The Arabs, who are compelled at the present day to inhabit the desert of Sahara, welcome the approach of Locusts as the means, oftentimes, of saving them from famishing with hunger. Robbins tells us their manner of preparing these insects for food is, by digging a deep hole in the ground, building a fire at the bottom, and filling it with wood. Then, after the earth is heated as hot as possible, and the coals and embers taken out, they prepare to fill the cavity with the live Locusts, confined in a bag holding about five bushels. Several hold the bag perpendicularly over the hole with the mouth near the surface of the ground, while others stand round with sticks. The bag is then opened, and the Locusts shaken with great force into the hot pit, while the surrounding persons immediately throw sand upon them to prevent their flying off. The mouth of the hole is now completely covered with sand, and another fire built upon the top of it. When the Locusts are thoroughly roasted and become cool, they are picked out with the hand, thrown upon tent-cloths, or blankets, and placed in the
sun to dry. During this process, which requires two or three days, they must be watched with the utmost care, to prevent the live Locusts from devouring them, if a flight should happen to be passing at the time. When perfectly dry, they are pounded slightly, pressed into bags, or skins, and are ready for transportation. To prepare them now for present eating, 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, after breaking off the head, wings, and legs. Mr. Robbins considers them nourishing food.[398]
Locusts are sometimes boiled at Wadinoon for food for men and beasts.[399]
The Arabs of Morocco, we learn from Mr. Jackson, esteem Locusts a great 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]