UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 313 



they appeared like a succession of clouds 

 darkening the sun : in June the new broods 

 made their appearance ; on being hatched, they 

 collected together in compact bodies of several 

 hundred yards square ; and marching directly 

 forward, climbed over trees, walls and houses, 

 ate up every plant in their way, and let nothing 

 escape. The inhabitants made trenches and 

 filled them with water ; they also placed quan- 

 tities of combustible matter in rows and set them 

 on fire ; but in vain, for the trenches were 

 quickly filled up and the fires extinguished by 

 the vast numbers that succeeded each other. 



"Strong winds, which can alone free a country 

 from this plague, have several times blown large 

 swarms over the central part of Europe, and even 

 to England; and it was a ' mighty west wind,' 

 which formerly carried them away from Egypt 

 and cast them into the Red Sea." I asked if these 

 insects were really eatable, as St. John is said to 

 have lived on locusts in the wilderness ? 



" As it is well known," said my uncle, " that 

 locusts have in all ages been eaten in the east, 

 and are still esteemed a great delicacy in Bar- 

 bary as well as in the south of Africa, some 

 commentators have endeavoured to prove that 

 St. John did eat them in the wilderness. But 

 the word translated locusts, signifies also pods or 

 seed-vessels of trees. The pods of some of the 

 Robinia and Gleditsia tribes are considered in 



