ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Besides those woids translated locust, [bald locust and grasshopper, in our versions, 

 there are others variously rendered which are yet believed to have signified locusts, either 

 of different kinds or in different stages of growth 



Oharqol, the "beetle" of Lev. xi. 21, 22, is believed to have been some kind of 

 locust for it is numbered among the insects that " have legs above their feet to leap 

 withal." In connection with this, Wood, in his Natural History of the Bible, expressed 

 a belief that there are no people that eat beetles j but in this he was mistaken. Dr. 

 Hartwig says : — 



•' The Goliath beetles of the coast of Guinea are roasted and eaten by the nativese 

 who, doubtless like many other savages, not knowing the value of that which they are 

 eating, often make a bonne bouche of what an entomologist would most eagerly desir. 

 to preserve." — Polar and Tropical Worlds, p. 592. 



Of words that are supposed to denote the locust in an immature state, we have; — 



Ohastil, the devourer, translated £i caterpillar" in 1 Kings, vin. 37, 2 Ghron. yi 

 28 ; Psalm lxxviii. 46 ; Isaiah xxxm. 4 ; Joel i. 4, and n. 25. 



Yelee, the feeder, translated " caterpillar " in Ps„ cv. 34, and Jer. iv. 14 and 27 ; 

 and cankerworm in Joel I. 4 and n. 25, and in Nahram in. 15, 16. 



Dr. Thompson gives a graphic description of a procession of these " caterpillars, 

 locusts. 55 He says : — 



" Their number was astounding, the whole face of the mountain was black with 

 them. On they came like a living deluge. We dug trenches and kindled fires, and 

 beat and burned to death ' heaps upon heaps,' but the effort was utterly useless. Wave 

 after wave rolled up the mountain side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches and hedges 

 — those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed. ... It was 

 perfectly appalling to watch the animated river as it flowed up the road and ascended the 

 hill behind my house. . . . For four days they continued to pass on towards the 

 east, and finally only a few stragglers were left." — The Land and the Book, p. 417. 



This account will perhaps help us better to understand what is meant by "palmer- 

 worm." In considering this a double difficulty faces us — the meaning of the original 

 word Gazam : the meaning of the English word palmer-worm. The latter certainly does 

 not mean the Tpsolophus pometellus, Harris, of our Canadian lists. 



Gazam or Gezem, the u gnawer," is rendered in the Septuagint kampe from kampto, 

 to bend (as a caterpillar in motion). In the Vulgate it is translated eruca, and in the 



German reupe. 



In Joel, I. : 4, we read " That which the palmer-worm (gazam) hath left the locust 

 (arbeh) hath eaten " " Literally," says Pocock, " ; That which the licking (locust) hath 

 left the devouring (locust) hath eaten." 



The Seventy understood by Gazam something that progressed with undulations. 



The knowledge of the Eastern locusts and their ravages was no doubt spread amongst 

 the English people by returned Crusaders and other pilgrims from the Holy Land. How 

 would such men tell of a scene such as Dr. Thompson witnessed 1 They would probably 

 speak of the immature locusts as caterpillars and describe their progressive movements as 

 undulations. And the common people associating things described with things that were 

 familiar to them would probably think of the devouring " processionary caterpillars "* of 

 Europe which, like the " army- worm " of this continent, do incalculable injury. 



At the close of the Crusades hordes of masterless, dissolute men, in passing through 

 Europe on their return, must have devoured and wasted all they came upon, and yet were 

 they proud of the cross and palm-branch, the tokens of their service. In irony, it may 

 be — remembering the ravages of these men — the common people came to speak of 



* Gntthocampa proeessionea and Cltsiocampa neustria. 



