ORDER II. BUGS. 69 



of entomology, has often caused intense anxiety and alarm 

 among the people of diti'erent parts of this country at the 

 appearance of an innumerable swarm of Cicadas. They 

 have actually imagined themselves afflicted with the Plao-ue 

 of Egypt, and apprehended famine and pestilence. To avoid 

 this mistake, let us change the word " Locust," wherever 

 it occurs in the Bible, into the word '' Grasshopper" — an 

 insect of which we shall presently speak at length, and in 

 whose natural history will be found many additional rea- 

 sons why it must be the insect designated in Scripture; and 

 no other. 



Our Cicada, commonly called Locust, is a harmless, love- 

 ly creature, and has been celebrated for its song from the 

 most ancient times. "To the ancient Greeks no sound 

 was more agreeable than the chirping of Cicadas, not only 

 because it seemed to give life to the solitude of the shady 

 grove and academic walks, but because it always conveyed 

 to their minds the idea of a perfectly happy being." So 

 delighted were they with its song that they kept it in cages 

 and called it "the Nightingale of the Nymphs" — "the 

 Sweet Prophet of the Summer" — " the Love of the Muses," 

 etc. Indeed it was regarded by all as the happiest as well 

 as the most innocent of animals. By both Greeks and Ro- 

 mans it was also considered as an excellent article of food, 

 particularly the female before she had deposited her eggs ; 

 and Aristotle says of it, " Quo tempore giistu suavissimce sunt''' 

 — At which time they taste very sweet. 



The genus Cicada is found in all the temperate climates 

 and warm countries of the globe. In the south and east of 

 Europe they are continually singing, and continually an ob- 

 ject of admiration. They dwell upon the olive and other 

 trees, but principally upon the ash, from the bark of which, 

 when pierced by their stings, there exudes a liquid sub- 

 stance, which becoming dry is known under the name of 

 "manna," and which some have supposed to be identical 



