260 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Alexander sent an army of thirty thousand men against 

 it. " The soldiers," says Jaeger, " forming a line of sev- 

 eral hundred miles, and advancing toward the south, at- 

 tacked them, not with sword and gun, but with more an- 

 cient implements with shovels. They collected them, 

 as far as possible, in sacks, and burned them." Notwith- 

 standing this war upon them, the vegetation was destroy- 

 ed by them to a great extent. 



447. The ravages of the Locust are often adverted to 

 in the Bible, and the descriptions there given correspond 

 with those of modern travelers. They are spoken of as 

 a " great army," and it is said that " the land before them 

 is as the Garden of Eden, and behind them a desolate 

 wilderness" a result often witnessed at the present day. 

 The manner in which this insect army makes its invasion 

 is most graphically described in the second chapter of 

 Joel. 



448. Some species of Locusts are eaten now in the 

 East as they were in the time of John the Baptist. Mr. 

 Cumming, a traveler in South Africa, thus speaks of 

 them as food. " Locusts afford fattening and wholesome 

 food to man, birds, and all sorts of beasts ; cows and 

 horses, lions, jackals, hyaenas, antelopes, elephants, etc., 

 devour them. We met a party of Batlapis carrying 

 heavy burdens of them on their backs. Our dogs made 

 a fine feast on them. The cold, frosty night had render- 

 ed them unable to take wing until the sun should restore 

 their powers. As it was difficult to obtain sufficient food 

 for my dogs, I and Isaac took a large blanket, which we 

 spread under a bush whose branches were bent to the 

 ground with the mass of Locusts which covered it, and, 

 having shaken the branches, in an instant I had more 

 Locusts than I could carry on my back ; these we roast- 

 ed for ourselves and our dogs." 



Questions. What is the arrangement of the wings of the Orthop- 

 tera? What is said of the metamorphosis of this order? What are 

 its four families ? What does the family Cursoria include ? What 



