"Locusts not un frequently commit dreadful havoc in this country. In my second voyage np the Nile, when before the village of Bustau, a little above Ibrim, many locusts pitched upon the boat. They were beautifully variegated, yellow and blue. In the following night a southerly wind brought other locusts in immense swarms. Next morning the air was darkened by them, as by a heavy fall of snow ; and the surface of the ground was thickly scattered over by those which had fallen and were unable to rise again. Great numbers came upon and within the boat, and alighted upon our persons. They were different from those of the preceding day, being of a bright yellow color, with brown marks. The desolation they made was dreadful. In four hours a field of young durrah [millet] was cropped to the ground. In another lield of durrah more advanced only the stalks were left. Nowhere was there space on the ground to set the foot without treading on many. A field of cotton-plants was quite stripped. Even the acacias along the hanks were made hare, and palm-trees were stripped of the fruit and leaves. Last night we heard the creaking of the sikiyehs [water-wheels], and the singing of women driving the Cows which turned them: to-day not one sakiyeh was in motion, and the women were going about howling, and vainly attempting to frighten away the locusts. On the preceding day I had preserved two of the more beautiful Kind of these creatures with a solution of arsenic: on the next day some of the other locusts rrrothem almost en- tirely, poisoned as they were, unseen by me till they had nearly finished their meal. On the third day they' were less numerous, aud gradually disappeared. Locusts are
PLAGUES
262
PLAGUES
eaten by most of the Bedawin of Arabia, and by some of theNubiaus. We ale a few.dressed in the most approved manner, being stripped of the legs, wings, and head, and fried In butter. They had a flavor somewhat like thai 01
the W ICOCk, Owing to thl ir f I. The Arabs pn-rrvc
ii article of provision by patbciliu _r ilium [n gait and water, and then drying them in the sun.
i Mel passages in the prophecy of Joel form a
remarkabk mroentarj on the description of the plague
is, and a few musl be here quoted, foi they de- scribe with wonderful exactness and vigor the devasta- tions of a swarm of locusts: "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for [i( is] nigh at hand: a day of dark- I m 33 and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning Bpread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be anymore after it, [even] to i in- var- of manj generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burnetii: the land [is] J as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them [ is] as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of lire that devoureth the stubble, as a Btrong people set in battle array. . . . They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men ol war; and they shall march every one on his ways, ami they shall not break their ranks. . . . The earth shall quake before them ; the heavens shall trem- ble: the -on and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining" (ii, 1-5, 7, 10; see also 6, s. 9, 11 •-'.">: Rev. ix. 1 12). Here, and probably also in the parallel passage ol Revelation, locusts are taken as a type of a destroying army or horde, since they are more terrible in the devastation they cause than any other creature-. See Lot I -I.
(9.) The "Plague" oj Darkness.— After the plague of locusts we nad at once of a fresh judgment : -And tie' Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand to- ward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, that [one] may feel darkness. And Moms stretched forth hi- band toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in :dl I In' land of Egypt three days: they -aw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of ferae] bad light in their dwellings." Pharaoh then gave the Is- raelites leave to go if only they left their cattle; but
when Moses required thai they should take these also. be again refused (Exod. x. 21 29). The expression we have rendered "thai | one | may feel darkness," accord- ing to the A. V. in the margin, where in the texl the freer translation -darkness [which] may be felt" is given, has occasioned much difficulty. The Sept. and Vulg. give this rendering, and the moderns generally follow them, h has been proposed to read -and they shall grope in darkness," by a Blight change of render- ing, and the supposition thai the particle 2 is under- / •"/. p. 171 i. It is Unrea- sonable to argue that the forcible word- of the A. V. are too Btrong for Shemitic phraseology. The difficulty is. however, rather to be solved by a consideration of the nature of the plague. Ii has been illustrated bj refer- ence to the simum and the hot wind of the khani-in Tbo former i- a sandstorm which occurs in the desert, seldom lastiug, according to Mr. Lane, more than a quart* r ol an hour or twenty minutes i Yfod. I p. 2); but for the nine often causing the darkness of twilight, ami affecting man and beast. Mrs. Poole, on Mr. Lane's authority, ha- described the simum a- fol- lows: