400 RAVAGES OF INSECTS. 



terrible devastation produced by the larvae of the locust 

 (^LoGusta migratoria. Leach),— the scourge of Oriental coun- 

 tries. " A fire devoureth before them," says the .Prophet 

 Joel, " and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the 

 garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate 

 wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The 

 sound of their wings is as the sound of chariots, of many 

 horses running to battle ; on the tops of mountains shall 

 they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth 

 the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before 

 their faces, the people shall be much pained, all faces shall 

 gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men ; they 

 shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they shall march 

 every one in his ways, and they shall not break their ranks ; 

 neither shall one thrust another."* 



The intelligent traveller. Dr. Shaw, was an eye-witness 

 of their devastations in Barbary in 1724, Avhere they first 

 appeared about the end of March, their numbers increasing 

 so much in the beginning of April as literally to darken the 

 sun ; but by the middle of May they began to disappear, 

 retiring into the Mettijiah and other adjacent plains to 

 deposit their eggs. " These were no sooner hatched in 

 June," he continues, "than each of the broods collected 

 itself into a compact body, of a furlong or more in square ; 

 and marching afterwards directly forwards toward the sea, 

 they let nothing escape them, — they kept their ranks like 

 men of war; climbing over, as they advanced, every tree 

 or wall that was in their way ; nay, they entered into our 

 very houses and bed-chambers, like so many thieves. The 

 inhabitants, to stop their progress, formed trenches all over 

 their fields and gardens, which they filled with water. 

 Some placed large quantities of heath, stubble, and other 

 combustible matter, in rows, and set them on fire on the 

 approach of the locusts ; but this was all to no purpose, foj 

 the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires put out, 

 by immense swarms that succeeded each other. 



" A day or two after one of these hordes was in motion, 



* Joel ii. 2, &c. 



