LETTER VII.

_INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS._

INDIRECT INJURIES 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[377]; 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 pair 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 effect but little evil, yet when the entire surface of a country is covered by them, and every one makes bare the spot on which it stands, the mischief produced may be as infinite as their numbers. So well do the Arabians know their power, that they make a locust say to Mahomet--"We are the army of the Great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it[378]."

Since it is possible you may not have paid particular attention to the accounts given by various authors both ancient and modern, of the almost incredible injury done to the human race by these creatures, I shall now lay before you some of the most striking particulars of their devastations that I have been able to collect.

The earliest plague of this kind which has been recorded, appears also to have been the most direful in its immediate effects that ever was inflicted upon any nation. I am speaking, as you may well suppose, of the locusts with which the Egyptian tyrant and his people were visited for their oppression of the Israelites. Only conceive to yourself a country so covered by them that no one can see the face of the ground--a whole land darkened, and all its produce, whether herb or tree, so devoured that not the least vestige of green is left in either[379].--But it is not necessary for me to enlarge further upon a history the circumstances of which are so well known to you.

To this species of devastation Africa in general seems always to have been peculiarly subject. This may be gathered from the law in Cyrenaica mentioned by Pliny, by which the inhabitants were enjoined to destroy the locusts in three different states, three times in the year--first their eggs, then their young, and lastly the perfect insect[380]. And not without reason was such a law enacted; for Orosius tells us that in the year of the world 3800, Africa was infested by such infinite myriads of these animals, that having devoured every green thing, after flying off to sea they were drowned, and being cast upon the shore they emitted a stench greater than could have been produced by the carcases of 100,000 men[381]. St. Augustine also mentions a plague to have arisen in that country from the same cause, which destroyed no less than 800,000 persons (_octingenta hominum millia_) in the kingdom of Masanissa alone, and many more in the territories bordering upon the sea[382].

From Africa this plague was occasionally imported into Italy and Spain; and a historian quoted in Mouffet relates that in the year 591 an infinite army of locusts of a size unusually large, grievously ravaged part of Italy; and being at last cast into the sea, from their stench arose a pestilence which carried off near a million of men and beasts. In the Venetian territory, also, in 1478 more than 30,000 persons are said to have perished in a famine occasioned by these terrific scourges. Many other instances of their devastations in Europe, in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, &c.[383], are recorded by the same author. In 1650 a cloud of them was seen to enter Russia in three different places, which from thence passed over into Poland and Lithuania, where the air was darkened by their numbers. In some places they were seen lying dead heaped one upon another to the depth of four feet; in others they covered the surface like a black cloth, the trees bent with their weight, and the damage they did exceeded all computation[384]. At a later period in Languedoc when the sun became hot they took wing and fell upon the corn, devouring both leaf and ear, and that with such expedition that in three hours they would consume a whole field. After having eaten up the corn they attacked the vines, the pulse, the willows, and lastly the hemp notwithstanding its bitterness[385]. Sir H. Davy informs us[386] that the French government in 1813 issued a decree with a view to occasion the destruction of grasshoppers.

Even this happy island, so remarkably distinguished by its exemption from most of those scourges to which other nations are exposed, was once alarmed by the appearance of locusts. In 1748 they were observed here in considerable numbers, but providentially they soon perished without propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the vast swarms which in the preceding year did such infinite damage in Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of these swarms, which entered Transylvania in August, was several hundred fathoms in width, (at Vienna the breadth of one of them was three miles,) and extended to so great a length as to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such was its density that it totally intercepted the solar light, so that when they flew low one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces[387]. A similar account has been given me by a friend of mine[388] long resident in India. He relates that when at Poonah he was witness to an immense army of locusts which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to come from Arabia (this, if correct, is a strong proof of their power to pass the sea under favourable circumstances). The column they composed, my friend was informed, extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it, when on the wing, that like an eclipse it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty tombs distant from his residence not more than two hundred yards were rendered quite invisible. This was not the _Locusta migratoria_, but a red species; which circumstance much increased the horror of the scene; for, clustering upon the trees after they had stripped them of their foliage, they imparted to them a sanguine hue. The peach was the last tree that they touched.

Dr. Clarke, to give some idea of the infinite numbers of these animals, compares them to a flight of snow when the flakes are carried obliquely by the wind. They covered his carriage and horses, and the Tartars assert that people are sometimes suffocated by them. The whole face of nature might have been described as covered by a living veil. They consisted of two species, _L. tatarica_ and _migratoria_; the first is almost twice the size of the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the Tartars the herald or messenger[389].--The account of another traveller, Mr. Barrow, of their ravages in the southern parts of Africa (in 1784 and 1797) is still more striking: an area of nearly two thousand square miles might be said literally to be covered by them. When driven into the sea by a N. W. wind, they formed upon the shore for fifty miles a bank three or four feet high, and when the wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful as to be smelt at the distance of 150 miles[390].

From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Marocco was terribly devastated by them, every green thing was eaten up, not even the bitter bark of the orange and pomegranate escaping--a most dreadful famine ensued.--The poor were seen to wander over the country deriving a miserable subsistence from the roots of plants; and women and children followed the camels, from whose dung they picked the indigested grains of barley, which they devoured with avidity: in consequence of this, vast numbers perished, and the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcases of the dead. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their children, and husbands their wives[391]. When they visit a country, says Mr. Jackson, speaking of the same empire, it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay from three to seven years. When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves and then the bark. From Mogador to Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of the earth was covered by them--at that time a singular incident occurred at El Araiche. The whole region from the confines of the Sahara was ravaged by them: but on the other side of the river El Kos not one of them was to be seen, though there was nothing to prevent their flying over it. Till then they had proceeded northward; but upon arriving at its banks they turned to the east, so that all the country north of El Araiche was full of pulse, fruits and grain,--exhibiting a most striking contrast to the desolation of the adjoining district. At length they were all carried by a violent hurricane into the Western Ocean; the shore, as in former instances, was covered by their carcases, and a pestilence was caused by the horrid stench which they emitted:--but when this evil ceased, their devastations were followed by a most abundant crop. The Arabs of the Desert, "whose hands are against every man[392]," and who rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations, when they behold the clouds of locusts proceeding from the north are filled with gladness, anticipating a general mortality, which they call _El-Khere_ (the benediction); for, when a country is thus laid waste, they emerge from their arid deserts and pitch their tents in the desolated plains[393].

The noise the locusts make when engaged in the work of destruction has been compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and the effect of their bite to that of fire[394]. A wild poet of our day has very strikingly described the noise produced by their flight and approach:

"Onward they came a dark continuous cloud Of congregated myriads numberless, The rushing of whose wings was as the sound Of a broad river headlong in its course Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks[395]!"

But no account of the appearance and ravages of these terrific insects, for correctness and sublimity, comes near that of the prophet Joel, "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong: there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Like the noise of chariots[396] on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their faces the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks; neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining!" The usual way in which they are destroyed is also noticed by the prophet. "I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things[397]!"

I think, after a serious consideration of all these well attested facts, when locusts contend with the two-legged destroyers of the human race for proud pre-eminence in mischief, you will find it difficult to determine to which the palm should be decreed; and you will admire the propriety with which, in the above and other passages of Holy Writ, they are selected as symbols of the great ravagers of the earth of our own species.

In many of the above instances these devastators appear to have crossed the seas, but Hasselquist asserts that they are not formed for such extensive flights. "The grasshopper or locust," says he, "is not formed for travelling over the sea,--it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon as it rises;--for one that came on board us a hundred certainly were drowned. We observe in the months of May and June a number of these insects coming from the south, and directing their course to the northern shore; they darken the sky like a thick cloud; but scarcely have they quitted the shore, when they, who a moment before ravaged and ruined the country, cover the surface of the sea with their dead bodies.--By what instinct do these creatures undertake this dangerous flight? Is it not the wise institution of the Creator to destroy a dreadful plague to the country[398]?" Locusts however, as we have seen, take much longer flights than this author supposes them able to do. It is probable that their ability in this respect may depend a good deal upon their species, their age, and the state and direction of the wind; for, as was the case with the Egyptian plague,

"---- a pitchy cloud Of locusts warping on the eastern wind"

may by a powerful blast be carried over a broad river, or even the sea, from one country to another. This idea is strongly confirmed by an account, exhibiting internal marks of authenticity, which appeared in the _Alexandria Herald_, an American newspaper; in which it is stated, that at the distance of 200 miles from the Canary Islands, the nearest land, the ship Georgia, Capt. Stokes, from Lisbon to Savannah, while sailing with a fine breeze from the south-east, was, on the 21st of Nov. 1811, all at once becalmed. "A light air afterwards sprang up from the north-east, at which time there fell from the cloud an innumerable quantity of large grasshoppers, so as to cover the deck, the tops and every part of the ship they could alight upon. They did not appear in the least exhausted; on the contrary, when an attempt was made to take hold of them, they instantly jumped, and endeavoured to elude being taken. The calm, or a very light air, lasted fully an hour, and during the whole of the time these insects continued to fall upon the ship and surround her: such as were within reach of the vessel alighted upon her; but immense numbers fell into the sea, and were seen floating in masses by the sides." Two bottles of them were preserved for inspection; the insects were of a reddish hue, with red and gray speckled wings. It is clear from this account, if it be admitted as authentic, that locusts can go far from land when the wind is strong, and likewise it seems equally clear that in a calm they cannot support themselves in the air. The principal difficulty is, how these locusts could make their way against the wind, which they must have done if they came with the black cloud, as the words seem to intimate. Perhaps this cloud was brought by a different current of air from that which impelled the ship.

With respect to the course which the locusts pursue, Hasselquist has observed that they migrate in a direct meridian line from south to north, passing from the deserts of Arabia, which is the great cradle of them, to Palestine, Syria, Carmania, Natolia, Bithynia, Constantinople, Poland, &c.--they never turn either to the east or to the west[399]. But this must be a mistaken notion; for those which Major Moor saw at Poonah, of which I have given an account above[400], must have come due east. Mr. Jackson also noticed their course north of the line to be towards the south[401]; and Sparrman tells us, that those south of the line migrate in the same direction[402].

I fear that Hasselquist's question, Could they not by fright, or some other method, be turned from their dreadful course, to steer for some river, and by that means be obliged to destroy themselves[403]? must be answered in the negative. All such experiments, it is to be apprehended, would be about as effectual as sending an army, with all the apparatus of war, to take the field against them, as this author says is done in Syria, where the Bashaw of Tripoli once raised a force of 4000 soldiers to fight the locusts, and very summarily ordered all to be hanged who thinking it beneath them to waste their valour upon such pygmy foes, refused to join the party[404].

I am, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[377] Bochart, _Hierozoic._ P. ii. l. iv. c. 5. 475.

[378] Bochart, _ubi supr._ c. 6. 485.

[379] Exod. x. 5. 14, 15.

[380] _Hist. Nat._ l. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. Plin. _ibid._

[381] Oros. _contra Pag._ l. v. c. 2.

[382] Lesser, _L._ 247. note 46.

[383] Mouffet, 123.

[384] Bingley, iii. 258.

[385] _Philos. Trans._ 1686.

[386] _Elements of Agricultural Chemistry_, 233.

[387] _Philos. Trans._ xlvi. 30.

[388] Major Moor, author of _The Narrative of Captain Little's Detachment_, _The Hindu Pantheon_, &c.

[389] _Travels_, i. 348.

[390] _Travels_, &c. 257.

[391] Southey's _Thalaba_, i. 171.

[392] Genes. xvi. 12.

[393] Jackson's _Travels in Marocco_, 54.

[394] See Bochart, _Hierozoic_. P. l. iv. c. 5. 474-5.

[395] Southey's _Thalaba_, i. 169.

[396] Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said--"And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle." ix. 9.

[397] Joel ii. 2-10. 20.

[398] _Voyage to the Levant_, 444.

[399] _Voyage to the Levant_, p. 446-7.

[400] See p. 219.

[401] _Travels_, 54.

[402] _Travels_, i. 366.

[403] _Travels_, 455.

[404] _Travels_, 447.