The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-04-14
FLIGHT OF LOCUSTS.'
Instantly They Make an Oasis a
Desert.
The Syrian Peasants Take An
Epicurean Revenge.

We were sitting on the hills with
our backs turned To the west wind,
which was safely blowing from the
Mediterranean, says Sir Edwin Arnold
in the London Telegraph. The horses
were picketed close by. grazing the
sweet mountain grass. The Arabs of
our caravan were cooking 'pillaw"
a little distance off, Around us were
laid out the wherewithals of light
lunch, among which was an open mar
malade jar
l was thinking of Ahab, and won
dering how he could put up SO long
with Elijah, especially when, on this
very spot the prophet said to the
king, "As the Lord liveth, in this
place where dogs licked the blood of
Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood
even thine"-when suddenly right into
the marmalade there dropped what l
took to be grasshopper. Ii was yell
low and green, with long jumping legs
and big head, and while | was tax
ing II out of the jar two others fell
into plate of soup, and half dozen
more of the same kind upo dish of
salad. At the same moment my horse
stamped violently, and l saw more
of these grasshoppers pelting his
hooks and launches. Turning round
| to find whence this insect shower came
l witnessed what was TO me an extra
ordinary spectacle, though common
enough, of course, in the east. A
| large cloud, denser in its lower than
its upper part, filed an eighth part of
the western hemicycle. The remoter
| portion of il was as thick, as brown
and brumous as London fog
| The nearer side opened suddenly up
into millions and billions and trillions
and sextillions of the same green and
| yellow insects pelting in n close winged
crowd quite as thickly as flakes of
snow upon all the hillsides far and
near You could not stand moment
against the aggressive and offensive
rain of these buzzing creatures. The
horses even swung themselves round
and stood with lowered crests, taking
the storm upon their backs and hank~'
You had to turn up the collar of
your coat to keep them out of your
neck and button the front not TO have
your pockets filled with the repulsivc
swarm, which in two minutes had so
peppcred the whole scene round ak~ut
that its color and character were en-
tirely altered. Every little creature
Of the intcrminsble flight on nlighting
veered himself round head to wind ON
the earth, just as if he had dropped
anchor and swung TO the breeze; and
il was curious to notice that the gen
eral tint of the ground of their count
less bodies was brown if you looked 10
windward and green il you gazed TO
leeward. But very quickly the only
| green to be seen round about was the
| hue afforded by this sudden invasion.
Even while we prepared to yield up
the spot to them and pack our lunch
| baskets for departure they had cleared
off grass and leaves and every verdnnt
thing around; and when they rose
| again from the soil or from
any clump of trees, in a hungry
throng, the place they quilted had
already assumed barren and wintry
aspect. The Syrian peasants passing
along the roads were beating their
breasts and cursing the i'll fortune Of
the plague. Some of them, none the
! less, gathered up cloth full Of the
noxious things for the locust is dis
tinctly edible. Half in wrath and
revenge, and half for a novelty Of diet,
the Arabs TO this day eat few of
| them, roasting them in wire nets or
in earthern vessels over slow fire
till the wings and legs drop of and
the locust becomes crisp, In which
state il tastes, as ] am able TO say from
personal experience, something like
All unsalted prawn. But il seemed ns
if, had all Syria and the globe itself
taken to living ON locusts, they would
have hardly made sensible mark
upon the extraordinary number that
| drifted over our hends.