220 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



improperly be compared. The neck of this formidable insect is 

 also defended by a hard scaly substance, in the same manner as the 

 neck of the Arabian war-horse was defended by plates of iron. The 

 Arabian horse is carefully taught to recognise his enemy in the 

 field of battle, which he no sooner does, than he rushes upon him 

 with the utmost violence, and attempts to tear him in pieces with 

 his teeth. The teeth of the locust are very sharp and strong. With 

 what astonishing rapidity this insect devours every green thing, and 

 scatters desolation over the fairest regions of the earth, has already 

 been described ; from whence it appears, that the comparison of 

 the Saracen horse to the locust, is by no means inapplicable. Nor 

 is the sound of their wings less remarkable : the inspired writer 

 says, * The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of 

 many horses running to battle ;' and travellers have stated, that 

 'the passage of the locust over their heads was like the noise of a 

 great cataract.' 



A great deal has been written on the nature of the food adopted 

 by John the Baptist, one article of which is stated to have been 

 * locusts,' Matt. iii. 4. The dispute has been as to whether these 

 were the insects so called, or the fruit of a certain tree designated 

 by the same name. That locusts properly so called were allowed 

 to the Jews as an article of food, is certain from Lev. xi. 22 ; and 

 that they are actually used for this purpose in many parts of the 

 East, we have the testimony of several unexceptionable writers. 

 But notwithstanding this, we are of opinion that the insect, which 

 required curing and cooking, and which is deemed by the Arabs a 

 great delicacy, formed no part of the plain and simple, and as it 

 would appear both from the testimony of scripture, and from the 

 customs of the pseudo disciples of John, still existing in Syria, the 

 exclusively vegetable diet of the holy Baptist. 



