260 NATURAL HISTORY. 
Alexander sent an army of thirty thousand men against 
it. ‘The soldiers,” says Jaeger, “forming a line of sey- 
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 “ oreat 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, hyeenas, antelopes, elephants, ete., 
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 
