ORDER II.—BUGS. 69 
of entomology, has often caused intense anxiety and alarm 
among the people of different parts of this country at the 
appearance of an innumerable swarm of Cicadas. They 
have actually imagined themselves afflicted with the Plague 
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 gustu suavissime 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 
