LOCUSTS IN ASIA AND EGYPT. 
43 
der, Benjamin of Tudela, Mandeville, Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, or 
Maundrell — makes any mention of the locusts. The same thing is true 
in reference to De Velde, to Bev. J. L. Porter, who resided for five years 
at Damascus; to Stevens, Stanley, and a host of other travelers in this 
part of Asia ; which is strong negative evidence that there are numer- 
ous and considerable periods of rest from this plague in this part of 
Asia, where it is supposed to be so constantly found. 
Olivier 66 relates that following the south wind, great clouds of locusts 
come up out of the interior of Arabia and the southwest regions of Per- 
sia, into Syria and Mesopotamia. He was twice an eye-witness of their 
invasions, the species being A. peregrinum. He observed this species in 
Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia. The neighborhood of Aleppo 
is frequently ravaged by locusts. 07 In the year 1800, J. Morier observed 
their devastations in the region of Smyrna, and describes the perfect 
insects as 3i inches long from the head to the end of the legs ; of a red 
color. He states that they remained until July and August upon the 
fields, " driven now inland, now oceanwards by the winds." 68 B. B. 
Madden 69 states that in Smyrna he has seen the sky literally black with 
them ; and that they appear always to travel in a straight meridional 
line, and thus all the line of country in their course is laid waste by 
them. Irby and Mangles 70 observed them at Shobek (near Mount Hor),. 
and were told by their guide that they were on their way to Gaza, and 
that they pass almost annually. Chesney 71 says the fields of Asia 
Minor suffer comparatively little from locusts, but that they are not 
wanting in Syria. W. G. Palgrave 72 encountered the locusts on the 
Hasa plain, where he says they had akghted in their northerly wander- 
ings from their birth-place in Dahna. He speaks of them as being red- 
dish-brown and of large size. 
M. Niebuhr, who was accompanied by Forskal in his travels through 
Arabia and other eastern countries, gives some important items of in- 
formation in reference to the locusts of these regions. He says they 
did not find the numbers so great as they are commonly supposed to be 
in Europe. In Egypt he once only saw a cloud, which was brought by 
a south wind from the deserts of Lybia and fell in Cairo. In November, 
1762, he observed a large cloud of them at Jidda, which was driven 
over the city by a west wind from the other side of the Arabic gulf. 
He adds, " Therefore, many of the insects must have been drowned in 
their passage." In July following he found a small quantity near Mount 
Samara, which seemed to have spent the season in Arabia. " These 
swarms often cross the Bed Sea a second time and return to Egypt, 
the upper part of which, adjoining the deserts of Lybia, seems to be the 
66 Travels in Syria, 2, 695. 
67 Russell's Aleppo, p. 407. 
ra " Second Journey," 03.— Ritter. 
m Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, 1824-'27, ii, 30. 
70 Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syril. and the Holy Land. Murry's ed., 136. 
" "Expedition to the Euphrates," vol. i, 302 and 561. 
73 "Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1802- 63," 2d ed., pp. 137-8. 
