118 - LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 



(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 raoon."^ 



To accompany this piece of satire, the following suits 

 well: 



A Chinese author, quoted by Rev. Thomas Smith, ob- 

 serves, 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 !^ 



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 imag- 

 ination, that almost all people have looked on them with 

 superstitious horror. We have shown how that their de- 

 vastations 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 scor- 

 pion, the hip of the camel, the legs of the stork, the wings 

 of the eagle, and the tail of the dragon.^ 



The Mohammedans say, that after God had created man 

 from clay, of that which was left he made the Locust : and 



1 Harleian lUisceL, ii. 523. 



^ Xaiure and Art, vi. 109. 



3 Bochart, Ilierozoic, Pt, II L. iv. c. 5, 475. — Much of this descrip- 

 tion is quite oriental, but such is the general resemblance to some of 

 the animals mentioned, that in Italy it still bears the name of "Caval- 

 letta." A German name for this Locust, as well as the Grasshopper 

 (before mentioned), is the "Hay-horse." About the Locust's neck, 

 too, the integuments have some resemblanCi^ to the trappings of a 

 horse; some species, however, have the appearance of being hooded. 

 In the Bible, Locusts are compared to horses. — .loel, ii. 4 ; Kev. ix. 7. 

 Ray says, '■'■Caput oblvngum, cqui in^tar prona ■y^ecians.''^ 



