"We heard the report of a gun, and were soon after gratified by seeing our huntsman arrive at the place where we had left our camel, with a fine mountain goat. Immediately on killing it he had skinned it, and then put the carcass again into the skin, carrying it on his back, with the skin of the legs tied across his breast. No butcher in Europe can surpass a Bedouin in skinning an animal quickly. I have seen them strip a camel in less than a quarter of an hour."-BURCKHARDT'S Syria, &c., p. 592. LOCUSTS. LEVIT. Xi. 22. “ These of them ye may eat ; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind." MATTHEW iii. 4. "His meat was locusts and wild honey." "The south-east* wind," writes a traveller, "constantly brought with it innumerable flights of locusts, but those which fell on this occasion, we were informed, were not of the predatory sort. They were three inches long from the head to the extremity of the wing, and their body and head of a bright yellow. The locust which destroys vegetation is of a larger kind, and of a deep red. As soon as the wind had subsided, the plain of Bushire was covered by a great number of its poorer inhabitants, men, women, and children, who came out to gather locusts, which they eat. They also dry and salt them, and afterwards sell them in the bazaars as the food of the lowest peasantry. When boiled, the yellow ones turn red, and eat like stale or decayed shrimps. The locusts and wild honey which St. John ate in the wilderness, are, perhaps, particularly mentioned, to show that he fared like the poorest of men, and not as a wild man, as some might interpret. * Exodus x. 13. In deed, the general appearance of St. John, clothed with camel's hair (or skin), with a leathern girdle about his loins, and living a life of the greatest self-denial, was that of the older Jewish prophets,* and such was the dress of Elijah, the hairy man, with a girdle about his loins."+-MORIER'S Second Journey through Persia, &c., p. 44. "A French traveller, who passed through Egypt on his way from the upper country and the Red Sea, assures me the Arabs make a sort of bread of the locusts. They dry them, grind them to a powder; then mix this powder with water, and make small round cakes, which serve for bread when that necessary article is scarce."-MADDEN's Travels. "In all the markets locusts were sold at a low price." -NIEBUHR's Arabia, vol. i. p. 356. "The Bedouins eat locusts. After having been roasted a little upon the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks, with the mixture of a little salt. They are never served up as a dish, but every one takes a handful of them when hungry."—BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., p. 239. "All the Bedouins of Arabia are accustomed to eat locusts. I have seen at Medinah and Tayf locust-shops, where these animals were sold by measure. In Egypt and Nubia they are only eaten by the poorest beggars. The Arabs, in preparing locusts as an article of food, throw them alive into boiling water, with which a good deal of salt has been mixed; after a few minutes they are taken out, and dried in the sun; the head, feet, and wings are then torn off, the bodies are cleansed from the salt, and perfectly dried; after which process whole sacks are filled with them by the Bedouins. They are sometimes eaten broiled in butter; and they often contribute materials for a breakfast when spread over unleavened bread mixed with butter."-BURCKHARDT'S Notes, &c., vol. ii. pp. 91, 92. "The natives 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 the next day with millions. It has happened that in gathering them. individuals have been bitten by serpents, and on one occasion a woman had been travelling 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 both to the ground, and fled. The locusts are 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 they 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 kind of cold stir-about. When locusts abound, the natives become quite fat.... They are, on the whole, not bad food; and when hunger has made them palatable, are eaten as a matter of course. When well fed they are almost as good as shrimps."-MOFFAT'S Missionary Labours, &c., in Southern Africa, pp. 448, 449. SALT. "Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt?" GIDEON DAVID AND OF IT-HOSPITALITY OF THE EELAUTS-ANECDOTES ILLUS- GENESIS Xviii. 1-8. "And (Abraham) sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch you a morsel of bread, and |