440 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



thought my medicine-making might possibly have 

 been a joke ; so they came to me in a most serious 

 manner, and said that they wished me to make other 

 medicine. I told them that nothing I could do would 

 check the locusts ; that they were doubtless sent from 

 Heaven as a punishment for the prices extorted by 

 the Daitcho from me in exchange for the goods they 

 sold ; and I added that I could in no way interfere 

 with such punishment. 



Finding me obdurate, the natives set to work to 

 do what they could in order to check the swarming 

 of the locusts. They seized branches of trees in their 

 hands, and set about the plantations, furiously beat- 

 ing the air and waving the branches. An hour of 

 this work fatigued them to such a degree that almost 

 all of them lay down upon the ground, and gave vent 

 to loud lamentations and curses ; but the locusts 

 moved not. Occasionally five or six of the more 

 determined would rise up after a short period of 

 rest, and return to the branch-swinging; then, hav- 

 ing again exhausted themselves, they would sink 

 back again into a lethargic condition. These spas- 

 modic and abortive efforts they continued for several 

 hours. Finally several of them came to me, and in 

 the most heart-broken manner said that it rested 

 with me alone whether or not they should starve to 

 death the following year. To this they added, that 

 they had done the best they could for me in all 

 ways, and they knew that, if I would, I could stop 

 this raid of locusts. From my knowledge of the 

 natives I was certain that if I did not appear to 

 make an attempt to stop the locusts, such action 



