ENTOMOLOGICAL. 81 



Ages the children of superstition in Ethiopia employed 

 exorcism against an immense host^of these destructive 

 insects. A celebrated monk thus describes the cere- 

 mony. Having made the natives form in procession, he 

 ordered them to sing psalms, " Thus chanting," says 

 he, " we went into a country where the corn was, which, 

 having reached, I made them catch a good many of these 

 locusts, to whom I delivered an adjuration, which I 

 carried with me in writing, by me composed the pre- 

 ceding night, summoning, admonishing, and excommuni- 

 cating (!) them. Then I charged them in three hours' 

 time to depart to the sea, or else to go to the land of the 

 Moors (!) leaving the land of the Christians. On their 

 refusal of which, I adjured and convoked all the birds of 

 the air, animals, and tempests, to dissipate, destroy, and 

 devour them; and for this admonition I had a certain 

 quantity of these locusts seized, and, pronouncing these 

 words in their presence, that they might not be ignorant 

 of them, I let them go, so that they might tell the rest." 



The Arabs are said to have an infallible method of 

 ridding themselves of the locusts ; and in relating both 

 these stories, we may well consider how the legends of the 

 Papacy are reflected by those of Mahomet, who one day is 

 reported to have read in Hebrew character on the wings 

 of a locust these words : " We are the troops of the Most 

 High God ; we each lay ninety-nine eggs ; if we were to 

 lay one hundred, we should devastate the whole world." 

 Upon which Mahomet, who is said to have been greatly 

 alarmed, made an ardent prayer, in which he begged God 

 to destroy these enemies. 



In answer to this, the angel Gabriel told him that a 

 part of his prayer should be answered; and since then 

 this answer, as a reminder, we suppose, written on a piece 

 of paper and enclosed in a reed, is planted in a wheat- 



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