254 THE INSECT PLAGUES OF THE TROPICAL WORLD 



Cape Grardafui, and to the south of the Eed Sea, are obliged to 

 retire with their cattle to the sandy plains to preserve them 

 from destruction. 



The French traveller, D'Escayrac, tells us of a fly in Soudan 

 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 Russia, 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 devastations, but we cease 

 to wonder 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." 



" 0, Allah ! " exclaimed 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, 



