Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-07-13
A ElIght of Lncmsts.

! saw for the first time that Afternoon a
! flight of locusts. We were sitting on the
| hill with our backs tnrned to the west wind,
which was softly blowing from the Medi-
terranean. The horses were picketed close
by, grazing the sweet mountain grass. The
Arabs of our caravan were cooking "pil-
law a little distance off. Around us were
laid out the wherewithals of a light lunch,
among which was an open marmalade jar.
! was thinking of Ahab, and wondering
how he could put up so long with Elijah,
especially when, on this very spot, the
prophet said to the king, Gas the Lord
lveth, 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 | took for
a large grasshopper 1t was yellow and
green, with long jumping legs and a big
head, and while | was taking it out of the
jar two others fell into plate of soup, and
half-a-dozen more of the same kind upon a
dish of salad.
At the same moment my horse stamped
violently, and saw more of these grass
hoppers pelting his hooks and launches.
Turning round to find where this insect
shower came, | witnessed what was to me
an extraordinary spectacle, though common
enough, of course, in the east. A large
cloud, denser in its lower than i'm its upper
part, filled an eighth part of the western
hemicycle.i The remoter portion of it was
as thick, as brown, and brumous as Lon
don fog. The nearer side opened suddenly
up into millions, and billions, and trillions,
and seNtilions of the same green-and-yel-
low insects, pelting in a close-winged
crowd quite as thickly as flakes of snow
upon all the hilsidcs near and far You
could not stand a moment against the az
gressivc and offensive rain of these buzliug
creatures. The horses even swung them
selves round and stood with lowered crests,
taking the storm upon their backs and
TANKS. 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 filed with the repulSive swarm,
which in two minutes had so prppcred the
whole scene round about that its color and
character were entirely altered. Every lit
tie creature of the interminablc flight on
alighting veered himself round head to
wind on earth, Just as if he had dropped
anchor and swung to the breeze; and it
was curious to notice that the general tint
of the ground of their countless bodies was
brown if you looked to windwarl, and
green if 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 pre-
pared to yield up the spot to them and
pack our lunch baskets for departure they
had cleared off grass and leaves and every
verdant thing around; and where they rose
again from the soil. or from any clump of
trees. in a hungry throng, the place they
quilted had already assumed a barren and
wintry aspect. The Syrian peasants pass
ing along the roads were beating their
breasts and cursing the ill-fortune of the
plague. Some of them none the less,
gathered up clothful of the noXous
things: for the locust is distinctly edible
Half in wrath and revenge, and half for a
novelty in diet, the Arabs to this day eat a
few of them, roasting them in wire nets or
in earthen vessels over slow fire till the
wings and legs drop off and the locust be-
comes crisp. in which state it tastes, as |
am able to say from personal experiment,
something like an unsalted prawn. But
it seemed as if, had all Syria and the globe
itself taken to living on locu>ts, they would
have hardly made sensible mark upon
the extraordinary number that drifted that
day over our heads.-SH Edlrm 1rHOH IN
London Daily Tciegrdph.