130 LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 



300 leaf^ues to windward of Barbados, he says a Locust 

 alig'lited on the forecastle among the sailors !^ 



Several species of Locusts are beautifully marked ; these 

 were sought after by young Jewish children as playthings.^ 



The eggs of the Chargol Locust, Truxalis iiasuta?, the 

 Jewish women used to carry in their ears to preserve them 

 from the earache.^ 



The word Locust, Latin Locusta, is derived by the old 

 etymologists from locus, a place, and ustiis, burned, — 

 "quod tactu multa urit morsu vero omnia erodat." True 

 Locusts are the Acridiiim, or Criquefs, of Geoffroy, and 

 the Gryllus of Fabricius. The Migratory-locust, Locusta 

 migratoria, a rather small insect, is the most celebrated 

 species of the family. To it almost all the devastations 

 before mentioned have been attributed. It is most probable, 

 however, many species have been confounded under the same 

 name. 



In Spain, as we are told by Osbeck, the people of fashion 

 keep a species of Locust — called there Gryllo — in cages — 

 grillaria, — for the sake of its song.* De Pauw says that, 

 like Canary birds, they were kept in cages to sing during 

 the celebration of mass.^ 



The song of a Spanish Gryllo on one occasion, if we may 

 credit the historian, was the means of saving a vessel from 

 shipwreck. The incident evinces the perilous situation of 

 Caiieza de Vara, in his voyage toward Brazil, and is related 

 by Dr. Southcy in his history of that country as follows : 



"AVhen they had crossed the Line, the state of the water 

 was inquired into, and it was found, that of a hundred casks 

 there remained but three, to supply four hundred men and 

 thirty horses. Upon this, the Adelantado gave orders to 

 make for the nearest land. Three days they stood toward 

 it. A soldier, who had set out in ill health, had brought a 

 Gryllo, or ground cricket, with him from Cadiz, thinking to 

 be amused by the insect's voice ; but it had been silent the 

 whole way, to his no little disappointment. Now, on the 

 fourth morning, the Gryllo began to sing its shrill rattle, 

 scenting, as it was immediately supposed, the land. Such 



1 Hist, of Jam., ii. 201. 



2 Smith's Bib. Diet. 3 md, 

 ^ Travels, i. 71. 



5 Egypt a/ui China, ii. 106. 



