474 A DESCRIPTION OP 
a swarm of locusts : it describes them as rising out of the 
earth, where they are produced ; as pursuing a settled 
march to destroy the fruits of the earth, and as the fre- 
quent instruments of Divine indignation. 
The native countries of the Locust are Central Asia and 
the North of Africa, but they migrate every year to 
Europe, where they destroy every thing they meet with. 
When the Locusts take the field they have a leader at 
their head, whose flight they observe, and pay a strict 
attention to all his motions. They appear at a distance 
like a black cloud, which, as it approaches, gathers upon 
the horizon, and almost hides the light of the day. It 
often happens that the husbandman sees this imminent 
calamity pass away without doing him any mischief; and 
the whole swarm proceed onward, to settle upon the la- 
bours of some less fortunate country. But wretched is the 
district upon which they fix ; they ravage the meadow 
and the corn land ; strip the trees of their leaves, and the 
gardens of their beauty ; the visitation of a few minutes 
destroys the expectations of a year ; and a famine but too 
frequently ensues. In their native climates they are not 
so dreadful as in the south of Europe. In Syria and Pa- 
lestine, though the plain and the forest be stripped of their 
verdure, the power of vegetation is so great, that an inter- 
val of three or four days repairs the calamity : but our 
verdure is the produce of a season ; and we must wait till 
the ensuing spring repairs the damage. Besides, in their 
long flights to this part of the world, the Locusts are fa- 
mished by the tediousness of their journey, and are there- 
fore more voracious Avherever they happen to settle. But 
it is not by what they devour that they do so much dam- 
age, as by what they destroy. Their very bite is thought 
to contaminate the plant, and to prevent its future vege- 
tation. To use the expression of the husbandman, they 
burn whatever they touch, and leave the marks of their 
devastation for two or three years ensuing. And if so 
