Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-02-01
THE PLAGUE OF LOJUSTS -SINGULA
SCENE IN JAFFA.

| "A icIOci udted at JANA, dLcSLiuc, Ouuc
10th, describes visitation of locusts as
follows:
In April last we twice observed large
dark clouds, resembling smoke moving to
and fro as if swayed by the wind. One
morning these clouds came down and proved
to be locusts, so great in number that the
whole land was covered with them. The
grain at that time was full in ear and near
| iy yripe, but the locusts did not touch it, or
any other vegetation. Soon after, how
ever, it was observed that they buried
themselves in the soil and there deposited
their innumerable eggs. The Arabs and
peasants saw the approaching mischief, and
went through the lands In thousands dig
ging for these eggs they succeeded to
certain degree, and destroyed incredible
numbers with water and fire, but all their
efforts had very little effect.
About the middle of May small black
creatures, at distance resembling large
ants, were observed accommodating in large
heaps throughout the country, and a few
days after they had been thus seen they
began to leap, and manifested the coming
calamity and invasion of the fearful army,
as described so emphatically in Joel ii. The
people now began to sweep them together
and bury or burn them in bitches dug for
the purpose. But all to little or no effect
and so they grew little larger the effect
of their multitude began to be seen, and
the coming catastrophe could not be mis-
taken The roads were covered with them,
all marching in regular lines, like armies
of soldiers, with their leaders in front, and
all the opposition Of man to arrest their
progress was in vain.
They first consumed the plantations ar
ound Ramleh, LYDIA and the smaller viii
lagos near them, and entering the towns
and villages consumed the victuals, etc, in
the market and streets, by degrees forcing
themselves into the houses and covering
the walls outside as well as inside. 1t
seems that everything which is moistened
by their saliva is poisoned, for the cattle
that feed on the remnants which are left all
die | myself saw fifty oxen dead in the
village of Delta, Daggon and Zafarsh that
had fed on the remnant of durah Indian
cOrn) left by the locusts, and the night be-
fore last twenty more died from, the same
cause.
About two weeks ago they were seen to
a fearful extent all around Jafa, but still
without wings. The town for several days
appeared forsaken all shops were shut, all
business suspended Almost all the inhab-
itants had gone out to destroy and drive
away the invading army they made tre-
mendous bitches and buried and burned
countless myriads, but as before, all in
vain, for the more they destroyed the more
seemed to arise from hiding places, and as
they grew in size the more they seemed to
grow in multitude, and toward the east
from here they covered the ground for miles
and miles to the height of several inches.
As their wings are still too small to enable
them to visit the several hundred gardens
within the cultivated part of the district of
Jaf'a, they have hitherto confined their de-
st-uctons to the outer gardens, of which
about fifty have been completely laid waste,
every green leaf, vegetable, tree and even
the bark of young trees, devoured, and
these beautiful gardens look like birch tree
forests in winter.
Our garden was one OF the first attacked
For several days we saw the destructive
host advancing all our farm servants as
well as some hired laborers, were employed
to keep them off, to drive them away, or
bury them, but we found them as Joel de-
scribes them, chapter H., verse 7, They
shall not break their ranks" Who can
doubt the word of God when we have these
evidences before our eyes? True, our men
broke their ranks for a moment, but no
sooner had they passed the men than they
closed again, and marched forward through
hedges and ditches as if united by some
mysterious power, causing them to open
before man and to close again as soon as
they passed him. On the l4th instant they
forced their way into the garden, defying
all human efforts to prevent them, and in
less than a day the whole garden, an extent
of eight acres, was covered with them, and
the trees, to the number of three thousand,
as we'll as every other green leaf, with the
exception of the palm trees and the prickly
pear hedges, were stripped
Whether eating or drinking, reading or
writing, or lying awake in bed (for it is i'm
possible to sleep one hears the noise of
armed hosts as of the running of many wa
ters, and within they keep dropping on and
about you At meals am kept busy driv-
ing them away while | drive half dozen
away from the bread as many will jump in
to the sugar BASIN or even into my tea,
etc, and when undressing they leap out of
our very clothes, without our having known
they were there
News has just reached us from Nablous;
the olive trees in these mountains have all
been stripped, and near the river Oudge
the soil is so thickly covered with these
creatures that many of the animals led there
to drink refuse to pass on.
Another letter of later date says that
they are in no wise decreasing, rather the
opposite. Every native inhabitant has
been ordered by government to bring ff
teen pound weight of locusts daily, and
those who do not are fined 81 sterling each
time.
HURRAH The exclamation of "Hurrah!"
E,,ll, Il.