The Bush Boys | Page 8

they were guided by instinct to follow a particular course. Nothing
can interrupt them in their onward march unless the sea or some broad
and rapid river. Small streams they can swim across; and large ones,
too, where they run sluggishly; walls and houses they can climb--even
the chimneys--going straight over them; and the moment they have
reached the other side of any obstacle, they continue straight onward in
the old direction.

"In attempting to cross broad rapid rivers, they are drowned in
countless myriads, and swept off to the sea. When it is only a small
migration, the farmers sometimes keep them off by means of fires, as
you have heard. On the contrary, when large numbers appear, even the
fires are of no avail."
"But how is that, brother?" inquired Hendrik. "I can understand how
fires would stop the kind you speak of, since you say they are without
wings. But since they are so, how do they get through the fires? Jump
them?"
"No, not so," replied Hans. "The fires are built too wide and large for
that."
"How then, brother?" asked Hendrik. "I'm puzzled."
"So am I," said little Jan.
"And I," added Truey.
"Well, then," continued Hans, "millions of the insects crawl into the
fires and put them out!"
"Ho!" cried all in astonishment. "How? Are they not burned?"
"Of course," replied Hans. "They are scorched and killed--myriads of
them quite burned up. But their bodies crowded thickly on the fires
choke them out. The foremost ranks of the great host thus become
victims, and the others pass safely across upon the holocaust thus made.
So you see, even fires cannot stop the course of the locusts when they
are in great numbers.
"In many parts of Africa, where the natives cultivate the soil, as soon as
they discover a migration of these insects, and perceive that they are
heading in the direction of their fields and gardens, quite a panic is
produced among them. They know that they will lose their crops to a
certainty, and hence dread a visitation of locusts as they would an
earthquake, or some other great calamity."

"We can well understand their feelings upon such an occasion,"
remarked Hendrik, with a significant look.
"The flying locusts," continued Hans, "seem less to follow a particular
direction than their larvae. The former seem to be guided by the wind.
Frequently this carries them all into the sea, where they perish in vast
numbers. On some parts of the coast their dead bodies have been found
washed back to land in quantities incredible. At one place the sea threw
them upon the beach, until they lay piled up in a ridge four feet in
height, and fifty miles in length! It has been asserted by several
well-known travellers that the effluvium from this mass tainted the air
to such an extent that it was perceived one hundred and fifty miles
inland!"
"Heigh!" exclaimed little Jan. "I didn't think anybody had so good a
nose."
At little Jan's remark there was a general laugh. Von Bloom did not join
in their merriment. He was in too serious a mood just then.
"Papa," inquired little Truey, perceiving that her father did not laugh,
and thinking to draw him into the conversation,--"Papa! were these the
kind of locusts eaten by John the Baptist when in the desert? His food,
the Bible says, was `locusts and wild honey.'"
"I believe these are the same," replied the father.
"I think, papa," modestly rejoined Hans, "they are not exactly the same,
but a kindred species. The locust of Scripture was the true Gryllus
migratorius, and different from those of South Africa, though very
similar in its habits. But," continued he, "some writers dispute that
point altogether. The Abyssinians say it was beans of the locust-tree,
and not insects, that were the food of Saint John."
"What is your own opinion, Hans?" inquired Hendrik, who had a great
belief in his brother's book-knowledge.
"Why, I think," replied Hans, "there need be no question about it. It is

only torturing the meaning of a word to suppose that Saint John ate the
locust fruit, and not the insect. I am decidedly of opinion that the latter
is meant in Scripture; and what makes me think so is, that these two
kinds of food, `locusts and wild honey,' are often coupled together, as
forming at the present time the subsistence of many tribes who are
denizens of the desert. Besides, we have good evidence that both were
used as food by desert-dwelling people in the days of Scripture. It is,
therefore, but natural to suppose that Saint John, when in the desert,
was forced to partake of this food; just as many a traveller of modern
times has eaten of it when crossing the