170 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. XII. 



prognosticating future evils. The direction of their 

 flight pointed out the kingdom doomed to bow under 

 ihe divine wrath. The colour of the insect desig- 

 nated the national uniform of such armies as were 

 to go forth and conquer. 



Aldovandus 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. 



But to turn from these idle tales to the real hor- 

 rors of its history. The locust feeds on all green 

 things, though the food is not the same with each 

 kind. Some prefer the rankest and coarsest grass, 

 and leave the finer untouched. They have been 

 known to consume the straw with which the vines 

 were bound to the poles of a vineyard, and pass over 

 the shrub itself. But whatever they fall on they eat 

 with voracity, and leave whole countries, which be- 

 fore were green, quite black, and as if burnt by fire. 

 But though voracious, and though the plains on 

 which they may have happened to alight may not 

 be sufficient to supply the whole of their countless 

 myriads, yet there is a semblance of subordination 

 among them. They are not observed to scramble 

 for the portion which a more fortunate neighbour 

 may have alighted on, but each takes that which 

 falls to his lot. 



Pliny has given us many tales of the ferocity of 

 these insects, and Aldrovandus has copied them. 

 That they fall on the snake, and, seizing it by the 

 neck, throttle it ; and that one is a match for the 

 serpent. That they consume animal as well as 

 vegetable substances is improbable ; they have been 

 known, however, when several have been shut up 

 together, to fall on, attack, and devour each other, 

 in this respect imitating many species of herbivor- 

 ous caterpillars. 



Their numbers are so great that the sun is for 

 hours eclipsed by a flight of these insects. A Ger- 



