THE LOCUST. 149 



doubt that these reptiles are still to be found in the 

 neighbourhood of the Mediterranean, and probably were 

 at one time much more numerous than they are now. 



We pass on to the Insects ; and among these the Locust 

 claims pre-eminence, on account of its extraordinary 

 powers of destruction. Allusions to locusts are frequent 

 in Scripture, and we read in the Gospels of their being 

 used as food ; and travellers tell us that in the East they 

 still form a common article of diet. They are prepared in 

 different ways : sometimes they are ground and pounded, 

 and then mixed with flour and water and made into cakes ; 

 or they are salted and then eaten; sometimes smoked, 

 boiled or roasted, stewed, or fried in butter. Dr. Kitto, 

 after partaking of them, pronounces them as more like 

 shrimps than anything else ; and other writers speak of 

 them as by no means disagreeable to the palate. 



Their numbers are extraordinary. " With the burning 

 south winds of Syria," writes Olivier, "there come up 

 from the interior of Arabia and the southernmost parts of 

 Persia clouds of locusts, whose ravages to these countries 

 are as grievous and nearly as sudden as those of the 

 heaviest hail in Europe, We witnessed them twice. It 

 is difficult to describe the effect produced on us by the 

 sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides, and to a 

 great height, by an innumerable quantity of these insects, 

 whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise re- 

 sembled that of rain, — the sky was darkened, and the 

 light of the sun considerably weakened. In a moment 

 the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields 



