pace, having neither confusion nor disorder in their line of
march through the air, that I could not help comparing them to the
well-trained horses of the English cavalry.[8] 'Who gave them this order
in their flight?' was in my heart and on my tongue.

I think the main body of this army of locusts must have occupied thirty
minutes in passing over my head, but my attention was too deeply engrossed
to afford me time to consult my time-piece. Stragglers there were many,
separated from the flight by the noises made by the servants and people to
deter them from settling; some were caught, and, no doubt, converted into
currie for a Mussulmaun's meal. They say it is no common delicacy, and is
ranked among the allowed animal food.

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 account 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, returning after fulfilling the object
of their visit to the West: 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.[9]

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 tongue the blades of
grass, the leaves of trees, and green herbage of all kinds. Wherever they
settle for the night, vegetation is completely destroyed; and a day of
mournful consequences is sure to follow their appearance in the poor
farmer's fields of green com.

But that which bears the most awful resemblance to the visitations of God's
wrath on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, is, I think, the frightful storm of
wind which brings thick darkness over the earth at noonday, and which
often occurs from the Tufaun or Haundhie,[10] as it is called by the
Natives. Its approach is first discerned by dark columns of yellow clouds,
bordering the horizon;