LOCUSTS AND GRASSHOPPERS. 190 



Wherein, it may be asked, lies the diflference between a 

 locust and a g-rasshopper? Not to dwell on structural 

 divergence and anatomical difterences, the great dis- 

 crepancy in size may be instanced. It is probable, but I do 

 not assert it as a positive fact, that the largest grasshopper 

 only equals in size the smallest locust ; it is certain that 

 many locusts, those in particular tenanting Brazil, Australia, 

 and other distant lands, are far larger than any grasshopper, 

 and indeed ranking among the very largest intjects, of 

 any order whatever, known to us. Add to this fact the 

 greater swiftness and power of higher and more sustained 

 flight on the part of the locust, its occurrence in far greater 

 numbers, and in well nigh innumerable hordes in the case of 

 some species, and the proportionally destructive results 

 where all vegetation is concerned. Only too true are the 

 words of the prophet in Scripture, '* The land is as the garden 

 of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." 

 In fact, when the swarm has taken its flight else^vhere, the 

 country appears as it had been burnt Avith fire ; hence the 

 Latin name of this insect, Locusta (from locus ustus, a burnt 

 place), is peculiarly appropriate, on account of their voracity. 



One great difficulty which the translators of our Authorized 

 Version had to encounter, a difficulty, moreover, which they 

 ■were incapable of removing, and in no way to be regarded 

 as an error to be laid to their charge, was how to render all 

 the difierent W(irds in tlie original Hebrew, each certainly 

 signifying a different orthopterous insect, whether locust or 

 grasshopper, probably the former in most instances, as the 

 destructive results recorded as attending its onward marcli 

 are specially characteristic of the locust hordes — how, I repeat, 

 to render all the different words in the original Hebrew by 

 a separate English equivalent. And the same remark applies 

 to the difterent Greek words as used in the Greek version of 

 the Septuagint. 



Let it be granted that as many different kinds of locust 

 or grasshopper were known lo the ancients, and were spoken 

 of by the prophets as there are different Hebrew and Greek 

 words in the original, and indeed we cannot arrive at any 

 other conclusion, and that the three Avords of Joel i, 4, 

 translated respectively palmerworm, cankerworm, and 

 caterpillar signified the creature in its immature rjondition, 

 the larva and not the imago of three separate species 

 of locust, the translators of the A.V. had not then — we have 

 not now, with the sole exception of two species — any corre- 



