116 LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



stantly coming in contact with their faces and 

 bodies. Captain Riley covered his face with 

 his handkerchief, to protect his eyes from injury, 

 and pushed on his mule as fast as possible. They 

 covered the earth for about eight miles in length 

 and three in breadth, and the party were two 

 hours in passing them. 



I have so far spoken only of the mischief 

 which these little animals do. Let us now see 

 if we cannot find that they are also of some use 

 to the inhabitants of the countries where they 

 abound. It appears that, from the days of 

 Moses to the present time, they have constituted 

 an important article of food to many of the 

 Eastern arid African nations. Moses, in his 

 instructions to the children of Israel, has par- 

 ticularly mentioned the kinds they were at liber- 

 ty to eat: " Even these of them ye may eat, the 

 locust after his kind, and the bald locust after 

 his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the 

 grasshopper after his kind." We read in the 

 New Testament that John the Baptist lived upon 

 locusts and wild honey, while in the wilderness 

 ofJudea. It is most probable it was this kind 

 of locust. 



