The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    87/388 page 63
    *> 'NON POISONOUS EFFECTS OF LOCUSTS 140. They are used by Arabs and others as food.—Although insects do not constitute any portion of our Western dietary, and doubtless prejudice would go far against the trial, yet in some coun- tries, especially if old, they have been eaten from time immemorial by the poorer classes of the people. According to Diodorus, some tribes in Ethiopia (in the north of Africa) were nicknamed, in consequence of eating locusts, Acridophagi; and Pliny mentions that it was not rare amongst the Parthians. Then, again, the Arabs at Mecca, when corn is scarce, grind locusts in a hand-mill, or grind them in a mortar, and make a sort of meal of their bodies, of which they make cake and bake them like bread. At other times they boil them well and stew them in butter. Morier also informs us that on an occasion of a great swarm at Bushire, crowds of poor people gathered up the insects to dry and salt them for sale in the bazaars. “ When boiled, the yellow ones turn red, and eat like stale or decayed shrimps.” These and numberless other evidences tend not only to prove and confirm the impression that they are not poisonous in any way, but also we are helped to a plain and literal understanding of the statement that John in the wilderness fed on locusts and wild honey.1 141. They do not communicate poison.—Locusts, as a rule, only injure vegetable life, not animal life directly. In fact, men have 1 In a very excellent book, entitled On Veldt and Farm, by Frances Macnab,, p. 224, it is said, pertaining to this subject: “ On the whole, the case is one for administration. The Kaffirs throughout South Africa require instruction and keep- ing up to the mark on the subject. Let us take Bechuanaland as a fair sample of the way they have been taught to meet the difficulty. Not a locust was heard of in Mafeking, on the north-eastern border of British Bechuanaland, until 1891. Then they began coming in very small swarms indeed, and the natives looked upon them as a godsend in the way of food. Other people treated them as curiosities. No one thought of destroying them. Now they are there in myriads, and have spread destruction right across Bechuanaland, and yet no steps have been taken to destroy them. The natives, of whom there are many thousands, depend upon mealies and the milk of their herds. The pasture and the mealies were both alike swept away by the locusts, and the natives themselves are now dying of diseases engendered by improper and unwholesome food. To meet these difficulties, distributions of seed have been made, and the people are given mealies to plant the plots with. “ If we look at Bechuanaland—both the Protectorate and the old Crown Colony —we shall see that almost without exception the fine soil in well-watered districts belongs to the Kaffirs. But who has taught them to make use of these opportunities for irrigation ? ... It would also have been a wise measure to try and discover whether some plants, such as those above alluded to, would grow there, instead of courting a repetition of the disaster by having no other crop except mealies or corn, which, of all others, are the crops most affected by locusts. It is a case for minimising loss, and something should be demanded in return for the free gift of seed, so as to eventually turn at least one corner of the loss into profit. Improved roads, the digging out and kilning of lime, the planting of trees, the erecting of water-storage, are all points on
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