CH. XII.] THE LOCUST, ETC. 183 



ceed until the sim is pretty high, so as to dry the 

 corn from dew, for otherwise they will either stick 

 to the stalks or lie hid under the grass ; but when 

 they happen to be driven to a waste piece of ground, 

 they are to be beaten with sticks or briers ; and if 

 they gather together in heaps, straw and litter is to 

 be thrown over them and set on fire. Now this 

 method seems rather to lessen their number than 

 totally to destroy them, for many of them lurk un- 

 der the grass or thick corn, and in the fissures of 

 the ground, from the sun's heat ; wherefore it is 

 requisite to repeat this operation several times in 

 order to diminish their numbers, and consequently 

 the damage done by them. 



" It will likewise be of use, when a large troop 

 of them has pitched, to dig a long trench of an ell 

 width and depth, and place several persons along 

 its edges, provided with brooms and such like 

 things, while another numerous set of people form 

 a semicircle, that takes in both ends of the trench 

 and encompasses the locusts, and, by making the 

 noise above mentioned, drive them into the trench, 

 out of which, if they attempt to escape, those on 

 the edges are to sweep them back, and then crush 

 them with their brooms and stakes, and bury them 

 by throwing in the earth again. But when they 

 have begun to fly, there should be horsemen on the 

 watch in the fields, who, upon any appearance of 

 the swarm taking wing, should immediately alarm 

 the neighbourhood by a certain signal, that they 

 might come and fright them from their lands by all 

 sorts of noise ; and if, tired with flying, they happen 

 to pitch on a waste piece of land, it will be very 

 easy to kill them with sticks and brooms, in the 

 evening or very early in the morning, while they 

 are wet with dew, or at any time in rainy weather, 

 for then they are not able to fly. I have already 

 taken notice, that if the weather be cold or wet in 

 autumn, they generally hide themselves in secret 



