LOCUSTIPuT: — LOCUSTS. 1 1 9 



in utter despair, they look upon this devastating scourp^e as 

 a just chastisement from heaven for their or their nation's 

 sins, or as directed by that fatality in which they all Ijc- 

 lieve.^ 



The wings of some Locusts being spotted, were thought 

 by many to be leaves from the book of fate, in which letters 

 announcing the destiny of nations were to be read. Paul 

 Jetzote, professor of Greek literature at tlie Gymnasium of 

 Stettin, wrote a work on the meaning of three of these let- 

 ters, which were, according to him, to be seen on the wings 

 of those Locusts which visited Silesia in 1712. These let- 

 ters were B. E. S., and formed the initials of the Latin 

 words "Bella Erunt Sseva," or "Babel Est Solitudo;" also 

 the German words, "Bedeutet Erschreckliche Schlacten," 

 portending frightful battles, "Bedeutet und Erfreuliche 

 Siege," portending happy victories. There are Greek and 

 Hebrew sentences likewise, in which, no doubt, the pro- 

 fessor showed as much learning, judgment, and spirit of 

 prophecy as in those already quoted.^ 



A quite common belief in our own country is, that every 

 Locust's wing is marked with either the letter W, portend- 

 ing War, or the letter P, portending Peace. 



Not content with the dreadful presence of this plague, the 

 inhabitants of most countries took that opportunity of add- 

 ing to their present misery by prognosticating future evils. 

 The direction of their flight pointed out the kingdom doomed 

 to bow under the divine wrath. The color of the insect 

 designated the national uniform of such armies as were to 

 go forth and conquer.^ 



Aldrovandus states, on the authority of Cruntz, that 

 Tamerlane's army being infested by Locusts, that chief 

 looked on it as a warning from God, and desisted from his 

 designs on Jerusalem.^ 



Mouffet says : " If any credit may be given to Apomasaris, 

 a man most learned in the learning of the Indians, Persians, 

 and Egyptians, to dream of the coming of Locusts is a sign 

 of an army coming against us, and so much as they shall 

 seem to hurt or not hurt us, so shall the enemy. "^ 



^ Riley's Narratwe, p. 234. 



2 Ins. (Murray, 1838), ii. 186. 



3 Ihul, 187. " Ibid. 



5 Theatr. fas., p. 125. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 088. 



