; 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 l