28 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



the scorpion-bugs. They rushed about as usual, 

 evidently caring nothing for the death of the bug 

 that was worth twenty of them. 



Even in death Ranatra kept those fore feet held 

 up in their customary reverential attitude. It 

 was enough to excite superstition, if a superstitious 

 person had seen him. The Rabbis have said that 

 locusts were made out of the superfluous earth 

 that was left over after the making of Adam. 

 Mayhap if the Rabbis had known Ranatra, they 

 might have told some like marvellous tale of him. 

 The Rabbis were gifted with originality of state- 

 ment, to say the least, for did they not say that, 

 when Adam wept after the fall, though every 

 beast and bird hastened to mingle their tears with 

 his, yet the locust arrived first, on account of its 

 kindred origin with Adam? And, furthermore, 

 are not the black marks on the locust's wings 

 Hebrew characters, wherein may be read this : 

 " God is One ; He overcometh the mighty ; the 

 locusts are a portion of His army which He sends 

 against the wicked " ? 



To be sure, Ben Omar says that the prophet 

 Mohammed read the Hebrew characters differ- 

 ently, for he made them out to signify this : 

 " We are the troops of the Most High God ; we 

 each lay ninety-nine eggs. If we were to lay a 

 hundred we should devastate the whole world." 

 On account of the great alarm that these mys- 

 terious words raised in the mind of the Prophet 



