220 MEANS OF DESTEOYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 



been used. These were drawn along the ground, as low as possible, 

 by two men having hold one of each end, who at the same time made 

 a noise by bawling and beating, thus endeavoring to drive them into 

 trenches dug across, or to a linen cloth stretched out upon the ground 

 and drawn up to a ridge, where they were trampled upon or crushed 

 with rollers, or burnt up along with the grass. 



Instead of these absurd, unreasonable, and inefficacious means of 

 attacking the locust, we find that, in remote antiquity, the wisest pre- 

 cautions were adopted. 



On the island of Lemnos, in Grreece, it was ordained that, on the 

 appearance of the locusts, each inhabitant should furnish a certain 

 measure of them to the rural police; and among the Cyrenians it was 

 considered obligatory upon every one to take part, three times a year, 

 in the general destruction of these insects, first, in tramplinp' down 

 the eggs, next in destroying the young larvas, and lastly in killing the 

 adult locusts. A neglect to obey this ordinance subjected the indi- 

 vidual to general contempt, and was punished as disobedience to the 

 laws. 



In China it has been the rule from the earliest times to ]ublish 

 yearly, in the Pekin Gazette, the edict of Bogdy-Khan, that all 

 the rural authorities should attend betimes to the destruction of the 

 locusts in order to prevent their becoming a public scourge. The 

 governors of provinces are consequently obliged, in all places situated 

 near the coast,* to assemble the people early in the spring, and dis- 

 tribute them in parties about the known nests of the larvaa of the 

 locust, and see that the destruction of these larv?e is efi'ected in good 

 season, speedily, and in the regular manner. They also distribute to 

 the laborers the established compensation for their work. 



In the time of the Eastern Roman Empire, the whole population 

 was wont to hasten forth to the destruction of the locusts. Kerchiefs 

 and sheets were spread out upon the ground under the bushes and 

 trees, and upon these the insects were driven and shaken down. These 

 cloths were then rolled up and twisted hard. In other places they 

 used sacks, into which the locusts were thrown and crashed under foot. 

 At the close of the hunt the whole gathering was weighed, and the 

 Greek patriarch distributed for it a fixed payment. Such a regulation 

 exists to the present day in many parts of Turkey, where, on the ap- 

 pearance of the locusts, the local authorities, for the purpose of 

 destroying them, drive forth the peasants armed with brooms and 

 shovels, especially the so-called rayas, or Christian population, who, 

 however, find it difficult to obta,in the established reward of four parotsh- 

 kas the oka.f Some years ago, in a single morning, as many as 8,000, 



""^ It is the common belief of the Chhiese, that the locust is engendered in the littoral 

 provinces, by means of the sun's rays, from putrefying fish-roes remaining along the shore 

 after a haul. This absurd theory probably originated in the fact that on the sea- 

 shore, and about brackish waters in general, great quantities of dead locusts are heaped up, 

 which perisli there by reason that, in leaping about the brackish soil, the insects sink into it 

 and the salt sticks to their legs, leaving them unable to free themselves and escape ; the 

 next advancing tide drowns them, and casts them up on the shore. The locust is also 

 especially fond of laying its eggs in sandy places overgrown with reeds, where consequently 

 they are hatched. 



f An oka is about 2| jx»unds. 



