Chapter V: Part 5

We now turn to the history of the Locust as an article of food--a striking benefit directly derived from insects. For as they are the greatest destroyers of food, so as some recompense they furnish a considerable supply of it to numerous nations--as they cause, they are frequently the means of preventing famines. They are recorded to have done this from the remotest antiquity.

In the curious account given by Alexis of a poor Athenian family’s provisions, mention of this insect is found:

For our best and daintiest cheer,
Through the bright half of the year,
Is but acorns, onions, peas,
Ochros, lupines, radishes,
Vetches, wild pears nine and ten,
With a Locust now and then.[394]

Diodorus Siculus, who lived about threescore years before our Saviour’s birth, first, if I mistake not, described the Acridophagi, or Locust-eaters, of Ethiopia. He says they are smaller than other men, of lean and meager bodies, and exceeding black: that in the spring the south winds rise high, and drive an infinite number of Locusts out of the desert, of an extraordinary bigness, furnished with most dirty and nasty colored wings; and these are plentiful food and provision for them all their days. This historian has also given us an account of their peculiar mode of catching these insects: In their country there is a large and deep vale, extending far in length for many furlongs together: all over this they lay heaps of wood and other combustible material, and when the swarms of Locusts are driven thither by the force of the winds, then some of the inhabitants go to one part of the valley, and some to another, and set the grass and other combustible matter on fire, which was before thrown among the piles; whereupon arises a great and suffocating smoke, which so stifles the Locusts as they fly over the vale, that they soon fall down dead to the ground. This destruction of them, he continues, is continued for many days together, so that they lie in great heaps; and the country being full of salt, they gather these heaps together, and season them sufficiently with this salt, which gives them an excellent relish, and preserves them a long time sweet, so that they have food from these insects all the year round.

Diodorus concludes his history of this people, with an account of the strange and wonderful death that comes to them at an early age, the result of eating this kind of food: They are exceeding short-lived, never living to be over forty; and when they grow old, winged lice breed in their flesh, not only of divers sorts, but of horrid and ugly shapes; that this plague begins first at the abdomen and breast, and in a short time eats and consumes the whole body. (_Phthiriasis._)[395]

Strabo, most probably quoting from the above passage from Diodorus, speaks of a nation bordering on that of the Struthophagi, or Bird-eaters, whose food consisted entirely of Locusts, and who were carried off by the same most horrible disease.[396]

Pliny remarks: “The people of the East countries make their food of grasshoppers, even the very Parthians, who otherwise abound in wealth.”[397]

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]

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]

The Caffres, as we are informed by Mr. Latrobe, when first permitted to settle at Guadenthal, before they could build ovens, according to the custom of their country, availed themselves of the Ant-hills found in that neighborhood; for, having destroyed the inhabitants by fire and smoke, they scooped them out hollow, leaving a crust of a few inches in thickness, and used them for baking, putting in three loaves at a time.[452]

Mr. Southey says that in Brazil the Spaniards hollow out the nests of the Termites, and use them for ovens.[453] The authority of Messrs. Kidder and Fletcher is, that in Brazil, “the Termites’ dwelling is sometimes overturned by the slaves, the hollow scooped wider, and is then used as a bake-oven to parch Indian-corn.”[454]

Mr. Latrobe also tells us that the clay of which these Ant-hills are formed, is so well prepared by the industrious Termites, _Termes bellicosus_, that it is used for the floors of rooms in South Africa both by the Hottentots and farmers.[455]

Mr. Southey states that in Brazil “the Spaniards pulverize the nests of the Termites, and with the powder form a flooring for their houses, which becomes as hard as stone, and on which it is said no fleas or other insects will harbor.”[456] The early Spanish settlers built the walls of their houses of the same earth; and some of which, which were erected in the seventeenth century, are said to be still in existence.[457]

Ant-hills, or rather the Termites which inhabit them, have also been used as an instrument of perhaps the most infernal torture the ingenuity of man has ever invented. For, in South Africa, at one time, the wretched victim, whether prisoner of war or offending subject, having been smeared with some oily substance, was partially interred in one of these heaps, and, if not first roasted to death by the burning sun, was literally devoured alive by the myriads of insects which have their habitation there. It has been asserted that even some Englishmen have met this dreadful fate.[458]

At Unyamwezi, in the lake regions of Central Africa, the natives chew the clay of Ant-hills as a substitute when their tobacco fails. They call this clay “sweet earth.” It is said the Arabs have also tried it without other effects than nausea.[459]

The goldsmiths of Ceylon employ the powdered clay of Ant-hills in preference to all other substances in the preparation of crucibles and moulds for their fine castings, for so delicate is the trituration to which the Termites subject this material;[460] and Knox says, “the people use this finer clay to make their earthen gods of, it is so pure and fine.”[461]

Termites, as an article of food, are eaten by the inhabitants of many countries. Mr. Kœnig, in his essay on the history of these insects, read before the Society of Naturalists of Berlin, tells us, that to catch the Termites before their emigration, the natives of the East Indies make two holes in the nest, one to windward, and the other to leeward; at the latter aperture, they place a pot, rubbed with aromatic herbs. On the windward side they make a fire, the smoke of which drives these insects into the pots. By this method they take a great quantity, of which they make, with flour, a variety of pastry, which they sell to the poorer people. This author adds, that in the season in which this aliment is abundant, the abuse of it produces an epidemic colic and dysentery, which carries off the patient in two or three hours.[462]

The Africans, says Mr. Smeatham, are less ingenious in catching and preparing them. They content themselves in collecting those which fall into the water at the time of emigration. They skim them off the surface with calabashes, filling large caldrons with them, then grill them in iron pots, over a gentle fire, stirring them as coffee is stirred. They thus eat them by handfuls, without sauce, or any other preparation, and find them delicious. This gentleman has several times eaten them cooked in this manner, and thinks them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome, being sweeter than the grub of the palm-tree weevil (_Calandra palmarum_), and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond paste.[463]

The Hottentots, Dr. Sparrman informs us, eat them greedily boiled and raw, and soon grow fat and plump upon this food.[464]

An idea may be formed of this dish by what once occurred to Dr. Livingstone on the banks of the Zouga, in South Africa. The Bayeiye chief Palani visiting this traveler while eating, he gave him a piece of bread and preserved apricots; and as the chief seemed to relish it much, he asked him if he had any food equal to that in his country. “Ah!” said the chief, “did you ever taste White-ants?” As the doctor never had, he replied, “Well, if you had, you never could have desired to eat anything better.”[465]

In the lake regions of Central Africa, says Burton, man revenges himself upon the White-ant, and satisfies his craving for animal food, which in those regions oftentimes becomes a principle of action,--a passion,--by boiling the largest and fattest species, and eating them as a relish with his insipid porridge.[466]

Buchanan says the Termes, or White-ant, is a common article of food among one of the Hindoo tribes; Mr. Forbes says, of the low castes in Mysore, and the Carnatic.[467] Captain Green relates that, in the ceded districts of India, the natives place the branches of trees over the nests, and then by means of smoke drive out the insects; which attempting to fly, their wings are broken off by the mere touch of the branches.[468]

The female Termite, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was carefully sought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee Rao, Prime-minister of Scindia, chief of the Mahrattas.[469]

The Hottentots not only eat the Termites in their perfect state, but also, when their corn is consumed and they are reduced to the necessity, in their pupa. These pupæ, which they call “rice,” on account of their resemblance to that grain, they usually wash, and cook with a small quantity of water. Prepared in this way they are said to be palatable; and if the people find a place where they can obtain them in abundance, they soon become fat upon them, even when previously much reduced by hunger. A large nest will sometimes yield a bushel of pupæ.[470]

Termite queens in the East Indies are given alive to old men for strengthening the back.[471]

Ephemeridæ--Day-flies.

The name of Ephemeridæ has been given to the insects, so called, in consequence of the short duration of their lives, when they have acquired their final form. There are some of them which never see the sun; they are born after it is set, and die before it reappears on the horizon.

These insects, indifferently called also Day-flies and May-flies, usually make their appearance in the districts watered by the Seine and the Marne, in the month of August; and in such countless myriads, that the fishermen of these rivers believe they are showered down from heaven, and accordingly call the living cloud of them _manna_--manna for fish, not men. Reaumur once saw them descend in this region so fast, that the step on which he stood by the river’s bank was covered by a layer four inches thick in a few minutes. He compares their falling to that of snow with the largest flakes.[472]

Scopoli assures us that such swarms are produced every season in the neighborhood of some particular spots in the Duchy of Carniola, that the countrymen think they obtain but a small portion, unless every farmer can carry off about twenty cartloads of them into his fields for the purpose of a manure.[473]

Libellulidæ--Dragon-flies.

On account of the long and slender body, peculiar to the insects of this family, they are with us sometimes called _Devil’s Darning-needles_, but more commonly _Dragon-flies_. In Scotland they are known by the name of _Flying Adders_, for the same reason. The English, from an erroneous belief that they sting horses, call them _Horse-stingers_. In France, from their light and airy motions, and brilliant, variegated dress, they are called _Demoiselles_; and in Germany, for the same reason, and that they hover over, and lived during their first stages in, water, _Wasser-jungfern_--Virgins of the Water. Another German name for them is _Florfliegen_--Gauze-flies, in allusion to their net-like wings. Our boys also call them _Snake-feeders_ and _Snake-doctors_, in the belief that they wait upon snakes in the capacity of feeders and doctors; and so firm are they in this belief, that frequently I have been laughed at for asserting the contrary to them. The belief probably arose from the manner in which the Dragon-fly sometimes falls a prey to the snakes. Hovering over ponds, they are fond of alighting on little sticks and twigs just out of the water, and mistaking the heads of snakes, which probably swam there for the purpose, for such twigs, they are instantly caught by the snakes.

On the 30th and 31st of May, 1839, immense cloud-like swarms of Dragon-flies passed in rapid succession over the German town of Weimar and its neighborhood. They were the _Libellula depressa_, a species which, in general, is rather scarce in that part of Germany. The general direction of this migration was from south by west to north by east. The insects were in a vigorous state, and some of the flocks flew as high as 150 feet above the level of the River Ilm.

At Gottingen on June the 1st, at Eisenach on May the 30th and 31st of the same year, swarms of the same species were seen flying from east to west; and at Calais, June 14th, similar clouds, though of a different species, were noticed on their way toward the Netherlands. At Halle, also, on May 30th, a short time before a thunder-storm, swarms of the Dragon-fly, _L. quadrimaculata_, were seen by Dr. Buhle, flying very rapidly from south to north. The _L. quadrimaculata_ is not generally found in the neighborhood of Halle.

This wonderful migration, for it is a phenomenon of rare occurrence, extended from the 51st to the 52d degree of latitude, and was observed within 27° 40′ and 30° east of Ferro. But the instance of Calais renders it probable that it extended over a great part of Europe.

Another migration of Dragon-flies was observed at Weimar on the 28th of June, 1816. The insects, in this instance, belonged also to the _L. depressa_. They were taken then, as were they also in 1839, for locusts by the common people, and looked upon as the harbingers of famine and war.

In these migrations they followed the direction of the rivers, with the currents. They did not, however, always keep close by them, since they must spread over wide districts in order to subsist.

To account for the great multiplication of these insects, in the year 1839, is by no means difficult. From the beginning to the 21st of May (in the latter part of which month, it will be remembered, they appeared), the weather had been exceedingly rainy; rivers and lakes overflowed their banks and inundated immense areas of low grounds, whereby myriads of the _larvæ_ and _pupæ_ (which live entirely in water) of the _Libellulæ_, which, under other circumstances, would have remained in deep water, and become the prey of their many enemies, fish, etc., were brought into shallow water, and hot weather following, from May 21st to May 29th, converted these shallows and swamps into true hotbeds for them. Their development into perfect insects was thus rendered rapid, so that, somewhat earlier than usual, they appeared, and in far greater, their undiminished, numbers; and, being very voracious in their appetite, as well in the imago as the pupa state, they were obliged to migrate immediately to satisfy it.[474]

Mr. Gosse observed in Jamaica, Oct. 8th, 1845, a swarm of Dragon-flies in the air, about twenty feet from the level of the ground. They floated and danced about, over the stream of water that runs through Blue-fields, much in the manner of gnats, which they resembled also in their immense numbers.[475] And Rev. T. J. Bowen, on one occasion, in descending the Ogun River (in the Yoruba country, Africa), met millions of Dragon-flies, about one-fourth of an inch in length, making their way up the country by following the course of the stream.[476]

It is commonly said among us, that if a Dragon-fly be killed, there will soon be a death in the family of the killer.

Myrmeleonidæ--Ant-lions.

When children meet with the funnel-shaped pitfalls of the larva of the Ant-lion, _Myrmeleon formicales_, they are wont to put their heads close to the ground and softly sing _ooloo-ooloo-ooloo_, till the larva, mistaking the sound for that of a fly escaping his trap, throws up a shower of sand to bring its supposed victim down again.

Ant-lions are held in great esteem in many sections of our country, so much so that they are not suffered to be in any way injured.

ORDER V.

HYMENOPTERA.

Uroceridæ--Sirex.

In a work called “_Ephemerides des curieux de la nature_,” is an observation apparently relative to this family of insects, which, if true, would be very extraordinary indeed. It is there said, that in the town of Czierck and its environs, there were seen in 1679 some unknown winged insects which, with their stings, mortally wounded both men and beasts. They fell abruptly upon men without provocation, and attached themselves to the naked parts of the body: the sting was immediately followed by a hard tumor, and if care was not taken of the wound within the first three hours, by hastily extracting the poison from it, the patient died in a few days after. These insects killed five and thirty men in this diocese, and a great number of oxen and horses. Toward the end of September, the winds brought some of them into a small town on the confines of Silesia and Poland; but they were so feeble on account of the cold, that they did but little mischief there. Eight days after, they all disappeared. These animals have all of them four wings, six feet, and carry under the belly a long sting provided with a sheath, which opens and separates in two. They make a very sharp noise in attacking men. Some of them are ornamented with yellow circles (_Sirex gigas_, or _S. fusicornis_? M. Latreille), and others are similar to them in all respects, but they have the back altogether black, and their stings are more venomous (_S. spectrum_ or _juvencus_?). The author of these observations gives an extended description of the species with the yellow circles, which he accompanies with figures, in which the character of _Sirex_ may be clearly distinguished.[477]

Cynipidæ--Gall-flies.

In the spring of 1694, some Galls hung down like chains upon the oaks in Germany, and the common people, who had never observed them before, imagined them to be magical knots.[478]

A very old and common superstition is, that every oak-apple contains either a maggot, a fly, or a spider: the first foretelling famine, the second war, and the third, the spider, pestilence. Matthiolus gravely affirms this conceit to be true;[479] and the learned Sir Thomas Browne, in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, has thought it worth his while, with much gravity, to explode it. He, however, while combating one popular error, falls himself into another, for want of that philosophical knowledge of insects which later times have succeeded in obtaining. We pass this by, and hurry to his conclusion: “We confess the opinion may hold some verity in analogy, or emblematical phancy; for pestilence is properly signified by the spider, whereof some kinds are of a very venomous nature: famine by maggots, which destroy the fruits of the earth; and war not improperly by the fly, if we rest in the phancy of Homer, who compares the valiant Grecian unto a fly. Some verity it may also have in itself, as truly declaring the corruptive constitution in the present sap and nutrimental juice of the tree; and may consequently discover the disposition of the year according to the plenty or kinds of those productions; for if the putrefying juices of bodies bring forth plenty of flies and maggots, they give forth testimony of common corruption, and declare that the elements are full of the seeds of putrefaction, as the great number of caterpillars, gnats, and ordinary insects do also declare. If they run into spiders, they give signs of higher putrefaction, as plenty of vipers and scorpions are confessed to do; the putrefying materials producing animals of higher mischief according to the advance and higher strain of corruption.”[480]

Moufet says: “In oak acorns and spongy apples sometimes worms breed, and astrologers presage that year to be likely to produce a great famine and dearth.... It is strange that Ringelbergius writes, _lib. de experiment_, that these worms may be fed to be as big as a serpent, with sheep’s milk; yet Cardanus confirms the same, and shewes the way to feed them, _Lib. de rer. varietat_.”[481]

There is a very curious operation performed at the present day in the Levant with one of these Gall-flies, which is termed _caprification_. The object of it is to hasten the maturity of figs; and the species employed for that purpose is the _Cynips ficus caricæ_, or _Cynips psenes_ of Linnæus; it consists in placing on a fig-tree, which does not produce flowers or early figs, some of these last strung together with a thread. The insects which issue from them, full of fecundating dust, introduce themselves through the eye into the interior of the second figs, fecundate by this means all the grains, and provoke the ripening of the fruit.

This operation, of which some authors have spoken with admiration, appeared to Hasselquist and Olivier, both competent observers, who have been on the spot, to be of no advantage whatsoever in fertilizing the fig;[482] and scientific men of the present day generally hold that it cannot be of any utility, for each fig contains some small flowers toward the eye, capable of fecundating all the female flowers in the interior, and moreover this fruit will grow, ripen, and become excellent to eat even when the grains are not fecundated.[483]

A curious kind of gall, produced on the rose-trees by the _Cynips rosæ_, which is known by the name of _Bedeguar_, has been placed among the remedies which may be successfully employed against diarrhœa and dysentery, and useful in cases of scurvy, stone, and worms.[484]

The galls of commerce, commonly called _Nut-galls_, are found on the _Quercus infectoria_, a species of oak growing in the Levant, and are produced by the _Cynips Gallæ tinctorum_. When gathered before the insects quit them, the nut-galls contain more astringent matter, and are then known as Black, Blue, or Green-galls. When the insects have escaped, they are less astringent, and are called White-galls. They are of great importance in the arts, being very extensively used in dyeing and in the manufacture of ink and leather. They are the most powerful of all the vegetable astringents, and are sometimes used, both internally and externally, with great effect in medicine. Those imported from Syria are the most esteemed, and, of these, those found in the neighborhood of Moussoul are considered the best.[485]

The gall of the field cirsium formerly enjoyed a very great reputation, for it was considered, when carried simply in the pocket, as a sovereign remedy against hemorrhages. It, no doubt, owed this virtue to its resemblance to the principal sign of this disease, the swelling of the vein.[486]

The galls of the ground-ivy, produced by the _Cynips glecome_, have been eaten as food in France; they have an agreeable taste, and to a high degree the odor of the plant which bears them. Reaumur, however, is doubtful whether they will ever rank with good fruits.[487]

The galls of the sage (_Salvia pomifera_, _S. triloba_, and _S. officinalis_), which are very juicy, like apples, and crowned with rudiments of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit, are gathered every year, as an article of food, by the inhabitants of the Island of Crete. This is the statement of Poumefort. Olivier confirms it, and adds: They are esteemed in the Levant for their aromatic and acid flavor, especially when prepared with honey and sugar, and form a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Constantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market.[488]

The celebrated “Dead Sea Fruits,” often called _Poma insana_, or Mad-apples, _Mala Sodomitica_, etc., which have given rise to great controversy among Oriental scholars and Biblical commentators, are produced by the _Cynips insana_ on the low oaks (_Quercus infectoria_) growing on the borders of the Dead Sea.[489]

Formicidæ--Ants.

Herodotus, who wrote in the fifth century before the birth of Christ, tells the following fabulous story without the slightest trace of diffidence or disbelief: There are other Indians bordering on the City of Caspatyrus and the country of Pactyica, settled northward of the other Indians, whose mode of life resembles that of the Bactrians. They are the most warlike of the Indians, and these are they who are sent to procure the gold; for near this part is a desert by reason of the sand. In this desert then, and in the sand, there are Ants in size somewhat less indeed than dogs, but larger than foxes. Some of them are in the possession of the King of the Persians, which were taken there. These Ants, forming their habitations under ground, heap up the sand as the Ants in Greece do, and in the same manner; and they are very like them in shape. The sand that is heaped up is mixed with gold. The Indians, therefore, go to the desert to get this sand, each man having three camels, on either side a male one harnessed to draw by the side, and a female in the middle; this last the man mounts himself, having taken care to yoke one that has been separated from her young as recently as possible; for camels are not inferior to horses in swiftness, and are much better able to carry burdens.... The Indians then, adopting such a plan and such a method of harnessing, set out for the gold, having before calculated the time, so as to be engaged in their plunder during the hottest part of the day, for during the heat the Ants hide themselves under ground.... When the Indians arrive at the spot, having sacks with them, they fill these with the sand, and return with all possible expedition; for the Ants, as the Persians say, immediately discovering them by the smell, pursue them, and they are equaled in swiftness by no other animal, so that if the Indians did not get the start of them while the Ants were assembling, not a man of them could be saved. Now the male camels (for they are inferior in speed to the females) slacken their pace, dragging on, not both equally; but the females, mindful of the young they have left, do not slacken their pace. Thus the Indians, as the Persians say, obtain the greatest part of their gold.[490]