KEK-WORil.
(9.) Salam' (C"bO), only in Lev. xi, 22, arra;«j, at- facus, " the bald locust." A Chaldee quadriliteral root is given l)y Bochart, C^fba, to devour. Another has been proposed, vh'D, a rock or stone, and fib", to go up; licnce the locust, which climbs up stones or rocks ; but, as Bochart observes, no locust is known answering to this characteristic. Others give TpD, a stone, and Ca^, to hide under; equally futile. Tychsen, arguing from what is said of the salam in the Talmud (Tract, Choliu), viz. that " this insect has a smooth head, and that the female is without the sword-shaped tail," conjectures that the species here intended is Gri/llus eversor (Asso), a synonyme that it is difiicult ti' iilentify with any re- corded si)ecies. From the text wliere it is mentioned it only appears that it was some species of locust winged and edilile.
(10.) Tsei-atsal' (3S3:i, as the name of an insect only in Deut. xxviii, 42, tpvaifit], lubigo, " locust"). The root commonly assigned is ?sS, to sound (whence its use for a irkizzinr/ of wings, Isa. xviii, 1 ; fot ci/tnbals, 2 Sam. vi, 5; Psa. cl, 5; or any ringing instrument, as a harj)oon,Joh xli, 7); hence, says Gesenius, a species of locust that makes a shrill noise. Dr. Lee savs a tree-
cricket that does so. Tychsen suggests the G. stridulus of Linn. The song of the gr;jllo-talp)a is sweet and loud. On similar principles we, might conjecture, although with ])erhaps somewhat less certainty, a derivation from the Chald. Xs^, to pray, and thence infer the Mantis re- liyiosa, or Prier Dieu, so called from its singidar atti- tude, and wliich is found in Palestine (Kitto's Physical History, p. 419). The words in the Septuag. and Yulg. properly mean the mildew on corn, etc., and are there applied metaphorically to the ravages of locusts. This mildew was anciently believed by the heathens to be a divine chastisement; hence their religious ceremony called Kubigalia (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii, 29). The word is evidently onomatopoietic, and is here perhajis a syn- onyme for some one of the other names for locust. Mi- chaelis (^Supplem. 2094) believes the word is identical with chasil, which he says denotes perhaps the mole- cricket, Gryllus talpiformis, from the stridulous sound it produces. Tychsen (p. 79, 80) identifies it witli the Gryllus stridulus, Linnaeus (=^Gi^dipoda stridula. And. Serv.). The notion conveyed by the Hebrew word will, however, apply to almost any kind of locust, and, in- deed, to many kinds of insects; a similar word, ^*«/6'«fe(;, was applied by the Ethiopians to a ti}^ which the Arabs called zimb, apparently identical with the tsetse fly of Dr. Livingstone and other African travellers. In the pas- sage in Deuteronomy, if an insect be meant at all, it may be assigned to some destructive species of grass- hopper or locust.
(11.) The Greek term for the locust is aK-pi'c, which occurs in Rev. ix, 3, 7, with undoubted allusion to the Oriental devastating insect, which is represented as as- cending from the smoke of the infernal pit, as a type of the judgments of God upon the enemies of Christianity. They are also mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt, iii, 4; Mark i, 6), where it is not, as some have supposed, any plant that is intended, but the insect, which is still universally eaten by the poorer classes in the East, both in a cooked and raw state (Hackett's Illustra. of Script, p. 97).
IL Locusts belong to that order of insects known by the term Orthoptera (or sti-aiykt-icinyed). This order is divided into two large groups or divisions, viz. Cur- soria and Saltatoria. The first, as the name imports, includes only those families of Orthopitera which have legs ibrmed for creeping, and which are considered un- clean by the Jewish law. Under the second are com- prised those wliose two posterior legs, by their peculiar structure, enable them to move on the ground by leaps. This group contains, according to Serville's arrange- ment, three families, the Gryllides, Locustariec, and the Acridites, distinguished one from the other by some jie- culiar modifications of structure. The common house- cricket (Gryllus domesticus, Oliv.) may be taken as an illustration of the Gryllides ; the green grasshopper (Locusta viridissima, Fabr.), which the French call Sauterelle verfe, will represent the family Locustarice ; and the Acridites may be typified by the common mi- gratory locust (Oulipoda migratoi-ia, Aud. Serv.), which
OWpoda Migratoria.
is an occasional visitor to Europe (see the Gentleman's Magazine Jidy. 174H, p. 331, 414; also 7'he Times. Oct. 4, 1845). Of the Gryllides, G. cerisyi has been found in Egypt, antl G. domesticus, on the authority of Dr. Kitto, in Palestine ; but doubtless other species also oc- cur in tliese countries. Of the Locustariw, Phaiierop- terafalcuta, Serv. (G.falc. Scopoli), has also, according to Kitto, been found in Palestine, Bradyporus dasypus in Asia Minor, Turkey, etc., Saga NatolicB near Smyr-
LOCUST
485
LOCUST
na. Of the locusts proper, or A cridites, four species of the genus Truxalis are recorded as having been seen in Egypt, Syria, or Arabia, viz. T. nasiita, T. variabilis, T. pi-oceni, and T. miniata, Tlie following kinds also occur : Opsomalu pisciformis, in Egypt, and the oasis of Harrat; J'a/dloreros hicronhjphicus, P. hnfonius, P. jmndicentris, P. vulcanus, in the deserts of Cairo ; De- ricoi-ys albidula in Egypt and Mount Lebanon. Of the genus A criiHum, A . mcestmn, the most formidable per- haps of all the .-1 cridites, A . lineola ( = G. ^Er/ypt. Linn.),