Chapter IX: Part 9

My uncle then shewed me the ring which marks the point of separation. It is most easily seen in autumn, he says; it is double in the orange, and in the berberry he shewed me that it is above the point of contact between the leaf and branch, so that after the fall of the leaf, the rudiment of the foot-stalk remains to preserve the bud. He took the trouble of pointing out a little triangle of thorns behind the young bud, which seems to be another beautiful contrivance of nature for its protection in that bush. We then observed this point of separation in other trees whose leaves were not at all gone, and he told me that it is very strongly marked in the horse-chesnut with five small dots.

I begged my uncle to tell me what I should particularly pay attention to in the course of our observations.

He said that as it has never yet been ascertained whether the leaves spring from the wood or from the bark, he would advise us not merely to observe the progress of the buds, but to take every means of tracing their connection with the interior. We may examine with his microscope all sorts of twigs, to see whether the vessels of the central part of the wood extend to the leaf-stalk; and he suggests that we should very carefully observe the difference of structure in evergreen leaves, and in those which perish in the autumn. He recommends us to lose no further time in beginning our task on the few remaining leaves, in order that we may see in spring whether evergreens shed their leaves in the same manner; and we are also to ascertain when their buds are actually formed. “Above all,” he says, “I advise you to take nothing for granted--examine every thing with your own eyes, and learn facts.”

I shall like this employment very much, and Mary, Frederick, and myself have agreed to work in concert. Both my uncle and aunt encourage us; they say it will afford a large field for very entertaining experiments, and they think that inquiries of this sort are highly useful to young people.

_23d._--The fields which were ploughed and sown with wheat not above two months ago, are now of a beautiful green; how hardy it must be, to withstand the severe weather, which I am told may soon be expected! My uncle says, that wheat grows in every variety of climate, except in regions of extreme cold.

It has not been ascertained of what country wheat was a native, and it is certainly a very remarkable fact, that, though cultivated so generally, no wild plants of those species that are used in agriculture have been found, though one of our late travellers imagined that he found it in the mountains of Thibet.

The ploughs are still at work preparing the ground for oats to be sown in spring; or they are laying it up in fallows. The potatoes have all been dug long ago, and safely packed in houses, to preserve them from the frost, which spoils them. My uncle says, that, though potatoes are more used than formerly, they are not such a general article of food as in Ireland. The custom there is to store them in pits covered with a high mound of clay, which by excluding the air delays the progress of vegetation in the root, until the time of replanting returns.

“It is quite astonishing,” my aunt remarked last night, “how the cultivation of potatoes has spread since they were first discovered in South America, and imported by the Spaniards, who called them _papas_. Sir Walter Raleigh found them afterwards in Virginia; he introduced them into this country in 1596, and there is now scarcely a civilized spot on the earth to which we have not distributed them. Even to Persia, this valuable root has been conveyed by the benevolent exertions of our envoy, Sir John Malcolm; and at Abusheher the grateful inhabitants call it Malcolm’s plum.”

I have been very busy this morning clearing away all dead stalks and leaves in my garden, and completing the borders, which I have edged with thrift; and all my seed-beds have been lightly covered to preserve them from the expected frost.

The gardener is going to try two new methods of raising pine-apples; for my uncle always likes to ascertain truth by experiment. A great pit is to be filled with withered leaves, which in decaying undergo a fermentation that produces sufficient heat to answer the purpose; and in this pit the pots of pine plants are to be plunged. The second method is to place the pine-pots on a brick stand, in a moderate heat, and without being plunged in either tan or leaves. He is a most valuable gardener, and finds time for many nice little experiments without ever neglecting his regular work. All his carrot, parsnip, and beet roots are taken up and preserved in dry sand; he is now sowing celery under glass frames for an early crop for next year; and Mary says they have had celery every day since July, in Continual succession, as he constantly earthed it up, adding still to the height of the earthing in order to increase its size and whiteness. His peas and beans he sowed three weeks ago in the warm border in front of the south fruit-wall. He is now going to protect them from frost by branches of fir-trees, and he hopes to have some ready for the table by the second week in May.

What a contrast there is between the labour and attention necessary here for all these vegetable productions, and the luxuriance with which they spring up in Brazil! But there is a pleasure I am sure in successful industry, that is scarcely understood by the indolent inhabitants of those warm and fertile climates.

_25th._--Yesterday being a bright lovely day, my uncle and aunt took advantage of it to go to Newnham to see the poor travellers, of whom we had heard nothing for some time.

Beyond all our hopes they found Bertram considerably better. My aunt had requested her own physician to attend him, and he is now so much recovered, that if the weather continue mild he is to set out to-morrow on his way home. The old gentleman arrived last week; and though great agitation was caused at first by their meeting, yet it seemed to have a favorable effect on Bertram, as the anxiety and fear of never seeing his poor old father again had preyed on his mind.

Madeleine’s spirits are a little improved; she allows herself once more to hope, but she is prepared to submit with true Christian resignation to whatever happens. She is relieved too from all anxiety in regard to her new father; he received her as a daughter, and expresses the greatest tenderness for her and her pretty little child; who has learned to say “dear grandpapa” among the few English words she has picked up.

When my aunt went in, she found him just going to read prayers to his son; she begged of him to go on, and she says nothing could be more touching than the scene--the weak but solemn voice of the pious old man; the calmness and devotion in the countenance of the son, and the gleam of hope that shone over Madeleine’s subdued and sad countenance.

_26th._--Now that winter has really begun, we make a circle round the fire after dinner; and we are so comfortable and happy there that I am often sorry when the time comes for leaving the room.

We have various amusements; on some days we each invent little tales which are to turn on some circumstance that is first agreed upon; at other times we have some of those question plays in which you discover, by a particular set of questions, the thoughts of another person. One of our favourite occupations is doing arithmetical questions in our heads. We have often used a multiplier of three or four figures, which I assure you makes it hard work. My uncle and aunt now and then join in this; and being of course very ambitious to outdo them, we all get into a sort of fever of exertion which makes it very diverting, and the conqueror very triumphant.--Then we compare the different methods which we took, and each person finds out what caused their mistakes. I am afraid I am oftener behind in the race than most of the party, for beside their being much better arithmeticians than me, I am so afraid of being wrong, that I do not speak out in time even when I have my answer ready and right.

I must tell you one of the questions we had this evening; it was proposed by Caroline. In one of the vignettes to Bewick’s birds, there is a man preparing to fasten himself to a team of birds which are to convey him to the moon; the team is wedge-shaped, and the birds are harnessed together in rows, each of which increases by one, from the single bird that acts as leader. Now, supposing that the man weighs ten stone, and that each bird can raise five pounds, how many rows of birds are necessary for his flight?

_27th_, _Sunday._--My uncle again took up the judgments inflicted on the Egyptians. He said that if they were considered with reference to that particular nation, it appeared that there was a peculiar meaning in some of those calamities, which would not have applied so well to any other people. He told us that they paid an idolatrous reverence to many of the inferior animals, and worshipped, as superior gods, the ox, the cow, and the ram. Among these, the Apis and Mnevis are well known; the former, a sacred bull adored at Memphis, and the latter at Heliopolis. There were also a cow and heifer, which had similar honours, at Momemphis.--These judgments were therefore very significant in their execution and object; as the Egyptians not only saw their cattle perish, but, what was still more dreadful, they saw their deities sink before the “God of the Hebrews.” This satisfactorily explains what is said in Numbers: “Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments[8]”; and these events had doubtless a useful influence, though not a lasting one, on the minds of the Israelites, to whom the gods of the Egyptians must at that time have appeared very contemptible.

“I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail:” this judgment, he told us, was also particularly adapted to the Egyptians. The rain and hail that were foretold must have appeared of all things most incredible to the Egyptians; for in Egypt little or no rain ever falls, the want of it being supplied by dews and by the overflowing of the Nile; and when they witnessed this storm of hail, “such as had not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof,” and accompanied by “mighty thunderings,” and fire that ran along the ground, what dread and amazement they must have felt! Pharaoh had received warning of these terrific prodigies, which the deities of Egypt could not avert; and even the fire and water, which had been held sacred by the Egyptians, were now employed they found as passive instruments of their punishment. Besides the formation of the hail, which was so uncommon in that country, its falling so miraculously on the day, and in the district foretold, must have overwhelmingly convinced them of the impotence of the creatures which they worshipped, and of the boundless power of the Almighty.

I asked my uncle at what season these plagues had happened, and why the injury to flax and barley were particularly mentioned.

“The season,” said he, “is not expressly stated; but as the departure of the Israelites was on the 15th of the month of Abib, which corresponds with the beginning of April, we may suppose that the seventh plague (of hail) was sent about the beginning of March, so as to leave time for the three succeeding plagues. This idea is confirmed by travellers, from whom we learn that the barley harvest in Egypt is reaped in March, and the wheat in April; and it explains why ‘the barley was in ear,’ though not yet fit for reaping; and ‘the wheat and the rye were not grown up.’ Abib means the month of the young ears of corn.

“Their barley must have been a grievous loss, as the principal beverage of the Egyptians was made from it; but scarcely any thing could have distressed them more than the loss of their flax, because the whole nation wore linen garments, and the priests never put on any other kind of clothing. This linen was manufactured from that fine flax for which the valley of the Nile was famous, and was in great request in other countries also; for though the Egyptians did not trade abroad themselves, yet they readily disposed of it to foreign merchants.”

_28th._--A question of mine this morning, though it exposed my ignorance, gave me an opportunity of perceiving how much light is thrown by general knowledge on the difficult parts of Scripture history; and, indeed, on all other history. I had asked how it was that the locusts, independently of their coming at the appointed moment, could have been called one of the miraculous plagues, as they were so common in Egypt. I saw my cousins looking a little surprised, but they are so good-natured that they never laugh at my mistakes.

My uncle explained to me that I was wrong in supposing that locusts were common in Egypt. “They are very abundant,” he said, “in the neighbouring regions of Arabia, which has been proverbially called their cradle, but the Red Sea appears to be an effectual barrier against their molesting the Egyptians. They seldom succeed in crossing any great extent of water; for though they frequently migrate into very distant countries, yet their habit of often alighting on the ground is fatal to them in traversing the sea.

“There is another circumstance that saves Egypt from the visits of these dreadful insects; when they take wing they are obliged to follow the course of the wind, and in that country, you know, the winds blow six months from the _north_, and six months from the _south_; but, at the time spoken of, an east wind prevailed ‘all day and all night;’ and the whole face of the country in the morning was covered with the locusts. This strong easterly wind, which enabled them to cross the Red Sea, was plainly preternatural; and we are told distinctly that ‘before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.’

“There are in Scripture ten names for locusts. The species mentioned here is called Arbah, which imports multiplicity; a very just name, indeed: for their prodigious numbers almost defy calculation; and the famous Dutch naturalist Leuwenhoek asserts, that every female lays upwards of eighty eggs. When a cloud of these insects alights upon the ground, the devastation they create is dreadful. Adanson, in his voyage to the western coast of Africa, says, that they devoured to the very root and bark; and that there was something corrosive in their bite, which prevented the trees from recovering their power of vegetation for some time. They even attacked the dry reeds with which the huts were thatched. Another traveller tells us that in Cyprus, as he went from Larnica to a garden at about four miles’ distance, the locusts lay above a foot deep, on several parts of the high roads, and millions were destroyed by the wheels of the carriage. Dr. Shaw says, that he saw them in such multitudes in Barbary, in the middle of April, that in the heat of the day, when they formed themselves into large bodies, they appeared like a succession of clouds darkening the sun: in June the new broods made their appearance; on being hatched, they collected together in compact bodies of several hundred yards square; and marching directly forward, climbed over trees, walls and houses, ate up every plant in their way, and let nothing escape. The inhabitants made trenches and filled them with water; they also placed quantities of combustible matter in rows and set them on fire; but in vain, for the trenches were quickly filled up and the fires extinguished by the vast numbers that succeeded each other.

“Strong winds, which can alone free a country from this plague, have several times blown large swarms over the central part of Europe, and even to England; and it was a ‘mighty west wind,’ which formerly carried them away from Egypt and cast them into the Red Sea.” I asked if these insects were really eatable, as St. John is said to have lived on locusts in the wilderness?

“As it is well known,” said my uncle, “that locusts have in all ages been eaten in the east, and are still esteemed a great delicacy in Barbary as well as in the south of Africa, some commentators have endeavoured to prove that St. John did eat them in the wilderness. But the word translated locusts, signifies also _pods_ or seed-vessels of trees. The pods of some of the Robinia and Gleditsia tribes are considered in Syria to be sweet and nourishing; and it is, I believe, generally supposed that they were the food alluded to in the Gospels.”

_29th._--In our genius conversation to-day, several people were mentioned on each side: Mary quoted a passage from Johnson’s Lives of the Poets respecting Denham, who, he says, was “considered at Oxford as a dreaming young man, given more to cards and dice than to study;--he gave no prognostics of his future eminence, nor was suspected to conceal, under sluggishness and idleness, a genius born to improve the literature of his country.” “Of Swift, too,” continued Mary, “there appears no early proof of genius or diligence; for when at the usual time he claimed a bachelorship of arts, he was found by the examiners too conspicuously deficient for regular admission--and at last obtained his degree by special favour; a term used, as Johnson says, in the university of Dublin, to denote want of merit.” It is probable, therefore, that new circumstances combined together afterwards to _bring out_ the powers possessed by these celebrated men; and I am sure, mamma, this little perpetual argument serves to bring out several very entertaining biographical facts.

Haydn, the famous composer, was the son of a wheelwright; such an employment was not likely to lead to the cultivation of music, and we might be tempted to consider him as a natural genius; but it appears that his father played on the harp, and on holidays used to accompany his wife while she sang. Whenever this little domestic concert took place, the child, with two pieces of wood in his hands, to represent a violin and a bow, pretended also to accompany his mother’s voice; and to the very close of his life, this great musician used to perform with delight the airs which she had then sung. A cousin of theirs, a schoolmaster, came to see them, and being well pleased with the boy’s talents, proposed to educate him. His parents accepted the offer; and at school, having discovered a tambourine, an instrument which has but two tones, he succeeded in forming a kind of air, which attracted the attention of all who came to the school-house. He was then taught to sing at the parish desk, and was soon noticed by Reüter, who tried him with a difficult shake, and who was so delighted with the child’s execution, that he emptied a plate of cherries into his pocket. He was eight when admitted to the choir of St. Stephen, at Vienna, and from that time practised above sixteen hours a day. “In all this,” says Mary, “we see the natural effect of circumstances, and no mark of what is called absolute genius.”

_30th._--Colonel Travers was not present at our conversation about the locusts; but on its being alluded to this evening, he told us that he had once seen a flight of those creatures which contained such an incredible multitude, that nothing could have persuaded him of the fact, if he had not been an eye-witness to it himself.

Instead of going by sea to India, he went overland, that is, through part of Turkey, Arabia, and Persia; and, in 1811, he happened to be at Smyrna, in Asia Minor, when this extraordinary flight of locusts occurred. He says that for several days stragglers had been passing, but at last the main body came, and in such a dense column, as not indeed to obscure the sun, but to produce a curious quivering light. He thinks the lines in which they appeared to fly were about one foot asunder, and that locust followed locust at the distance of three feet. They came in a steady, undeviating direction from south to north, and continued to pass, without any diminution of their numbers, for three successive days and nights. The breadth of this prodigious column was at least forty miles, for a messenger who had been dispatched by the consul to the pasha of Sardis, passed through them all the way, both going and returning. Caroline immediately produced the map of Asia Minor, and we found that Sardis is fully that distance from Smyrna, and that its direction is just at right angles to the direction of their flight.

My uncle was greatly interested by the Colonel’s account of this remarkable swarm, and proposed that we should endeavour to make some estimate of the number of locusts of which it consisted. We all took out our pencils and went to work. In the first place, the breadth of the column was 40 miles, or 70,400 yards; and as their ranks were a foot apart, we have 211,200 for the number of locusts at each foot of elevation. Colonel T. was then examined as to the entire height; he thinks it must have been much above 300 yards, for on looking upwards with his pocket telescope, he could see them like little specks glittering in the sun. We contented ourselves with the 300, and taking them also at a foot apart, there were of course 900 locusts in height, by which we multiplied the former number, and the product was 190,080,000. Now, mamma, for the length of the column: he says there was a gentle breeze from the southward, with which, and their own velocity, he thinks that they were travelling at the rate of about seven miles in an hour, and that they succeeded each other at an average distance of three feet. In each mile, then, there were 1760, and in seven miles, 12,320, which, multiplied by 72, the number of hours in the three days which the flight continued, gives 887,040 for the number in each line of the column; and this, finally multiplied by the 190 millions, gives the almost inconceivable total of 168,608,563,200,000 in this one swarm of locusts!

“I should like to know,” said Mary, “the exact size of these creatures.”

The Colonel said that he could not answer exactly, without referring to his journals, which were in town, but that he imagined they were about the same size as a large grasshopper: “But why do you want their exact dimensions?”

Mary said she would have tried what sized mountain they would have made if they were all heaped together. Frederick, who is a great collector of grubs and insects, immediately brought down some dried grasshoppers, but they were very small; and after much consultation, it was agreed to assume two inches for the length, and a third of an inch for the breadth and thickness of a locust. In a short time, Mary announced, as the result of her calculation, that the whole quantity would amount to 4818 millions of cubic yards.

“But in order to compare this huge mass with some tangible standard,” said my uncle, “let us see what proportion it bears to the largest pyramid of Egypt. According to the measurement of Dr. Greaves, the base of the pyramid of Cheops is 693 feet, and its perpendicular altitude is 499 feet.”

We again went to work, and Mary was again first with the answer, that her heap of locusts was 1030 times larger than the pyramid!

“Well, Bertha,” said my aunt, “you and I will try what sort of a girdle the Colonel’s locusts would make for the earth, supposing them to be placed close together; but what shall we assume for its circumference?”

My uncle said we might take 24,800 miles; and with my kind aunt’s assistance, I had the pleasure of astonishing the party with the information, that this great swarm of locusts would have encircled the globe with a band of a mile and an eighth wide!

If these locusts had alighted any where in a body, I suppose they would have destroyed every thing; as it was, Colonel T. says, the stragglers did a great deal of mischief throughout the country, and he mentioned a laughable story of the wife of an English merchant at Smyrna, with whom he was acquainted. This lady was very fond of her garden, and on the approach of the locusts she and her maids had spread sheets and table-cloths over all her choice flower-beds to protect the plants. Poor woman! she went to bed priding herself on her ingenuity, but when the morning came, she found all gone--not only the flowers, but the linen also totally demolished.

In answer to a question from my uncle, he said he had not been able to learn whether any great proportion of these locusts had penetrated into Russia and Europe, but he knew that myriads had perished in the sea of Marmora and the Euxine. In the gulf of Smyrna he had himself seen a ridge of their dead bodies, which was two feet high, and which had been washed up along the whole extent of the beach by the waves. The smell was most noxious, polluting the air for several miles inland; and this, he thinks, may partly account for the plague which occurred in the following spring. There is a saying in that country, but for the truth of which he does not vouch, that every seven years Arabia sends a swarm of those destructive insects into Asia Minor, though very rarely of such magnitude as that of 1811; and that every locust-year is succeeded by a plague-year of more or less severity.

Wentworth asked him if he had ever seen locusts used as food; and he replied that they are eaten in a great many parts of the world, and cooked in a great variety of ways. In some countries they are stewed, or fried, or made into soup, or salted and preserved; in others they are ground, mixed up with flour, and baked into cakes; but he had frequently seen the Arabs eat them without any preparation whatever, merely pulling off the head, wings, and legs, just as we eat shrimps.

My uncle and he continued to converse on the subject for some time, and I learned one more fact for you,--that their flight produces a sort of indistinct, tumultuous sound, something like the rustling noise of flames. The Colonel says this noise made his horse very uneasy, which no doubt was greatly increased by the locusts incessantly striking against him. In riding to Bournabat, where the English merchants have country houses, he crossed their line of flight; and in order to save his face, he was obliged to keep his hat on the side of his head, against which they pattered like a shower of hail. It appears that they never turn to the right or to the left, but fly straight forward, as if following one supreme leader, or rather as blindly impelled by some irresistible influence.

“How truly,” exclaimed my aunt, “it is said of them in the Bible, ‘The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.’”

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON:

Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford-street.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Sula communis.

[2] The cashew-nut.

[3] See Forbes’ Oriental Memoirs, and Asiatic Researches.

[4] Lord of the Isles, c. iii.

[5] Bakewell’s Travels.

[6] Exodus vii. 13.

[7] Exod. vii. 22, viii. 19 & 32, ix. 7.

[8] Numbers, xxxiii. 4.