LOCUSTS AS FOOD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 15

LOCUSTS AS FOOD

AFRICAN NATIVES' DISH MISSIONARY'S QUAINT STORY [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY. Oct. ll Locusts and wild honey may have been the meat of John the Baptist, but Mr. J. R. Hay, missionary of the Church of Christ, does not envy him his diet of locusts Mr. Hay, Mrs Hay and their two children, returned to Sydney this week on their way to New Zealand, on furlough, after living in Southern Rhodesia, 96 miles from Fort Victoria, toward the Portuguese border, where thev worked among the Mashona peoples. The missionary, and for that matter, his infant daughter, have tasted dried which, with ground maize, is a recognised dish among the natives. There was something of an almond flavour about the locusts, but Mr. Hay said they were far from appetising. Mrs. Hay toid how one day she found her child, a toddler, munching something, which she thought to be raisins. Actually, the child was eating locusts, which had been given her by a native. The child suffered no after-effects. Mr. and Mrs. Hay told quaint tales of life at their mission station, where they began in a tent. The natives believe that their eternal life is carried on through their children. They worship the departed spirits, this being done mainly with the drinking of beer brewed from millet. If crops are not good they blame the spirits and drink beer to appease them. If crops are good they rejoice with the spirits and drink the beer. Mr. Hav said he reached the conclusion that the natives got some pleasure, apart from the spiritual aspect, in the worship.