SAID TO BE PRODUCED BY MAGIC. 129 



and when multiplied excessively, as was the case 

 in France in the year 1735, produces scenes of 

 desolation which, as the results of apparently 

 an insignificant insect's doings, can scarcely be 

 credited. In the months of June and July in 

 that year they became so numerous, that the 

 gardeners and peasantry in the districts plagued 

 by them declared that they must have been created 

 by enchantment. In some places Reaumur was 

 assured that an old soldier had been seen to throw 

 the spell. In other places an ugly old woman, 

 who was as wicked as she was frightful, had caused 

 all the mischief. Their prodigious numbers ap- 

 peared to the ignorant and superstitious peasantry 

 an indubitable proof that they were created by 

 sorcery. And though we cannot, of course, sym- 

 pathise with their thoughts on this subject, we 

 can well imagine and feel for their astonishment 

 and dismay as they beheld the wide desolation of 

 every green thing produced by the innumerable 

 millions of these larvse, which covered forest, field 

 and garden with their bodies. Many persons 

 began to fear they were really poisonous creatures, 

 and refused in consequence to partake of salads or 

 other vegetable food of a similar kind. This was 

 K 



