THE LOCi;ST. S31 



which leaves the ox uninjured but destroys the dromedary. 

 On account of this plague the camel is confined to the 

 northern boundary of the Soudan, while the oxen graze in 

 safety throughout the whole country. This fly has caused 

 more migrations among the Arabs of the Soudan than all 

 their wars ; and in the dry season it even drives the elephant 

 from Lake Tsad by flying into its ears. 



Though the locusts not seldom extend their ravages to the 

 steppes of southern Eussia, though they have been known 

 to burst like a cloud of desolation over Transylvania and Hun- 

 gary, and stray stragglers now and then 

 even find their way to England, yet 

 their chief habitat and birthplace is the 

 torrid zone. They wander forth in count- 

 less multitudes, and at very irregular 

 periods ; but how it comes that they are 

 multiplied to such an excess in particular 

 years and not in others, has never yet 

 been ascertained, and perhaps never will 

 be. They are armed with two pairs of 



strong mandibles ; their stomach is of extraordinary capacity 

 and power ; they make prodigious leaps by means of their 

 muscular and long hind legs ; and their wings even carry them 

 far across the sea. On viewing a single locust, one can hardly 

 conceive how they can cause such devastation, but the wonder 

 ceases on hearing of their numbers. 



Mahomet — so say his followers — once read upon the wing 

 of a locust: 'We are the army of Grod ; we lay ninety-nine 

 eggs ; and if we laid a hundred, we should devour the whole 

 earth and all that grows upon its surface.' ' Allah ! ' ex- 

 claimed the terrified prophet, ' Thou who listenest patiently to 

 the prayers of Thy Servant, destroy their young, kill their 

 chieftains, and stop their mouths, to save the Moslems' food 

 from their teeth ! ' Scarce had he spoken when the angel Gabriel 

 appeared, saying, ' Grod grants thee part of thy wishes.' And, 

 indeed, as all true believers know, this prayer of their prophet, 

 written on a piece of paper, and enclosed in a reed which is 

 stuck in the ground, is sure to preserve a field or an orchard 

 from locust devastation. 



As a locust host advances, its columns are sometimes seen 



