200 BARON WALCK ENAER ON THE INSECTS 
V. Gaza.— Saddle Locust :—Locusta ephippiger.— Wingless Lo- 
cust :—Locusta aptera.— Nymph Locust :—Locusta Puppa.—It will be 
recollected that from our examination of the name Gaza, employed by 
the prophets Amos and Joel, (p. 174,) we ascertained that it was used 
as the name of an insect eminently destructive, not only of the vine but 
of all kinds of plants; and that its ravages were succeeded by those of 
several species of locusts, which completed the destruction of all that 
this formidable insect had left undevoured. The word Gaza is ren- 
dered by caterpillar in the Septuagint and Vulgate, and by creeping, 
that is, apterous or wingless, locust in the Chaldee version. If it be 
remembered that in the days of Ptolemy the Jews of Egypt, to whom 
we owe the Greek translation of the Sacred Books, were very im- 
perfectly acquainted with Hebrew, which was to them a dead lan- 
guage; that St. Jerome, whose translation has served as a basis for 
the Vulgate, was still more ignorant with regard to the designation of 
material objects, it will be found that the Chaldee version is on these 
accounts of higher authority than the two other versions: and if the 
works of Rosenmiiller and Oedmann*, who have discussed this point of 
criticism with equal sagacity and erudition, be consulted, we shall be 
convinced, notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of Bochart and 
Michaélis, that the four different names employed by Amos and Joel 
as the names of insects, all denote locusts. The obsérvations of the 
judicious traveller Shaw remove all doubt upon the subject. He in- 
forms us that in Africa, in the months of March and April, it frequently 
happens that the locusts driven by the south wind obscure the sun, 
and augment in density until the middle of May, and that after com- 
pleting their ravages they remove to lay their eggs, and diminish in 
number. Then follow, after the interval of a few days, some smaller 
species, moving like the former in troops, which are in turn succeeded 
by one or two other species, which complete the devastation. 
M. Oedmann thought that completely to vindicate the Chaldee text 
it was necessary to suppose the Gaza to be a locust without wings or 
elytra, not yet come to its full growth, which was mistaken by the 
Hebrews for a perfect insect and distinguished by a particular name. 
But the orientals were too well acquainted with locusts, which from 
all antiquity had supplied them with food, to allow of our imagining 
that the Hebrews could have committed such an error. Neither is it 
necessary to suppose it. We now know several species of creeping 
locusts which perfectly correspond to the creeping locust of the Chal- 
dee version ; a fact of which Oedmann appears to have been ignorant. 
* Rosenmiiller, Handbuch der Biblische alterthume Kunde, Leipsic, 4th Band, 
1831, 8vo, pp. 386 and 388. Oedmann, Vermischte Sammlungen aus der Na- 
turkunde, aus dem Schwedischen, uebersetz. von D. Groning, 1787, 12mo, 
2nd Heft, pp. 116, 117. 
