INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 217 



living veil. They consisted of two species, G. tataricus 

 and migratoriiiS) L.; the first is almost twice the size of 

 the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the 

 Tartars the herald or messenger 3 . — The account of an- 

 other traveller, Mr. Barrow, of their ravages in the south- 

 ern parts of Africa (in 1784 and 1797) is still more strik- 

 ing: an area of nearly two thousand square miles might 

 be said literally to be covered by them. "When driven 

 into the sea by a N. W. wind, they formed upon the shore 

 for fifty miles a bank three or four feet high, and when 

 the wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful as to be 

 smelt at the distance of 150 miles b . 



From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Morocco was terribly 

 devastated by them, every green thing was eaten up, not 

 even the bitter bark of the orange and pomegranate escap- 

 ing — a most dreadful famine ensued. — The poor were 

 seen to wander over the country deriving a miserable sub- 

 sistence from the roots of plants; and women and children 

 followed the camels, from whose dung they picked the in- 

 digested grains of barley, which they devoured with avi- 

 dity : in consequence of this, vast numbers perished, and 

 the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcases of 

 the dead. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their chil- 

 dren, and husbands their wives . When they visit a 

 country, says Mr. Jackson, speaking of the same empire, 

 it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for 

 they stay from three to seven years. When they have 

 devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, con- 

 suming first the leaves and then the bark. From Moga- 



a Travels, i. 348. b Travels, &c. 25J, 



c Southey's Thalaba/u 171. 



