It has not been till lately that any of the travellers into Palestine
have told what was meant by the locusts mentioned by St. Matthew as part
of the food of John the Baptist. Dr. Clarke first related, that a tree
grows in the Holy Land, which is called the locust tree, and produces an
eatable fruit; but this fact was well known to many who had been in the
Mediterranean. The tree grows in several of the countries which border
that sea. It has been found in much greater abundance in some parts of
the East Indies, whence it has now become an article of export. Many
thousands of its pods are annually imported by the East India Company;
and, either because the fruit is richer in more southern climates, or for
some other reason, a great quantity of them are shipped for Venice and
Trieste, where there is distilled from them a liquor, which is supposed
to be an antidote to the plague, or at least useful in curing it. These
pods are about twenty inches long, and from half to three-quarters of an
inch in diameter. We call them pods for want of a term which would more
accurately describe them; but they are not flat, neither have they that
sort of hinge on one side, and slight fastening on the other, which
plainly show how the shells of peas and beans are to be opened. On the
contrary, these are round; but there are two opposite lines along them,
where the colour alone would induce any one to suppose the skin to be, as
it is, thinner than elsewhere. Having the fruit before us only in a dry
state, we can describe it in no other; but at present a knife could
scarcely be made to penetrate the thicker part, and does not very easily
make its way into the thinner. The fruit, which lies in little cells
within, is a pulp, or paste, somewhat like that of tamarinds, but
smoother, and not so sweet. There are pips in it nearly as hard, and
about half as large, as those of a tamarind, containing a kernel in each.
It should be added, that in the stems of this locust tree wild bees still
deposit their honey.