pious horror. The colonists, accordingly, on the first appearance of a fresh swarm, get together as mucli straw, vine-branches, and dry dung as they can, and with these, fires are lighted about the fields and grounds which it is thought most desirable to protect. This expedient, however, is often a complete failure, for when one of these countless swarms has dropped upon the ground, and proceeds grazing along in the direction of the fire, the mere weight of the general mass forces the foremost ranks into the flames, where a few thousands of them perish, perhaps, but their bodies extinguish the fire, and leave a free field for the advancing enemy.
Sometimes the colonists succeed by means of smoke in scaring a swarm, and making it take to the air again, and then great skill is shown in making it fly away from the fields which it is wished to preserve. If a liman or the sea be near at hand, it is thought a great point to drive the locusts into the water, into which they fall in such enormous masses, that their bodies form at last little floating islands ; upon these their more fortunate companions establish themselves, to the height of twenty or thirty inches. If a strong wind blow from the shore, these pyramids of locusts are of course driven out to sea, and nothing more is heard of them ; but if the wind be not strong, t?iey work their way back to the shore, where they soon dry their wings and prepare themselves for fresh depredations. The millions, meanwhile, that have found a watery grave, give a blackened hue to the foam of the breakers, and lie scattered along the coast in l(^n g lines, that look like huge masses of seaweed thrown up by the waves. The cunning of the locusts on these occasions is surprising. A swarm that, with the aid of a strong wind, has been driven out to sea, will often return to shore, not attempting to fly in the wind's teeth, but beating to windward, with a successon of tacks, in regular seamanlike style.
The locusts appear to be perfectly aware that, in the village gardens, they are certain to find many things that suit their palates amazingly ; and, accordingly, tliey seldom fail to step a little out of their way when they see a village to the right or left of their line of march. The terror of a village attacked by one of these swarms may be more easily imagined than described. Fancy a heavy fall of snow, each flake a little black voracious insect, and these, as they fall, covering the ground to the depth of two or three inches, while the air still continues obscured by the myriads that remain fluttering about ! The roofs of the houses, and every inch of ground about them, are covered by a thick mass of crawling vermin, crackling, hissing, and buzzing ! Every aperture of the house may be carefully closed, yet they come down the chimney by thousands, and beat against the windows like hail ! During the locust years, many of these swarms settled upon Odessa, covering the streets and public places, dropping by hundreds into the kettles and saucepans in the kitchens, invading at once the ball-room and the granary, strutting along in the public walks by millions, and displaying their ugly antics alike in the hovel of the beggar and the fine lady's boudoir.