ILLUSTRATIONS “OF SCRIPTURE. 
99’ 
As all was dry in the plain of Shiraz, the same instinct seemed to pro¬ 
pel them forwards to countries of more vegetation, and with a small 
slant of the wind to the westward they would get into the mountains 
of Louriston, where the corn was not ripe ; and where, as the prophet 
Joel says, (xi. 3.) after comparing them to a great army,— ^Hhey had the 
land of Eden before them.'’ Their strength must be very great, if we 
consider what immense journies they have been known to make. 
Pliny* says they came from Africa to Italy; they have been known in 
Scotland, f Mandelsloe saw them in the island of Madagascar, the 
nearest point of which, from Mosambique on the continent, is one hun¬ 
dred and twenty leagues.:}: This proves them to exist in the southern 
hemisphere ; and if Arabia is their native country, as naturalists affirm, 
they do not always travel northward, as Shaw seems to think§, but 
perhaps take the impulse which the first wind may give them after they 
are ready to fly. 
" I have had opportunities from time to time to make observations on 
the locust, particularly at Smyrna, where, in 1800, they committed 
great depredations. About the middle of April the hedges and ridges 
of the fields began to swarm with young locusts, which then wore a 
black appearance, had no wings, and were quite harmless. About the 
middle of May they had increased triple the size, were of a gray cin- 
dery colour, and had incipient wings about half an inch long. They 
still continued to be harmless j but at the end of June they had grown 
to their full size, which was three and a half inches in length ; the 
legs, head, and extremities red; the body a pale colour, tending to 
red. They appear to be created for a scourge; since to strength incre¬ 
dible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth, admirably calcu¬ 
lated to eat up all the herbs in the land, and devour the fruit of the 
ground. Psalm cv. v. 34. They remained on the face of the country 
during the months of July and August, sometimes taking their flight in 
vast clouds, and impelled by a strong wind, were either lost in the sea, 
^ * Nat. Hist. lib. xi. c. 29. 
t Voyage de Perse, folio, p. 652. 
o 2 
f Michaelis Quest, xxxii. p. 56. 
§ Shaw, 3(1 ed. vol. i. p. 342. 
