CHAPTER II 



CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE IN THE " OLD WORLD." 



The plague of locusts is as old, nay older, than the Bible, 

 where, in Exodus, we are told how they went up over the 

 land of Egypt and " covered the face of the whole earth, 

 so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every 

 herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the 

 hail had left ; and there remained not any green thing in 

 the trees, or in the herbs of the field, throughout all the 

 land of Egypt." * Paulus Orosius tells us that in the year 

 of the world 3800, such infinite myriads of locusts were 

 Mown from the coast of Africa into the sea and drowned, 



[Fig. 5.1 



Migratory Locust of Europe. 



that, being cast upon the shore, they emitted a stench 

 greater than could have been produced by the carcasses of 

 one hundred thousand men, and caused a general pesti- 



* Exodus, X, 15. 



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