257. _The PALM-TREE GRUB, or GRUGRU, is the larva or caterpillar of a coleopterous insect (12), the palm-tree weevil_ (Curculio palmarum), _which is about two inches in length, of black colour, and has the elytra or wing cases shorter than the body, and streaked or marked with several longitudinal lines._ _This insect is found in Cayenne, Surinam, and other parts of South America._ It deposits its eggs on the summit of the palm-tree; and the grubs that issue from these eggs subsist on the soft interior parts of the tree. They become about the size of the thumb, and are much sought after in many places for the table. They are generally eaten roasted, and are considered a peculiar delicacy. We are informed, by Ælian, of an Indian king, who for a dessert, instead of fruit, set before his Grecian guests a dish of roasted worms taken from a plant: these were probably the present insects, or a kind nearly allied to them. 258. _The LOCUST_ (Gryllus migratorius) _is an insect, not much unlike our large grasshoppers, which is too common in most of the eastern countries._ _It is about two inches and a half in length, has a brownish body varied with darker spots, blue legs and jaws, the hind thighs yellowish, and the wings of yellowish brown colour spotted with black._ We are informed, in the New Testament, that the food of John the Baptist in the wilderness was "locusts and wild honey." Some of the commentators have imagined the locusts here mentioned to have been a vegetable production--a species of pulse; but this opinion will scarcely be admitted when it is known that the insects of this name, even at the present day, serve as food to many of the eastern tribes. The Ethiopians and Parthians are recorded, from the earliest periods of antiquity, to have occasionally subsisted on this species of food. And the traveller Hasselquist, in reply to some inquiries which he made on this subject, was informed that, at Mecca, when there was a scarcity of grain, the inhabitants, as a substitute for flour, would grind locusts in their hand-mills, or pound them in stone mortars: that they mixed the substance thus formed with water, and made cakes of it; and that they baked these cakes, like their other bread. He adds, that it was not unusual for them to eat locusts when there was no famine; but that, in this case, they boiled them first in water, and afterwards stewed them with butter into a kind of fricasee. The Hottentots delight in locusts as food, and even make their eggs into a kind of soup. Some of the African tribes pound and boil these insects with milk; and others eat them, after being merely broiled for a little while on the coals. Mr. Jackson says that, when he was in Barbary, in 1799, dishes of locusts were frequently served at the principal tables, and were esteemed a great delicacy. These insects are preferred by the Moors to pigeons; and it is stated that a