, and the tail of a
serpent.

And now they are rushing upon a considerable tract of that beautiful
region of which we have spoken with such admiration. The swarm to which
Juba pointed grew and grew till it became a compact body, as much as a
furlong square; yet it was but the vanguard of a series of similar hosts,
formed one after another out of the hot mould or sand, rising into the air
like clouds, enlarging into a dusky canopy, and then discharged against
the fruitful plain. At length the huge innumerous mass was put into
motion, and began its career, darkening the face of day. As became an
instrument of divine power, it seemed to have no volition of its own; it
was set off, it drifted, with the wind, and thus made northwards, straight
for Sicca. Thus they advanced, host after host, for a time wafted on the
air, and gradually declining to the earth, while fresh broods were carried
over the first, and neared the earth, after a longer flight, in their
turn. For twelve miles did they extend from front to rear, and their
whizzing and hissing could be heard for six miles on every side of them.
The bright sun, though hidden by them, illumined their bodies, and was
reflected from their quivering wings; and as they heavily fell earthward,
they seemed like the innumerable flakes of a yellow-coloured snow. And
like snow did they descend, a living carpet, or rather pall, upon fields,
crops, gardens, copses, groves, orchards, vineyards, olive woods,
orangeries, palm plantations, and the deep forests, sparing nothing within
their reach, and where there was nothing to devour, lying helpless in
drifts, or crawling forward obstinately, as they best might, with the hope
of prey. They could spare their hundred thousand soldiers twice or thrice
over, and not miss them; their masses filled the bottoms of the ravines
and hollow ways, impeding the traveller as he rode forward on his journey,
and trampled by thousands under his horse-hoofs. In vain was all this
overthrow and waste by the road-side; in vain their loss in river, pool,
and watercourse. The poor peasants hastily dug pits and trenches as their
enemy came on; in vain they filled them from the wells or with lighted
stubble. Heavily and thickly did the locusts fall: they were lavish of
their lives; they choked the flame and the water, which destroyed them the
while, and the vast living hostile armament still moved on.

They moved right on like soldiers in their ranks, stopping at