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."
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.
The Acridites lineola (Gryllus Egyptius of Linnaeus) 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.
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.
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.
Williams says: "The insect food (of the Chinese) is confined to Locusts and Grasshoppers, Ground-grubs and Silkworms; the latter are fried to a crisp when cooked."
Dampier says in the Bashi (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.
Ovalle states that in the pampas of Chili, bread is made of Locusts and of Mosquitos.
According to Mr. Jules Remy, our Western Indians eat in great quantities what are generally there called Crickets, the Oedipoda corallipes.
In the southern parts of France, M. Latreille informs us, the children are very fond of the fleshy thighs of Locusts.
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. 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.
Capt. Riley also mentions that each flight of Locusts is said to have a king which directs its movements with great regularity.
The Chinese believe the same, and affirm that this leader is the largest individual of the whole swarm.
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."
The truth, however, is found in the Bible. They have no king.
The Saharawans, or Arabs of the desert, "whose hands are against every man," 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 — Acridium — flew on board! 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!
Several species of Locusts are beautifully marked; these were sought after by young Jewish children as playthings.
The eggs of the Chargol Locust, Truxalis nasuta?, the Jewish women used to carry in their ears to preserve them from the earache.
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 Crickets, 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. De Pauw says that, like Canary birds, they were kept in cages to sing during the celebration of mass.
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 Vaca, 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."
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 Katydid, — a curious legend is told in this country, and particularly in Virginia and Maryland. Mrs. A. L. Ruyter 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.