regale themselves during the summer season,” says the Empire County
Argus, “is the Grasshopper roast. Having been an eye-witness to the
preparation and discussion of one of their feasts of Grasshoppers, we
can describe it truthfully. There are districts in California, as well
as portions of the plains between Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains,
that literally swarm with Grasshoppers, and in such astonishing numbers
that a man cannot put his foot to the ground, while walking there,
without crushing great numbers. To the Indian they are a delicacy, and
are caught and cooked in the following manner: A piece of ground is
sought where they most abound, in the center of which an excavation is
made, large and deep enough to prevent the insect from hopping out when
once in. The entire party of Diggers, old and young, male and female,
then surround as much of the adjoining grounds as they can, and each
with a green bough in hand, whipping and thrashing on every side,
gradually approach the center, driving the insects before them in
countless multitudes, till at last all, or nearly all, are secured in
the pit. In the mean time smaller excavations are made, answering the
purpose of ovens, in which fires are kindled and kept up till the
surrounding earth, for a short distance, becomes sufficiently heated,
together with a flat stone, large enough to cover the oven. The
Grasshoppers are now taken in coarse bags, and, after being thoroughly
soaked in salt water for a few moments, are emptied into the oven and
closed in. Ten or fifteen minutes suffice to roast them, when they are
taken out and eaten without further preparation, and with much apparent
relish, or, as is sometimes the case, reduced to powder and made into
soup. And having from curiosity tasted, not of the soup, but of the
roast, really, if one could divest himself of the idea of eating an
insect as we do an oyster or shrimp, without other preparation than
simple roasting, they would not be considered very bad eating, even by
more refined epicures than the Digger Indians.”[308]
An item dated Tuesday, Aug. 21st, 1742, in the Gentleman’s Magazine,
states: “Great damage has been done to the pastures in the country,
particularly about Bristol, by swarms of Grasshoppers; the like has
happened in Pennsylvania to a surprising degree.”[309]
A common species in Sweden, the _Decticus verrucivorus_, is employed by
the native peasants to bite the warts on their hands; the black fluid
which it emits from its mouth being supposed to possess the power of
making these excrescences vanish.[310] This black fluid, from whatever
Grasshoppers it may be emitted, is called by our boys “tobacco spit,”
which it much resembles; and they attribute to it also a wart-curing
quality. When they catch one, they hold it between the thumb and
fore-finger, and cry out,--
Spit, spit tobacco spit,
And then I’ll let you go.
The exuviæ of a Grasshopper called _Semmi_ or _Sebi_, Kempfer tells us,
are preserved for medicinal uses, and sold publicly in shops both in
Japan and China.[311]
Dr. James, quoting Dioscorides, says: “Grasshoppers (_Locusta Anglica
minor, vulgatissima_, Raii _Ins._ 60.) in a suffumigation relieve under
a dysury, especially such as is incident to the female sex. The Locusta
Africanus is a very good antidote against the poison of the
Scorpion.”[312]
After describing the Grasshopper of Italy, Brookes says: “It is often an
amusement among the children of that country to catch this animal; and,
by tickling the belly with their finger, it will whistle as long as they
chuse to make it.”[313]
In France, Grasshoppers are called _Sauterelles_, Hoppers; and in
Germany, _Heupferde_, Hay-horses, because they generally feed on
grasses, and their head has something of the form of a horse’s head.
If Grasshoppers appear early in the summer in great numbers, they
foretell famine and drouth,--a superstition obtaining in Maryland.
Locustidæ--Locusts.
Moufet says: “That Locusts should be generated of the carkasse of a mule
or asse (as Plutarch reports in the life of Cleonides) by putrefaction,
I cannot with philosophers determine; first, because it was permitted to
the Jewes to feed on them; secondly, because no man ever yet was an
eye-witness of such a putrid and ignoble generation of Locusts.”[314]
The first record of the ravages of the Locusts, which we find in
history, is the account in the Book of Exodus of the visitation to the
land of Egypt. “And the Locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and
rested in all the coasts of Egypt--very grievous were they.... For they
covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and
they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees
which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing in the
trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of
Egypt.”[315]
It is to the Bible, too, we go to find the best account, for correctness
and sublimity, of the appearance and ravages of these terrific insects.
It is thus given by the prophet Joel: “A day of darkness and of
gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread
upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been
ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of
many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame
burneth; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them
a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Like the
noise of chariots[316] on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like
the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong
people set in battle array. Before their faces the people shall be much
pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty
men; they shall climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march
every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks; neither
shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path; and
when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. They shall run
to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb
up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The
earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble; the sun[317]
and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.”
The usual way in which they are destroyed is also noticed by the
prophet. “I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will
drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face towards the
east sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea, and his stink
shall come up, because he hath done great things.”[318]
Paulus Orosius tells us that in the year of the world 3800, during the
consulship of M. Plautius Hypsæus, and M. Fulvius Flaccus, such infinite
myriads of Locusts were blown from the coast of Africa into the sea and
drowned, that being cast upon the shore in immense heaps they emitted a
stench greater than could have been produced by the carcasses of one
hundred thousand men. A general pestilence of all living creatures
followed. And so great was this plague in Numidia, where Micipsa was
king, that eighty thousand persons died; and on the sea-coast, near
Carthage and Utica, about two hundred thousand were reported to have
perished. Thirty thousand soldiers, appointed as the garrison of Africa,
and stationed in Utica, were among the number. So violent was the
destruction that the bodies of more than fifteen hundred of these
soldiers, from one gate of the city, were carried and buried in the same
day.[319]
St. Augustine also mentions a plague to have arisen in Africa from the
same cause, which destroyed no less than eight hundred thousand persons
(_octigenta hominum millia_) in the kingdom of Masanissa alone, and many
more in the territories bordering upon the sea.[320]
Blown from that quarter of the globe, Locusts have occasionally visited
both Italy and Spain. The former country was severely ravaged by myriads
of these desolating intruders, in the year 591. These were of a larger
size than common, as we are informed by Mouffet, who quotes an ancient
historian; and from their stench, when cast into the sea, arose a
pestilence which carried off near a million of men and cattle.[321]
In A.D. 677, Syria and Mesopotamia were overrun by Locusts.[322]
“About the year of our Lord 872,” we read in Wanley’s Wonders, “came
into France such an innumerable company of Locusts, that the number of
them darkened the very light of the sun; they were of extraordinary
bigness, had a sixfold order of wings, six feet, and two teeth, the
hardness whereof surpassed that of stone. These eat up every green thing
in all the fields of France. At last, by the force of the winds, they
were carried into the sea (the Baltic) and there drowned; after which,
by the agitation of the waves, the dead bodies of them were cast upon
the shores, and from the stench of them (together with the famine they
had made with their former devouring) there arose so great a plague,
that it is verily thought every third person in France died of it.”[323]
These Locusts devoured in France, on an average every day, one hundred
and forty acres; and their daily marches, or distances of flight, were
computed at twenty miles.[324]
In 1271, all the cornfields of Milan were destroyed; and in the year
1339, all those of Lombardy.[325] We read in Bateman’s Doome, that in
1476, “grasshoppers and the great rising of the river Isula did spoyle
al Poland.” A famine took place in the Venetian territory in 1478,
occasioned by these terrific scourges, in which thirty thousand persons
are reported to have perished. Mouffet mentions many other instances of
their devastations in Europe,--in France, Spain, Italy, and
Germany.[326]
A passage of Locusts in France, in 1613, entirely cut up, even to the
very roots, more than fifteen thousand acres of corn in the neighborhood
of Arles, and had even penetrated into the barns and granaries, when, as
it were by Providence, many hundreds of birds, especially starlings,
came to diminish their numbers. Notwithstanding this, nothing could be
more astonishing than their multiplication, for the fecundity of the
Locust is very remarkable. Upon an order issued by government, for the
collection of their eggs, more than three thousand measures were
collected, from each of which, it was calculated, would have issued
nearly two millions of young ones.[327] In 1650, they entered Russia, in
immense divisions, in three different places; thence passed over into
Poland and Lithuania, where the air was darkened by their numbers. In
many parts they lay dead to the depth of four feet. Sometimes they
covered the surface of the earth like a dark cloud, loaded the trees,
and the destruction which they produced exceeded all calculation.[328]
In 1645, immense swarms visited the islands of Formosa and Tayowan, and
caused such a famine that eight thousand persons died of hunger.[329]
“In 1649,” says Sir Hans Sloane, “the Locusts destroyed all the products
of the island of Teneriffe. They came from the coast of Barbary, the
wind being a Levant thence. They flew as far as they could, then one
alighted in the sea, and another on it, so that one after another they
made a heap as big as the greatest ship above water, and were esteemed
almost as many under. Those above water, next day, after the sun’s
refreshing them, took flight again, and came in clouds to the island,
whence the inhabitants had perceived them in the air, and had gathered
all the soldiers of the island and of Laguna together, being 7 or 8000
men, who laying aside their arms, some took bags, some spades, and
having notice by their scouts from the hills when they alighted, they
went straight thither, made trenches, and brought their bags full, and
covered them with mould.... After two months fruitless management of
them in this manner, the ecclesiastics took them in hand by penances,
etc. But all would not do: the Locusts staid their four months; cattle
eat them and died, and so did several men, and others stuck out in
botches. The other Canary islands were so troubled, also, that they were
forced to bury their provisions. They were troubled forty years before
with the like calamity.”[330]
Barbot, after mentioning a famine that happened in North Guinea in
1681, which destroyed many thousands of the inhabitants of the
Continent, and forced many to sell themselves for slaves, to only get
sustenance, says these fearful famines are also some years occasioned by
the dreadful swarms of Locusts, which come from the eastward and spread
over the whole country in such prodigious multitudes, that they darken
the very air, passing over head like mighty clouds. They leave nothing
that is green wheresoever they come, either on the ground or trees, and
fly so swiftly from place to place, that whole provinces are devastated
in a very short time. Barbot adds, terrific storms of hail, wind, and
such like judgments from Heaven, are nothing to compare to this, which
when it happens, there is no question to be made but that multitudes of
the natives must starve, having no neighboring countries to supply them
with corn, because those round about them are no better husbands than
themselves, and are no less liable to the same calamities.[331]
Of a swarm, which in the year 1693 covered four square miles of ground,
a German author has made the following estimate. Observing that, when he
trod on the ground, at least three were crushed, and that in a square
German measure, less than an English foot, ten were destroyed; and after
determining the number of these square measures in the four miles, he
concluded that ninety-two billions, one hundred and sixty millions of
Locusts were congregated on the surface. This is altogether a very
moderate calculation, for not only is their number more compact in
breadth, but they are often piled knee-high on the earth.[332]
In 1724, Dr. Shaw was a witness of the devastations of these insects in
Barbary. He has given us a description of their habits.[333] For four
successive years, from 1744 to 1747, Locusts ravaged the southern
provinces of Spain and Portugal.[334] In a letter from Transylvania,
dated August 22d, 1747, a graphic description is given of two vast
columns that overswept that country. “They form,” says the writer, “a
close compact column about fifteen yards deep, in breadth about four
musket-shot, and in length about four leagues; they move with such
force, or rather precipitation, that the air trembles to such a degree
as to shake the leaves upon the trees, and they darkened the sky in such
a manner, that when they passed over us I could not see my people at
twenty feet distance.”[335] This flight was four hours in passing over
the Red Tower. The guards here attempted to stop them, by firing cannon
at them; and where, indeed, the balls and shot swept through the swarm,
they gave way and divided; but, having filled up their ranks in a
moment, they proceeded on their journey.[336] In an item dated
Hermanstadt, July 24, 1748, it is stated that on the day before, a
hussar, coming from the plague committee, saw such a host of these
insects near Szanda, that they covered the country for a mile round, and
were so thick, that he was obliged to dismount from his horse, and halt
for three hours, until the inhabitants of the district, coming with all
sorts of instruments, beat about and forced with loud cries these pests
to quit the spot.[337] In another item, dated Warsaw, August 15, 1748,
it is stated that a certain prince sent out soldiers against the
Locusts, who fired upon them not only with small arms, but with cannons.
They succeeded in dividing the Locusts, but unluckily with the noise
frightened away the storks and cranes which daily consume many of these
insects.[338] Some stragglers from these swarms which so desolated
Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland, in the years
1747 and ’48, made their way into England, where they caused some
alarm.[339] During this grand invasion of Europe, they even crossed the
Baltic, and visited Sweden in 1749. Charles the Twelfth, in Bessarabia,
imagined himself, it is said, assailed by a hurricane, mingled with
tremendous hail, when a cloud of these insects suddenly falling, and
covering both men and horses, arrested his entire army in its
march.[340]
During the devastations committed by the Locusts in Spain in 1754, ’55,
’56, and ’57, a body of them entered the church of Almaden, and
devoured the silk garments that adorned the images of the saints, not
sparing even the varnish on the altars.[341]
In 1750 and ’53 Poland was again devastated by Locusts.[342] In June,
1772, there were several swarms of “large black flies of the Locust
kind,” that did incredible damage to the fruits of the earth, seen in
England. Salt water, it is said, was found effectual in destroying
them.[343]
From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Morocco was terribly devastated by
Locusts: every green thing was eaten up, not even the bitter bark of the
orange and pomegranate escaping--a most dreadful famine ensued. The poor
wandered over the country, in search of a wretched subsistence from the
roots of plants. They picked, from the dung of camels, the undigested
grains of barley, and devoured them with eagerness. Vast numbers
perished, and the streets and roads were strewed with the unburied
carcasses. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their children, and
husbands their wives. When they visit a country, says Mr. Jackson, from
whom we have gathered the above facts, speaking of the same empire, it
behooves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay from
three to seven years. When they have devoured all other vegetables, they
attack the trees, consuming first the leaves and then the bark.[344]
To prevent the fatal consequences which would have resulted from a
passage of Locusts in 1780 near Bontzhida, in Transylvania, fifteen
hundred persons were ordered each to gather a sack full of the insects,
part of which were crushed, part burned, and part interred.
Notwithstanding this, very little diminution was remarked in their
numbers, so astonishing was their multiplication, until very cold and
sharp weather had come on. In the following spring there were millions
of eggs disinterred and destroyed by the people, who were levied “en
masse” for the operation; but notwithstanding all this, many places of
tolerable extent were still to be found, in which the soil was covered
with young Locusts, so that not a single spot was left naked. These
were finally, however, swept into ditches, the opposite sides of which
were provided with cloths tightly stretched, and crushed.[345]
When the provincial governors of Spain are informed in the spring that
Locusts have been seen, they collect the soldiers and peasants, divide
them into companies and surround the district. Every man is furnished
with a long broom, with which he strikes the ground, and thus drives the
young Locusts toward a common center, where a vast excavation, with a
quantity of brushwood, is prepared for their reception, and where the
flame destroys them. Three thousand men were thus employed, in 1780, for
three weeks, at Zamora; and it was reckoned that the quantity collected
exceeded 10,000 bushels.[346] In 1783, 400 bushels more were collected
and destroyed in the same way.[347]
Mr. Barrow informs us that in South Africa, in 1784 and 1797, two
thousand square miles were literally covered by Locusts, which, being
carried into the sea by a northwest wind, formed, for fifty miles along
shore, a bank three or four feet high; and when the wind was in the
opposite point, the horrible odor which they exhaled was perceptible a
hundred and fifty miles off.[348]
The immense column of Locusts which ravaged all the Mahratta territory,
and was thought to have come from Arabia, extended, Mr. Kirby’s friend
told him, five hundred miles, and was so dense as thoroughly to hide the
sun, and prevent any object from casting a shadow. This horde was not
composed of the migratory Locust, but of a red species, which imparted a
sanguine color to the trees on which they settled.[349]
Mr. Forbes describes a flight of Locusts which he saw soon after his
arrival at Baroche in 1779. It was more than a mile in length, and half
as much in breadth, and appeared, as the sun was in the meridian, like a
black cloud at a distance. As it approached, its density obscured the
solar rays, causing a gloom like that of an eclipse, over the gardens,
and causing a noise like the rushing of a torrent. They were almost an
hour in passing a given point.[350]
In another place, this traveler states that, in one considerable tract
near the confines of the Brodera district, he witnessed a mournful
scene, occasioned by a scourge of Locusts. They had, some time before he
came, alighted in that part of the country, and left behind them, he
says, “an awful contrast to the general beauty of that earthly
paradise.” The sad description of Hosea, he adds, was literally
realized: “That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the caterpillar
eaten. They have laid waste the vine, and barked the fig-tree; they have
made it clean bare, and the branches thereof are made white: the
pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the
trees of the field are withered. Howl, O ye husbandmen! for the wheat
and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. How do
the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have
no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate!”[351]
On the 16th of May, 1800, Buchanan met with in Mysore a flight of
Locusts which extended in length about three miles. He compares the
noise they made to the sound of a cataract.[352] This swarm was very
destructive to the young crops of jola.[353]
In 1811, at Smyrna, at right angles to a flight of Locusts, a man rode
forty miles before he got rid of the moving column. This immense flight
continued for three days and nights, apparently without intermission. It
was computed that the lowest number of Locusts in this swarm must have
exceeded 168,608,563,200,200! Captain Beaufort determined that the
Locusts of this flight, which he himself saw, if framed into a heap,
would have exceeded in magnitude more than a thousand and thirty times
the largest pyramid of Egypt; or if put on the ground close together, in
a band of a mile and an eighth in width, would have encircled the globe!
This immense swarm caused such a famine in the district of Marwar, that
the natives fled for subsistence in a living torrent into Guzerat and
Bombay; and out of every hundred of these Marwarees, Captain Carnac
estimates, ninety-nine died that year! Near the town of Baroda, these
poor people perished at the rate of five hundred a day; and at
Ahmedabad, a large city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, one hundred
thousand died from this awful visitation![354]