LOCUSTS AND GRASSHOPPEES. 203 



The word '" grub " is used more appropriately iu treatiiig" 

 of the undeveloped state of Diptera, Hymeuoptera, (Joleop- 

 tera. Pdlmerivorm and cankerworm are also understood as 

 implying larv.'v of locusts in Joel i, 4, though cankerworm {■a 

 by some under.s'tood to signify centipede. Fahnerworin and 

 <;ankerworm cannot assuredly be regarded as conveying the 

 meaning of the original, and yet it is hard to see what other 

 English renderings the translators could have devised to 

 denote the young of two different species of locusts. The 

 term worm, indeed, is employed in a very loose and indefinite 

 way to denote several orders of organic creatures that have 

 no connection M'hatever with one another, but is then 

 properl}" made use of when it is applied to the earthworm 

 of our gardens, Lumhrlcus terreatrls, and is of coiu'se 

 etymologically associated with such Latin words as vermes, 

 vermicularis. 



In Jonah iv. 7, we read God prepared a worm.* The 

 meaiiing doubtless is either a centipede or the larva of a 

 locust. Both these creatures attack IVuit. An earthworm 

 can hardly be intended, as that would only attack the root 

 or fallen fruit. Indeed, it may fairly be questioned Avhether 

 earthworm is designated in any of the numerous passages 

 of Holy Writ where " worm " is mentioned, save and except, 

 in Micah vii, 17— •' They shall move out of their holes like 

 worms of the earth."t (But 6(^eL<i Ixx.) 



But to resume. In the writings of the Hebrew prophets 

 the following passages seem descriptive of the habits of the 

 locusts : — Isaiah xxxiii, 4 — " Your spoil shall be gathered like 

 the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro 

 of locusts shall he run upon them." Jeremiah xlvi, 23 — 

 '• They are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumer- 

 able." Jeremiah li, 14 — " Surely I will fill thee with men, 

 as with caterpillers." Jeremiah li, '11 — •' Cause the horses 

 to come up as the rough caterpillers " (four passages in 

 major prophets). N.B. — The vast numbers, the movements, 

 and the gathering together of Orthoptera are here referred 



* a-KuiXr]^ the word in Ixx means eartliworni, Lumhricus. 



t Canon (iii'dlestune reminds me of the same word in Deut. xxxii, 24, 

 "Poison of serpents of the dust," A.V. ; "poison of crawling things of the 

 earth," E,.V. But why is tlie same word in original translated serpents 

 of the dust iu Dent., and "worms of the earth" in Micah/ in A.V. 

 '"Crawling things of the earth" in E.V. is a nice little non-committing 

 rendering. He that sits in the room of the unlearned will tlonbtless 

 regard " worms of the earth " as earth woinis. 



