The Mormons, in their simple and picturesque descriptions, say that these insects (“Crickets”—Œdipoda corallipes, Haldemars) are the produce of “a cross between the Spider and the Buffalo.”[367]
In Egypt, in 1843, the popular idea was that the hordes of Locusts, which were then ravaging the land, were sent by the comet observed about that time for twelve days in the southwest.[368]
Pliny, in the words of his translator, Holland, says: “Many a time have the Locusts been knowne to take their flight out of Affricke, and with whole armies to infest Italie: many a time have the people of Rome, fearing a great famine and scarcity toward, beene forced to have recourse unto Sybil’s bookes for remedie, and to avert the ire of the gods.
In the Cyrenaick region within Barbarie, ordained it is by law, every three years to wage warre against them, and so to conquer them.… Yea, and a grievous punishment lieth upon him that is negligent in this behalf, as if hee were a traitour to his prince and countrey. Moreover, within the Island Lemnos there is a certaine proportion and measure set down, how many and what quantity every man shall kill; and they are to exhibit unto the magistrate a just and true account thereof, and namely, to shew what measure full of dead Locusts. And for this purpose they make much of Iaies, Dawes, and Choughs, whom they do honour highly, because they doe flie opposite against the Locusts, and so destroy them. Moreover in Syria, they are forced to levie a warlike power of men against them, and to make ridance by that means.”[369]
Democritus says, if a cloud of Locusts is coming forward, let all persons remain quiet within doors, and they will pass over the place; but if they suddenly arrive before they are observed, they will hurt nothing, if you boil bitter lupines, or wild cucumbers, in brine, and sprinkle it, for they will immediately die. They will likewise pass over the subjacent spot, continues Democritus, if you catch some bats and tie them on the high trees of the place; and if you take and burn some of the Locusts, they are rendered torpid from the smell, and some indeed die, and some drooping their wings, await their pursuers, and they are destroyed by the sun. You will drive away Locusts, continues this same writer, if you prepare some liquor for them, and dig trenches, and besprinkle them with the liquor; for if you come there afterward, you will find them oppressed with sleep; but how you are to destroy them is to be your concern. A Locust will touch nothing, he concludes, if you pound absinthium, or a leek, or centaury with water, and sprinkle it.[370]
Didymus says, to preserve vines from that species of Locusts called by the ancients Bruchus, set three grains of mustard around the stem of the vine at the root; for these being thus set, have the power of destroying the Bruchus.[371]
Nieuhoff tells us that when a swarm of Locusts is seen in China, the inhabitants, to prevent their alighting, “march to and again the fields with their colors flying, shouting and
hallooing all the while; never leaving them till they are driven into the sea, or some river, where they fall down and are drowned.”[372]
Volney says, that when the Locusts first make their appearance on the frontiers of Syria, the inhabitants strive to drive them off by raising large clouds of smoke; and if, as it too frequently happens, their herbs and wet straw fail them, they dig trenches, in which they bury them in great numbers. The most efficacious destroyers of these insects are, however, he adds, the south and southeasterly winds, and the bird called the Samarmar.[373]
Capt. Riley tells us, it is said at Mogadore, and believed by the Moors, Christians, and Jews, that the Bereberies inhabiting the Atlas Mountains have the power to destroy every flight of Locusts that comes from the south, and from the east, and thus ward off this scourge from all the countries north and west of this stupendous ridge, merely by building large fires on the parts of the mountains over which the Locusts are known always to pass, and in the season when they are likely to appear, which is at a definite period, within a certain number of days in almost every year. The Atlas being high, and the peaks covered with snow, these insects become chilled in passing over them, when, seeing the fires, they are attracted by the glare, and plunge into the flame. What degree of credit ought to be attached to this opinion, Capt. Riley says he does not know, but is certain that the Moorish Sultan used to pay a considerable sum of money yearly to certain inhabitants of the sides of the Atlas, in order to keep the Locusts out of his dominions. He also adds, the Moors and Jews affirmed to him, that during the time in which the Sultan paid the said yearly stipend punctually, not a Locust was to be seen in his dominions; but that when the Emperor refused to pay the stipulated sum, because no Locusts troubled his country, and thinking he had been imposed upon, that the very same year the Locusts again made their appearance, and have continued to lay waste the country ever since.[374]