Africa, which extended in length about eight miles, and in breadth
three. He tells us, also, he was informed that several years before he
came to Mogadore, nearly all the Locusts in the empire, which at that
time were very numerous, and had laid waste the country, were carried
off in one night, and drowned in the Atlantic Ocean: that their dead
carcasses a few days afterward were driven by winds and currents on
shore, all along the western coast, extending from near Cape Spartel to
beyond Mogadore, forming in many places immense piles on the beach: that
the stench arising from their remains was intolerable, and was supposed
to have produced the plague which broke out about that time in various
parts of the Moorish dominions.[355] Before this plague in 1799, Mr.
Jackson tells us, from Mogadore to Tangier the face of the earth was
covered by them, and relates the following singular incident which
occurred at El Araiche: The whole region from the confines of the Sahara
was ravaged by the Locusts; but on the other side of the river El Kos
not one of them was to be seen, though there was nothing to prevent
their flying over it. Till then they had proceeded northward; but upon
arriving at its banks they turned to the east, so that all the country
north of El Araiche was full of pulse, fruits and grain, exhibiting a
most striking contrast to the desolation of the adjoining district. At
length they were all carried by a violent hurricane into the Western
Ocean; the shore, as in former instances, was covered by their
carcasses, and a pestilence (confirming the statement, and verifying the
supposition of Captain Riley) was caused by the horrid stench which they
emitted: but when this evil ceased, their devastations were followed by
a most abundant crop.[356]
In 1825 the Russian empire was overrun to a very alarming extent by
young Locusts. About Kiew, as far as the eye could reach, they lay piled
up one upon another to the height of two feet. Through the government of
Ekatharinoslaw and Cherson to the Black Sea, a distance of about 400
miles, they covered the ground so thickly that a horse could not walk
fast through them. The sight of such an immense number, says an
eye-witness, Mr. Jaeger, of the most destructive and rapacious insects,
justly occasioned a melancholy foreboding of famine and pestilence, in
case they should invade the cultivated and populous countries of Russia
and Poland. It was at this juncture, however, that the Emperor Alexander
sent his army of thirty thousand soldiers to destroy them. These forming
a line of several hundred miles, and advancing toward the south,
attacked them with shovels, and collected them, as far as possible, in
sacks and burned them. This is the largest army of soldiers sent against
Locusts we have any record of.[357]
In 1824, Locusts made their appearance at the Glen-Lynden Colony in
South Africa, being the first time they had been seen there since 1808.
In 1825, they continued to advance from the north; in 1826, the corn
crops at Glen-Lynden were totally destroyed by them; and in 1827, 1828,
and 1829, they extended their ravages through the whole of the northern
and southern districts of the colony. In 1830, they again
disappeared.[358]
The following graphic description of the swarm that visited Glen-Lynden
in 1825 is from the pen of Mr. Pringle. He says: “In returning to
Glen-Lynden, we passed through a flying swarm, which had exactly the
appearance, as it approached, of a vast snow-cloud hanging on the slope
of a mountain from which the snow was falling in very large flakes. When
we got into the midst of them, the air all around and above was darkened
as by a thick cloud; and the rushing sound of the wings of the millions
of these insects was as loud as the dash of a mill-wheel.... The column
that we thus passed through was, as nearly as I could calculate, about
half a mile in breadth, and from two to three miles in length.”[359]
In 1835, a plague of Locusts made their appearance in China, in the
neighborhood of Quangse, and in the western departments of Quangtung.
The military and people were ordered out to exterminate them, as they
had done two years before. A more rational mode, however, was adopted by
the authorities, of offering a bounty of twelve or fifteen cash per
catty of the insects. They were gathered so fast for this price, that it
was immediately lowered to five or six cash per catty. A strike
followed, and the Locusts were left in quiet to do as much damage as
they could.[360]
Nieuhoff tells us, Locusts in the East Indies are so destructive that
the inhabitants are oftentimes obliged to change their habitations, for
want of sustenance. He adds that this has frequently happened in China
and the Island of Tojowac.[361]
In 1828-9, in the provinces lying between the Black and Caspian Seas,
Locusts appeared in such vast numbers as were never seen in that country
before.[362]
In 1839, Kaffraria was again visited by Locusts, which, together with
the war at that time, caused so great a famine that many persons
perished for want of subsistence.[363] Again in 1849-50, this country
was visited by this dreadful scourge. The whole country, says the Rev.
Francis Fleming, was covered with them; and when they arose, the cloud
was so dense that this gentleman was obliged to dismount, and wait till
they passed over.[364]
Mr. Jules Remy says, that at his arrival at Salt Lake, he observed upon
the shore, on the top of the salt, a deposit of a foot deep which was
entirely composed of dead Locusts--_Œdipoda corallipes_. These insects,
driven by a high wind in prodigiously thick clouds, had been drowned in
the lake, after having, during the course of the summer (of 1855),
destroyed the rising crops, and even the prairie grass. A famine ensued;
but the Mormons, continues Mr. Remy, only saw in this scourge a fresh
proof of the truth of their religion, because it had happened, as among
the Israelites, in the seventh year after their settlement in the
country.[365]
According to Lieutenant Warren, whose graphic description is here
borrowed, these devastating insects of our great western plains are
“nearly the same as the Locusts of Egypt; and no one,” continues this
officer, “who has not traveled on the prairie, and seen for himself, can
appreciate the magnitude of the swarms. Often they fill the air for many
miles in extent, so that an inexperienced eye can scarcely distinguish
their appearance from that of a shower of rain or the smoke of a prairie
fire. The height of their flight may be somewhat appreciated, as Mr.
Evans saw them above his head, as far as their size would render them
visible, while standing on the top of a peak of the Rocky Mountains 8500
feet above the plain, and an elevation of 14,500 above that of the sea,
in the region where the snow lies all the year. To a person standing in
one of the swarms as they pass over and around him, the air becomes
sensibly darkened, and the sound produced by their wings resembles that
of the passage of a train of cars on a railroad, when standing two or
three hundred yards from the track. The Mormon settlements have suffered
more from the ravages of these insects than probably all other causes
combined. They destroyed nearly all the vegetables cultivated last year
at Fort Randall, and extended their ravages east as far as Iowa.”[366]
The Mormons, in their simple and picturesque descriptions, say that
these insects (“Crickets”--_Œdipoda corallipes_, Haldemars) are the
produce of “a cross between the Spider and the Buffalo.”[367]
In Egypt, in 1843, the popular idea was that the hordes of Locusts,
which were then ravaging the land, were sent by the comet observed about
that time for twelve days in the southwest.[368]
Pliny, in the words of his translator, Holland, says: “Many a time have
the Locusts been knowne to take their flight out of Affricke, and with
whole armies to infest Italie: many a time have the people of Rome,
fearing a great famine and scarcity toward, beene forced to have
recourse unto Sybil’s bookes for remedie, and to avert the ire of the
gods. In the Cyrenaick region within Barbarie, ordained it is by law,
every three years to wage warre against them, and so to conquer them....
Yea, and a grievous punishment lieth upon him that is negligent in this
behalf, as if hee were a traitour to his prince and countrey. Moreover,
within the Island Lemnos there is a certaine proportion and measure set
down, how many and what quantity every man shall kill; and they are to
exhibit unto the magistrate a just and true account thereof, and namely,
to shew what measure full of dead Locusts. And for this purpose they
make much of Iaies, Dawes, and Choughs, whom they do honour highly,
because they doe flie opposite against the Locusts, and so destroy them.
Moreover in Syria, they are forced to levie a warlike power of men
against them, and to make ridance by that means.”[369]
Democritus says, if a cloud of Locusts is coming forward, let all
persons remain quiet within doors, and they will pass over the place;
but if they suddenly arrive before they are observed, they will hurt
nothing, if you boil bitter lupines, or wild cucumbers, in brine, and
sprinkle it, for they will immediately die. They will likewise pass over
the subjacent spot, continues Democritus, if you catch some bats and tie
them on the high trees of the place; and if you take and burn some of
the Locusts, they are rendered torpid from the smell, and some indeed
die, and some drooping their wings, await their pursuers, and they are
destroyed by the sun. You will drive away Locusts, continues this same
writer, if you prepare some liquor for them, and dig trenches, and
besprinkle them with the liquor; for if you come there afterward, you
will find them oppressed with sleep; but how you are to destroy them is
to be your concern. A Locust will touch nothing, he concludes, if you
pound absinthium, or a leek, or centaury with water, and sprinkle
it.[370]
Didymus says, to preserve vines from that species of Locusts called by
the ancients _Bruchus_, set three grains of mustard around the stem of
the vine at the root; for these being thus set, have the power of
destroying the Bruchus.[371]
Nieuhoff tells us that when a swarm of Locusts is seen in China, the
inhabitants, to prevent their alighting, “march to and again the fields
with their colors flying, shouting and hallooing all the while; never
leaving them till they are driven into the sea, or some river, where
they fall down and are drowned.”[372]
Volney says, that when the Locusts first make their appearance on the
frontiers of Syria, the inhabitants strive to drive them off by raising
large clouds of smoke; and if, as it too frequently happens, their herbs
and wet straw fail them, they dig trenches, in which they bury them in
great numbers. The most efficacious destroyers of these insects are,
however, he adds, the south and southeasterly winds, and the bird called
the Samarmar.[373]
Capt. Riley tells us, it is said at Mogadore, and believed by the Moors,
Christians, and Jews, that the Bereberies inhabiting the Atlas Mountains
have the power to destroy every flight of Locusts that comes from the
south, and from the east, and thus ward off this scourge from all the
countries north and west of this stupendous ridge, merely by building
large fires on the parts of the mountains over which the Locusts are
known always to pass, and in the season when they are likely to appear,
which is at a definite period, within a certain number of days in almost
every year. The Atlas being high, and the peaks covered with snow, these
insects become chilled in passing over them, when, seeing the fires,
they are attracted by the glare, and plunge into the flame. What degree
of credit ought to be attached to this opinion, Capt. Riley says he does
not know, but is certain that the Moorish Sultan used to pay a
considerable sum of money yearly to certain inhabitants of the sides of
the Atlas, in order to keep the Locusts out of his dominions. He also
adds, the Moors and Jews affirmed to him, that during the time in which
the Sultan paid the said yearly stipend punctually, not a Locust was to
be seen in his dominions; but that when the Emperor refused to pay the
stipulated sum, because no Locusts troubled his country, and thinking he
had been imposed upon, that the very same year the Locusts again made
their appearance, and have continued to lay waste the country ever
since.[374]
An impostor, who is believed to have been a French adventurer, at one
time, it is said, endeavored to persuade the people of Morocco that he
could destroy all the Locusts by a chemical process.[375]
The superstitious Tartars of the Crimea, in order to rid their country
of its most destructive enemy, the Locusts, at one time sent over to
Asia Minor, whence these insects had come, to procure Dervises to drive
them away by their incantations, etc. These divines prayed around the
mosques, and, as a charm, ordered water to be hung out on the minarets,
which, with the prayers, were meant to entice a species of blackbird to
come in multitudes and devour the Locusts! The water thus hung out is
said to be still preserved in the mosques. On this occasion, the
Dervises collected eighty thousand rubles, the poorest shepherd giving
half a ruble.[376]
We read in “Purchas’s Pilgrims,” of Locusts being exorcised and
excommunicated, so that they immediately flew away![377] From this
interesting collection the following is clipped: “In the yeere 1603, at
Fremona, great misery happened by Grasse-hoppers, from which Paez freed
the Catholikes, by Letanies and sprinkling the Fields with Holy-water;
when as the Fields of Heretikes, seuered only by a Ditch, were spoyled
by them. Yea, a Heretike vsing this sacred sprinkling, preserued his
corne, which, to a Catholike neglecting in one Field, was lost, and
preserued in another by that couiured aspersion (so neere of kinne are
these Locusts to the Deuill, which is said to hate Holy-water).”[378]
In the south of Europe rewards are offered for the collection both of
the Locusts and their eggs; and at Marseilles, it is on record that, in
the year 1613, 20,000 francs were paid for this purpose. In 1825, the
same city paid a sum of 6200 francs for destroying these pests to
agriculture.[379] We read in the eighty-first volume of the Gentleman’s
Magazine, that most of the Agricultural Societies of Italy have offered
premiums for the best method of destroying Locusts: that in many
districts several thousand persons are employed in searching for the
eggs; that in four days the inhabitants of the district of Ofanto
collected at one time 80,000 sacks full, which were thrown into the
river.[380]
The noise Locusts make when engaged in the work of destruction has been
compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and the
effect of their bite to that of fire.[381] Volney says: “The noise they
make, in browsing on the trees and herbage, may be heard at a great
distance, and resembles that of an army foraging in secret.” His
following sentence may also be introduced here: “The Tartars themselves
are a less destructive enemy than these little animals.”[382] Robbins
compares their noise to that of small pigs when eating corn.[383] The
noise produced by their flight and approach, the poet Southey has
strikingly described:
Onward they came a dark continuous cloud
Of congregated myriads numberless,
The rushing of whose wings was as the sound
Of a broad river headlong in its course
Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar
Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm,
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks![384]
Another comparison may be introduced here, to give some idea of the
infinite numbers of these insects. Dr. Clarke compares a cloud of them
to a flight of snow when the flakes are carried obliquely by the wind.
They covered his carriage and horses, and the Tartars assert that people
are sometimes suffocated by them. The whole face of nature might have
been described as covered with a living veil. They consisted of two
species--_Locusta tartarica_ and _L. migratoria_; the first is almost
twice the size of the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by
the Tartars the herald or messenger.[385]
In the Account of the admirable Voyage of Domingo Gonsales, the little
Spaniard, to the World of the Moon, by Help of several Gansa’s, or large
Geese, we find the following: “One accident more befel me worth mention,
that during my stay, I say, I saw a kind of a reddish cloud coming
toward me, and continually approaching nearer, which, at last, I
perceived, was nothing but a huge swarm of Locusts. He that reads the
discources of learned men concerning them (as John Leo, of Africa, and
others, who relate that they are seen for several days in the air before
they fall on the earth), and adds thereto this experience of mine, will
easily conclude that they can come from no other place than the globe of
the moon.”[386]
To accompany this piece of satire, the following suits well:
A Chinese author, quoted by Rev. Thomas Smith, observes, that Locusts
never appear in China but when great floods are followed by a very dry
season; and that it is his opinion that they are hatched by the sun from
the spawn of fish left by the waters on the ground![387]
So far the history of the Locust has been but a series of the greatest
calamities which human nature has suffered--famine, pestilence, and
death. No wonder that, in all ages and times, these insects have so
deeply impressed the imagination, that almost all people have looked on
them with superstitious horror. We have shown how that their
devastations have entered into the history of nations. Their effigies,
too, like those of other conquerors of the earth, have been perpetuated
in coins.
We are the army of the great God, and we lay ninety-and-nine eggs; were
the hundredth put forth, the world would be ours--such is the speech the
Arabs put into the mouth of the Locust. And such is the feeling the
Arabs entertain of this insect, that they give it a remarkable pedigree,
and the following description of its person: It has the head of the
horse, the horns of the stag, the eye of the elephant, the neck of the
ox, the breast of the lion, the body of the scorpion, the hip of the
camel, the legs of the stork, the wings of the eagle, and the tail of
the dragon.[388]
The Mohammedans say, that after God had created man from clay, of that
which was left he made the Locust: and in utter despair, they look upon
this devastating scourge as a just chastisement from heaven for their or
their nation’s sins, or as directed by that fatality in which they all
believe.[389]
The wings of some Locusts being spotted, were thought by many to be
leaves from the book of fate, in which letters announcing the destiny of
nations were to be read. Paul Jetzote, professor of Greek literature at
the Gymnasium of Stettin, wrote a work on the meaning of three of these
letters, which were, according to him, to be seen on the wings of those
Locusts which visited Silesia in 1712. These letters were B. E. S., and
formed the initials of the Latin words “Bella Erunt Sæva,” or “Babel Est
Solitudo;” also the German words, “Bedeutet Erschreckliche Schlacten,”
portending frightful battles, “Bedeutet und Erfreuliche Siege,”
portending happy victories. There are Greek and Hebrew sentences
likewise, in which, no doubt, the professor showed as much learning,
judgment, and spirit of prophecy as in those already quoted.[390]
A quite common belief in our own country is, that every Locust’s wing is
marked with either the letter W, portending War, or the letter P,
portending Peace.
Not content with the dreadful presence of this plague, the inhabitants
of most countries took that opportunity of adding to their present
misery by prognosticating future evils. The direction of their flight
pointed out the kingdom doomed to bow under the divine wrath. The color
of the insect designated the national uniform of such armies as were to
go forth and conquer.[391]
Aldrovandus states, on the authority of Cruntz, that Tamerlane’s army
being infested by Locusts, that chief looked on it as a warning from
God, and desisted from his designs on Jerusalem.[392]
Mouffet says: “If any credit may be given to Apomasaris, a man most
learned in the learning of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians, to
dream of the coming of Locusts is a sign of an army coming against us,
and so much as they shall seem to hurt or not hurt us, so shall the
enemy.”[393]
We now turn to the history of the Locust as an article of food--a
striking benefit directly derived from insects. For as they are the
greatest destroyers of food, so as some recompense they furnish a
considerable supply of it to numerous nations--as they cause, they are
frequently the means of preventing famines. They are recorded to have
done this from the remotest antiquity.
In the curious account given by Alexis of a poor Athenian family’s
provisions, mention of this insect is found:
For our best and daintiest cheer,
Through the bright half of the year,
Is but acorns, onions, peas,
Ochros, lupines, radishes,
Vetches, wild pears nine and ten,
With a Locust now and then.[394]
Diodorus Siculus, who lived about threescore years before our Saviour’s
birth, first, if I mistake not, described the Acridophagi, or
Locust-eaters, of Ethiopia. He says they are smaller than other men, of
lean and meager bodies, and exceeding black: that in the spring the
south winds rise high, and drive an infinite number of Locusts out of
the desert, of an extraordinary bigness, furnished with most dirty and
nasty colored wings; and these are plentiful food and provision for them
all their days. This historian has also given us an account of their
peculiar mode of catching these insects: In their country there is a
large and deep vale, extending far in length for many furlongs together:
all over this they lay heaps of wood and other combustible material, and
when the swarms of Locusts are driven thither by the force of the winds,
then some of the inhabitants go to one part of the valley, and some to
another, and set the grass and other combustible matter on fire, which
was before thrown among the piles; whereupon arises a great and
suffocating smoke, which so stifles the Locusts as they fly over the
vale, that they soon fall down dead to the ground. This destruction of
them, he continues, is continued for many days together, so that they
lie in great heaps; and the country being full of salt, they gather
these heaps together, and season them sufficiently with this salt, which
gives them an excellent relish, and preserves them a long time sweet,
so that they have food from these insects all the year round.
Diodorus concludes his history of this people, with an account of the
strange and wonderful death that comes to them at an early age, the
result of eating this kind of food: They are exceeding short-lived,
never living to be over forty; and when they grow old, winged lice breed
in their flesh, not only of divers sorts, but of horrid and ugly shapes;
that this plague begins first at the abdomen and breast, and in a short
time eats and consumes the whole body. (_Phthiriasis._)[395]
Strabo, most probably quoting from the above passage from Diodorus,
speaks of a nation bordering on that of the Struthophagi, or
Bird-eaters, whose food consisted entirely of Locusts, and who were
carried off by the same most horrible disease.[396]
Pliny remarks: “The people of the East countries make their food of
grasshoppers, even the very Parthians, who otherwise abound in
wealth.”[397]
The Arabs, who are compelled at the present day to inhabit the desert of
Sahara, welcome the approach of Locusts as the means, oftentimes, of
saving them from famishing with hunger. Robbins tells us their manner of
preparing these insects for food is, by digging a deep hole in the
ground, building a fire at the bottom, and filling it with wood. Then,
after the earth is heated as hot as possible, and the coals and embers
taken out, they prepare to fill the cavity with the live Locusts,
confined in a bag holding about five bushels. Several hold the bag
perpendicularly over the hole with the mouth near the surface of the
ground, while others stand round with sticks. The bag is then opened,
and the Locusts shaken with great force into the hot pit, while the
surrounding persons immediately throw sand upon them to prevent their
flying off. The mouth of the hole is now completely covered with sand,
and another fire built upon the top of it. When the Locusts are
thoroughly roasted and become cool, they are picked out with the hand,
thrown upon tent-cloths, or blankets, and placed in the sun to dry.
During this process, which requires two or three days, they must be
watched with the utmost care, to prevent the live Locusts from devouring
them, if a flight should happen to be passing at the time. When
perfectly dry, they are pounded slightly, pressed into bags, or skins,
and are ready for transportation. To prepare them now for present
eating, they are pulverized in mortars, and mixed with water sufficient
to make a kind of dry pudding. They are, however, sometimes eaten singly
without pulverizing, after breaking off the head, wings, and legs. Mr.
Robbins considers them nourishing food.[398]
Locusts are sometimes boiled at Wadinoon for food for men and
beasts.[399]