200 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



V. Gaza. — Saddle Locust: — Locusta ephippiger. — Wingless Lo- 

 cust: — Locusta aptera. — Nymph Locust : — Locusta Puppa. — It will be 

 recollected that from our examination of the name Gaza, employed by 

 the prophets Amos and Joel, (p. 174-,) we ascertained that it was used 

 as the name of an insect eminently destructive, not only of the vine but 

 of all kinds of plants ; and that its ravages were succeeded by those of 

 several species of locusts, which completed the destruction of all that 

 this formidable insect had left undevoured. The word Gaza is ren- 

 dered by caterpillar in the Septuagint and Vulgate, and by creeping, 

 that is, apterous or wingless, locust in the Chaldee version. If it be 

 remembered that in the days of Ptolemy the Jews of Egypt, to whom 

 we owe the Greek translation of the Sacred Books, were very im- 

 perfectly acquainted with Hebrew, which was to them a dead lan- 

 guage ; tliat St. Jerome, whose translation has served as a basis for 

 the Vulgate, was still more ignorant with regard to the designation of 

 material objects, it will be found that the Chaldee version is on these 

 accounts of higher authority than the two other versions : and if the 

 works of Rosenmiiller and Oedmann*, who have discussed this point of 

 criticism with equal sagacity and erudition, be consulted, we shall be 

 convinced, notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of Bochart and 

 Michaelis, that the four different names employed by Amos and Joel 

 as the names of insects, all denote locusts. The observations of the 

 judicious traveller Shaw remove all doubt upon the subject. He in- 

 forms us that in Africa, in the months of March and April, it frequently 

 happens that the locusts driven by the south wind obscure the sun, 

 and augment in density until the middle of May, and that after com- 

 pleting their ravages they remove to lay their eggs, and diminish in 

 number. Then follow, after the interval of a few days, some smaller 

 species, moving like the former in troops, which are in turn succeeded 

 by one or two other species, which complete the devastation. 



M. Oedmann thought that completely to vindicate the Chaldee text 

 it was necessary to suppose the Gaza to be a locust without wings or 

 elytra, not yet come to its full growth, which was mistaken by the 

 Hebrews for a perfect insect and distinguished by a particular name. 

 But the orientals were too well acquainted with locusts, which from 

 all antiquity had supplied them with food, to allow of our imagining 

 that the Hebrews could have committed such an error. Neither is it 

 necessary to suppose it. We now know several species of creeping 

 locusts which perfectly correspond to the creeping locust of the Chal- 

 dee version ; a fact of which Oedmann appears to have been ignorant. 



* Rosenmiiller, IIa?idbuch der Bihlische alterthume Ktmde, Leipsic, 4tliBand, 

 1831, 8vo, pp. 386 and 388. Oedmann, Vermischte Sammlungcn mis der Na- 

 turkunde, a\is dem Schwedischen, uebersetz. von D, Groniiig, 1787, 12mo, 

 2nd Heft, pp. 116, 117. 



