THE rocust. 273

“Even these of them ye may eat: the locust after his kind,
and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his
kind, and the grasshopper after his kind ;” and it is sug-
gested, with great probability, that the four insects here
named “indicate the four leading genera of the locust
family, of which the domestic cricket, the mole cricket, the
green grasshopper, and the locust, may be taken as repre-
sentatives.” ‘The Israelites being in the Peninsula of
Sinai, where they received this law, it is a remarkable fact
that Burckhardt describes the present inhabitants of that
peninsula, as the only Bedouins known to him, who do not
use the locust as an article of food*.” In other parts of
western Asia they are commonly eaten, and in many
towns may be seen shops devoted exclusively to their sale.
They are prepared by being thrown into boiling water
mixed with salt; when taken out, the head, feet, and wings
are picked off, and they are kept in sacks for use. After-
wards they may be broiled, stewed, or fried in butter; and
though Europeans generally look upon them at first with
repugnance, they are said to bear a great resemblance to
shrimps or prawns. The reader will remember that these
insects are mentioned as forming part of the food of John
* Pictorial Bible.
T