however, and had a hearty laugh, in which we
fancy the sentry could scarcely help joining.[437]
Capt. Drayson, in his South African Sporting, tells the following
anecdote: A South African, riding through a flock of Locusts, was struck
in the eye by one of them, and, though blinded momentarily in the
injured eye, he still kept the other on the insect, which sought to
escape by diving among the crowd on the ground. So, dismounting, he
captured it, passed a large pin through its body, and thrust it in his
waistcoat pocket; and whenever the damaged eye smarted, he pulled it out
again, and stuck the pin through it in a fresh place.[438]
Darwin tells us that when the “Beagle” was to windward of the Cape de
Verd Islands, and when the nearest point of land, not directly opposed
to the trade-wind, was Cape Blanco on the coast of Africa, 370 miles
distant, a large Grasshopper--_Acrydium_--flew on board![439] But Sir
Hans Sloane mentions a much more remarkable flight in his History of
Jamaica; for when the Assistance frigate was about 300 leagues to
windward of Barbados, he says a Locust alighted on the forecastle among
the sailors![440]
Several species of Locusts are beautifully marked; these were sought
after by young Jewish children as playthings.[441]
The eggs of the _Chargol_ Locust, _Truxalis nasuta_?, the Jewish women
used to carry in their ears to preserve them from the earache.[442]
The word _Locust_, Latin _Locusta_, is derived by the old etymologists
from _locus_, a place, and _ustus_, burned,--“quod tactu multa _urit_
morsu vero omnia erodat.” True Locusts are the _Acridium_, or
_Criquets_, of Geoffroy, and the _Gryllus_ of Fabricius. The
Migratory-locust, _Locusta migratoria_, a rather small insect, is the
most celebrated species of the family. To it almost all the devastations
before mentioned have been attributed. It is most probable, however,
many species have been confounded under the same name.
In Spain, as we are told by Osbeck, the people of fashion keep a species
of Locust--called there _Gryllo_--in cages--_grillaria_,--for the sake
of its song.[443] De Pauw says that, like Canary birds, they were kept
in cages to sing during the celebration of mass.[444]
The song of a Spanish Gryllo on one occasion, if we may credit the
historian, was the means of saving a vessel from shipwreck. The incident
evinces the perilous situation of Cabeza de Vara, in his voyage toward
Brazil, and is related by Dr. Southey in his history of that country as
follows:
“When they had crossed the Line, the state of the water was inquired
into, and it was found, that of a hundred casks there remained but
three, to supply four hundred men and thirty horses. Upon this, the
Adelantado gave orders to make for the nearest land. Three days they
stood toward it. A soldier, who had set out in ill health, had brought a
Gryllo, or ground cricket, with him from Cadiz, thinking to be amused by
the insect’s voice; but it had been silent the whole way, to his no
little disappointment. Now, on the fourth morning, the Gryllo began to
sing its shrill rattle, scenting, as it was immediately supposed, the
land. Such was the miserable watch which had been kept, that upon
looking out at the warning, they perceived high rocks within bowshot;
against which, had it not been for the insect, they must inevitably have
been lost. They had just time to drop anchor. From hence they coasted
along, the Gryllo singing every night, as if it had been on shore, till
they reached the Island of St. Catalina.”[445]
To account for the singular sound produced by the _Platyphyllon
concavum_, which much resembles the expression _Katy did_, so much so
that the insect is now called the Katy-did,--a curious legend is told in
this country, and particularly in Virginia and Maryland. Mrs. A. L.
Ruter Dufour has kindly embodied it in the following verses for me:
Two maiden sisters loved a gallant youth,
Once in the far-off days of olden time:
With all of woman’s fervency and truth;--
So runs a very ancient rustic rhyme.
Blanche, chaste and beauteous as a Fairy-queen,
Brave Oscar’s heart a willing captive led;
Lovely in soul as was her form and mien,
While guileless love its light around her shed.
A Juno was the proud and regal Kate,--
Her love thus scorn’d, her beauty thus defied,
Like Juno’s turn’d her love to vengeful hate:--
Mysteriously the gallant Oscar died.
Bereft of reason, faithful Blanche soon lay;--
The mystery of this fearful fate none knew,
Save proud, revengeful Kate, who would not say
It was her hand had dared the deed to do.
Justice and pity then to Jove appealed,
That the dark secret be no longer hid;
Young Oscar’s spirit he at once concealed,
That cries, each summer night, _Kate_, _Katy-did_!
ROSE HILL, D. C., June 24, 1864.
If a Katy-did enters your house, an unlooked-for visitor will speedily
come. If it sings there, some of your family will be noted for fine
musical powers. These superstitions obtain in Maryland.
ORDER IV.
NEUROPTERA.
Termitidæ--White-ants.
The Termites or White-ants (which are _ants_ only by a misnomer) are
found in both the Indies, in Africa, and in South America, where they do
vast damage, in consequence of their eating and perforating wooden
buildings, utensils, furniture, and indeed all kinds of household stuff,
which are utterly destroyed by them if not timely prevented. They are
found also in Europe, and, about thirty years ago, from the extent of
their ravages in the West of France, and particularly at Rochelle,
caused considerable alarm.[446]
There is a story commonly told, if not commonly credited throughout
India, of the Termites demolishing a chest of dollars at Bencoolen,
which is in a great degree cleared up by the following anecdote
introduced by Mr. Forbes in his Memoirs: A gentleman having charge of a
chest of money, unfortunately placed it on the floor in a damp
situation; and, as a matter of course in that climate, the box was
speedily attacked by the Termites, which had their burrow just under the
place the treasure stood. Soon annihilating the bottom, these devouring
insects were not any more ceremonious in respect to the bags containing
the specie; which, being thus let loose, fell piece by piece gradually
into the hollows in the Termites’ burrow. When the cash was demanded,
and not to be found, all were greatly amazed at the wonderful powers,
both of teeth and stomachs, of the little marauders, which were supposed
to have consumed the silver and gold as well as the wood. But, after
some years, however, the house requiring repair, the whole sum was found
several feet deep in the earth; and, thanks, the Termites were rescued
from that obloquy which the supposed power of feasting on precious
metals had cast on their whole race.[447]
Kempfer, during his stay at a Dutch fort on the coast of Malabar, one
morning discovered some peculiar marks like arches upon his table, about
the size of his little finger. Suspecting they were the work of
Termites, he made an accurate examination, and, much to his surprise,
found not only what he expected to be true, but that these voracious
insects had pierced a passage of that thickness up one leg of the table,
then across the table, and so down again through the middle of another
leg into the floor! What made it the more wonderful was that it had all
been done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest
and his rising.[448]
Mr. Forbes, on surveying a room which had been locked up during an
absence of a few weeks, observed a number of advanced works in various
directions toward some prints and drawings in English frames; the
glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with
dust. “On attempting,” says he, “to wipe it off, I was astonished to
find the glasses fixed on the wall, not suspended in frames as I left
them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the
White-ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards,
and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the
incrustation, or covered way, which they had formed during their
depredation.”[449]
It is even asserted, says Kirby and Spence, that the superb residence of
the Governor-general at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such
immense sums, is now going rapidly to decay in consequence of the
attacks of these insects. But not content with the dominions they have
acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged
by success, the White-ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the
ocean, and once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the
line--the Albion; and, in spite of the efforts of her commander and his
valiant crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and handled
her so roughly, that when brought into port, being no longer fit for
service, she was obliged to be broken up.[450]
Lutfullah, in his Autobiography, relates the following: “I returned the
couch kindly sent to me by a friend, with my thanks, and made my bed on
the ground, placing my new desk of Morocco leather at the head to serve
as a pillow, and went to bed. In the morning, when roused by the bugle,
I found my bed strewed with damp dust, my skin excoriated in some parts,
and my back irritated in others. I called my servant, who was saddling
my horse. ‘Mahdilli,’ said I angrily, ‘you have been throwing dust all
over my bed and self, in shaking the trappings of the horse near my bed
in the tent.’--‘No, sir, I have done no such thing,’ was his reply. When
I took up my cloak it fell to pieces in my hand; the blanket was in the
same state, and the bottom of my desk, with some valuable papers, were
destroyed. ‘What misfortune is this?’ cried I to Mahdilli, who
immediately brought a burning stick to examine the cause, and coolly
observed, ‘It is the White-ants, sir, and no misfortune, but a piece of
bad luck, sir.’ Poor man! in all mishaps, I always found him attaching
blame to destiny, and never to his own or my imprudence.”[451]