ORTHOPTERA. 



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■he olive-trees, in spite of the bitterness of their foliage. At 

 ielizane and at L'Habra they attacked the cotton-fields. The road, 

 ^o kilometres long, which connects Mostaganem with Mascara, was 

 Covered to the whole of its extent. 



In the province of Constantine the locust appeared almost 

 ;imultaneously, from the Sahara to the sea, and from Bougia to La 

 Ilalle. At Batna, at Setif, at Constantine, at Guelma, at Bona, at 

 Philippeville, at Djidjelly, the inhabitants struggled with energy 

 igainst this invasion, but neither fire nor any obstacles opposed to the 

 idvance of this winged army were able to stop their ravages. The 

 French Government, to alleviate as much as possible the ruin which 

 vas thus brought upon the colony, opened a public subscription at 

 he end of the year 1866. 



The negroes of Soudan endeavour to frighten the locusts in 

 heir flight by savage yells. In Hungary they employed for the same 

 )bject the noise of cannon. In the middle ages, for the want of 

 :annon, they exorcised the locusts. A traveller of the sixteenth 

 :entury, the monk Alvarez, relates that he also employed exorcisms 

 Igainst an immense host of these destructive insects which he met 

 ,vith in Ethiopia. When he perceived them, he made the Portuguese 

 md the natives form in procession, and ordered them to chant 

 :)salms. "Thus chanting," says he, "we went into a country where 

 :he corn was, which having reached, I made them catch a good 

 nany of these locusts, to whom I delivered an adjuration, which I 

 :arried with me in writing, by me composed the preceding night, sum- 

 noning, admonishing, and excommunicating them. Then I charged 

 ;hem in three hours' time to depart to the sea, or else to go to the 

 and of the Moors, leaving the land of the Christians ; on their 

 •efusal of which, I adjured and convoked all the birds of the air, 

 mimals, and tempests, to dissipate, destroy, and devour them ; and 

 or this admonition I had a certain quantity of these locusts seized, 

 md pronouncing these words in their presence, that they might not 

 ^e ignorant of them, I let them go, so that they might tell the rest." 

 [f one reflects that on their arrival in the land of the Moors, these 

 same locusts were perhaps received by prayers which had for their 

 object to send them back to the land of the Christians, they must 

 lave been very much embarrassed by such contradictory adjurations. 



The Arabs have also an infallible means of ridding themselves of 

 :he locusts. Here is what General Daumas tells us on the subject. 

 According to Ben-Omar, the Prophet read one day, on the wings of 

 I locust, written in Hebrew characters : " We are the troops of the 

 Most High God ; we each one lay ninety-nine eggs. If we were 



