Meer Hassan Ali, B.: Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: descriptive of their manners, customs, habits, and religious opinions ; made during a twelve years residence in their immediate Society (Band 2) (London, 1832)

106 FLIGHT OF LOCUSTS.

The Natives anticipate earthquakes after the
visitation or appearance of locusts. They are
said to generate in mountains, but I cannot find
any one here able to give me an authentic ac-
count of their natural history.

On the 18th of September, 1825, another
flight of these wonderful insects passed over
my house in exactly a contrary direction
from those which appeared in July, viz. from
the West towards the East. The idea struck
me that they might be the same swarm, return-
ing after fulfilling the object of their visit to
the East: but I have no authority on which to
ground my supposition. The Natives have
never made natural history even an amusement,
much less a study, although their habits are
purely those of Nature; they know the property
of most herbs, roots, and flowers, which they
cultivate, not for their beauty, but for the
benefit they render to man and beast.

I could not learn that the flight had rested
anywhere near Futtyghur, at which place I was
then living. They are of all creatures the most
destructive to vegetation, licking with their rough