185 



LETTER VII. 

 INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



INDIRECT m JURIES — continued. 



To look at a locust in a cabinet of insects, you would not, at 

 first sight, deem it capable of being the source of so much 

 evil to mankind as stands on record against it. " This is 

 but a small creature," you would say, " and the mischief 

 which it causes cannot be far beyond the proportion of its 

 bulk. The locusts so celebrated in history must surely be of 

 the Indian kind mentioned by Pliny, which were three feet 

 in length, with legs so strong that the women used them as 

 saws. I see, indeed, some resemblance to the horse's head, 

 but where are the eyes of the elephant, the neck of the bull, 

 the horns of the stag, the chest of the lion, the belly of the 

 scorpion, the wings of the eagle, the thighs of the camel, the 

 legs of the ostrich, and the tail of the serpent, all of which 

 the Arabians mention as attributes of this widely-dreaded 

 insect destroyer^; but of which in the insect before me 

 I discern little or no likeness ? " Yet, although this animal 

 be not very tremendous for its size, nor very terrific in its 

 appearance, it is the very same whose ravages have been the 

 theme of naturalists and historians in all ages, and upon a 

 close examination you will find it to be peculiarly fitted and 

 furnished for the execution of its office. It is armed with 

 two pairs of very strong jaws, the upper terminating in short 

 and the lower in long teeth, by which it can both lacerate 

 and grind its food — its stomach is of extraordinary capacity 

 and powers — its hind legs enable it to leap to a considerable 

 distance, and its ample vans are calculated to catch the wind 

 as sails, and so to carry it sometimes over the sea; and 

 although a single individual can efiect but little evil, yet 



1 Bochart, Hierozoic. P. ii. 1. iv. c. 5. 475. 



