LOCK

having at the end small pieces of iron wire of different lengths, irregularly fixed in, corresponding in number and direction with the bolts which fall into the lock; these it lifts, upon being introduced into the lock, which it then pulls back. The bolts of wire differ in number from three to fourteen or fifteen, and it is impossible to guess at the number a lock contains, or at the direction in which they are placed." See DOOR.

LOCKS OF HAIR. See NAZARITE.

LOCUST,

from the root

rabah, to multiply.

The arbeh is often mentioned with other kinds of locusts with which the East so much abounds. This species is supposed to be the Gryllus migratorius, which

The Locust.

is about two inches and a-half in length, and is chiefly of a green colour, with dark spots. The mandibles or jaws are black, and the wing coverts are of a bright brown, spotted with black. It has an elevated ridge or crest upon the thorax, or that portion of the body to which the legs and wings are attached. The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful, that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies; when so raised, they spread their wings, and fly so close together, as to appear like one compact moving mass.

Bochart enumerates ten different kinds of locusts, which he thinks are mentioned in the Scriptures; they are as follow:

(1.) arbeh, is probably the general name including all the species. The word is sometimes rendered in our version "grasshopper." (Judges 6. 5; 7. 12; Job 39. 20.)

(2.) gob, (Amos 7. 1,) is rendered in our version "grasshopper." Bochart derives the word from gabah, to creep out of the earth, which is the case with the young ones in spring.

(3.) gazam, (Joel 1. 4; 2. 25; Amos 4. 9,) is rendered in our version "palmer worm." The Chaldee and Syriac versions understand it of the young yet unfledged locust, or bruchus, which is peculiarly applicable to the passage in Joel 1. 4, where the gazam causes the beginning of the devastation. The Septuagint renders it kaμπn, Vulgate eruca, a caterpillar.

(4.) aan hhagab, (Levit. 11. 22,) a species of winged locust, and eatable, frequently rendered in our version "grasshopper," (Numb. 13. 33,) is supposed by some naturalists to be the Gryllus coronatus of Linnæus. See GRASSHOPPER.

(5.) : hhanamal, occurs only in Psalm 78. 47. Our version renders this word "hail," in which Gese

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(8.) p yalek, is rendered sometimes in our version "cankerworm," (see CANKERWORM,) and sometimes. caterpillar." Gesenius says it was a species of locust. Oedman takes it for the Gryllus cristatus of Linnæus, others for the Gryllus hæmatopus-horripilaus, of a hairy bristly kind.

(9.) yo solam, occurs in Leviticus 11. 22 only; our version renders it, "the bald locust." Gesenius says it was a four-footed, winged, and eatable kind of locust, deriving the name from a root in Chaldee, signifying to devour, consume.

(10.) tsiltsal, occurs in Deuteronomy 28. 42. Michaëlis says this was the Gryllus talpiformis. Tychsen believes it was the Gryllus stridulus of Linnæus, and that its name imports this. Gesenius thinks it was probably a kind of tree-cricket, so named from the noise which it makes.

One of the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians was a plague of locusts, (Exod. ch. 10,) by which we must understand a swarm more numerous and destructive than usual, perhaps sent at an unexpected time, for to the present day locusts infest not only Egypt, but all the neighbouring countries, appearing in greater or less numbers almost every year. The operation of the female locust in laying her eggs is highly interesting, and was observed in ancient times. Pliny says, "She chooses a piece of light earth, well protected by a bush or hedge, where she makes a hole for herself, so deep that her head just appears above it; she here deposits an oblong substance, exactly the shape of her own body, which contains a considerable number of eggs, arranged in neat order, in rows against each other, which remain buried in the ground most carefully, and artificially protected from the cold of winter." Mr. Morier, in his Travels in Persia, observes, "The eggs are brought into life by the heat of the sun. If the heats commence early, the locusts early gain strength, and it is then that their depredations are most feared, because they commence them before the corn has had time to ripen, and they attack the stem when it is still tender. I conjecture that camping in the hedges in the cold day,' mentioned by the prophet Nahum, (3. 17,) may be explained by the eggs being deposited during the winter; and when the sun ariseth they flee away,' may also be illustrated by the flying away of the insect, as soon as it had felt the sun's influence." The inhabitants of Syria have observed that locusts are always bred by mild winters, and that they constantly come from the deserts of Arabia.

The number of these insects is incredible to any person. who has not himself witnessed it. The Rev. Mr. Hartley, in his Travels in Greece and Asia Minor, says, speaking of the locusts, "I am perfectly astonished at their multitudes. They are, indeed, as a strong people, set in battle array; they run like mighty men; they climb the walls like men of war. I actually saw them run to and fro in the city of Thyatira; they ran upon the wall; they climbed up upon the houses; they entered into the windows like a thief."

the coast of the East (or Dead) Sea, and others into the Utmost (or Mediterranean) Sea. (Joel 2. 20.) These locusts are larger than those which sometimes visit the southern parts of Europe. From their heads being

From the Scriptures it appears that in Palestine the country was frequently laid waste by vast bodies of migrating locusts; and the brief notices of the inspired writers as to the habits of the insects, their numbers, and the devastation they cause, are amply borne out by the more laboured details of modern travellers.

By the prophet Joel (2. 11) they are termed the army of the Lord," from the military order which they appear to observe: disbanding themselves and encamping in the evening, and in the morning resuming their flight in the direction of the wind, unless they meet with food. (Prov. 30. 27; Nahum 3. 17.) They fly in countless hosts, (Judges 6. 5; Jerem. 46. 23,) so as to obscure the sun and bring a temporary darkness upon the land; (Exod. 10. 15; Joel 2. 2;) and the noise made by them is compared to the noise of chariots. (Joel 2. 5.) If the weather be cold, they encamp in the hedges, until the sun rises, when they resume their progress, (Nahum 3. 17,) climbing or creeping in perfect order. Regardless of every obstacle they mount the walls of cities and houses and enter the very apartments. (Joel 2. 7-9.) They devour every green herb, and strip the bark off every tree, (Exod. 10. 12,15; Joel 1. 4,7,10,12,16,18,20,) | so as to render the land which before was as the garden of Eden, a desolate wilderness, as if it had been laid waste by fire. (Joel 2. 3.) The noise they make, when committing their ravages, is compared to the crackling noise of fire among the dry stubble, or a mighty host set in battle array. (v. 5.) So fearful are the effects of their devastations that every one was filled with dismay, (v. 6,) and vainly attempted to prevent them from settling on their grounds by making loud shouts, (Jerem. 51. 14,) as the inhabitants of Egypt and the Nogai Tartars do to this day. What increases this tremendous calamity is, that when one host is departed, it is succeeded by a second, and sometimes even by a third or a fourth, by which everything that has escaped the ravages of the preceding is inevitably consumed. Arabia is generally considered as the native country of these insects, and we learn that they were carried thence into Egypt by an east wind, (Exod. 10. 13,) and were removed by a westerly wind, (v. 19,) which blew from the Mediterranean Sea, (that lay to the north-west of that country,) and wafted them into the Red Sea, where they perished. On their departure from a country they leave their fetid excrements behind them, which pollute the air, and myriads of their eggs deposited in the ground, whence issue in the following year a new and more numerous army. They are generally carried off by the wind into the sea, where they perish; and their dead bodies putrefying on the shore, emit a most offensive smell.

The plague of locusts predicted by Joel entered Palestine from Hamath, one of the northern boundaries, whence they are called the northern army, and were carried away by the wind, some into the dreary plain on

that they "have the appearance of horses;" and on account of their celerity they are compared to horsemen at full gallop, (2. 4,) and also to horses prepared for battle. (Rev. 9.7.) The locust has a large open mouth; and in its two jaws four incisive teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, and from their mechanism are calculated to grasp and cut everything of which they lay hold. These teeth are so sharp and strong, that the prophet, by a bold figure, terms them, the teeth of a great lion. (Joel 1. 6.) Their numerous swarms like a succession of clouds, sometimes extend a mile in length, and half as much in breadth, darken the horizon, and intercept the light of the sun. Should the wind blow briskly, so that the swarms are succceded by others, they afford a lively idea of that similitude of the Psalmist, (109. 23,) of being "tossed up and down as the locusts." Wherever they alight, the land is covered with them for the space of several leagues, and sometimes they form a bed six or seven inches thick. The noise which they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army foraging in secret, or the rattling of hail-stones; and whilst employed in devouring the produce of the land, it has been observed that they uniformly proceed one way, as regularly as a disciplined army upon its march. Fire itself, indeed, consumes not so rapidly. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears as if a covering had been removed; trees and plants, stripped of their leaves, and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed, in an instant, to the rich scenery of the spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacle, or traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured by them.

"The devastations of the locust," says Dr. Bowring, in his Report on Syria, "are often a great detriment to the agriculturist: they sometimes cross the country, destroying everything before them. A few years ago the army of Ibrahim Pacha, in the attempt to extirpate them, gathered up no less than 65,000 ardebs, each equal to five English bushels, and therefore equivalent in the whole to 325,000 bushels. No one can estimate the damage caused by these crcatures; when they are grown to a certain size, it is impossible to conquer or resist them; they come like flights of birds, darkening the air, and the destruction of hundreds of thousands seems in no respect to diminish their numbers."

Dr. Shaw thus describes a visitation of these insects; he is speaking of Syria: "The locusts were no sooner hatched in June, than each of the broods collected itself into a compact body of a furlong or more in square, and marching afterwards directly forward towards the sea, they let nothing escape them; eating up everything that was green and juicy, not only the lesser kinds of vegetables, but the vine likewise, the fig-tree, the pomegranate, the palm and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, (Joel 1. 12,) in doing which they kept their ranks like men of war, climbing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way; nay, they entered into our very houses and bed-chambers like thieves. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water; or else they heaped up therein heath, stubble, and such like combustible matter, which were severally set on fire upon the approach of the locusts.

But this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires extinguished by infinite swarms succeeding one another, whilst the front was regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close, that a retreat was altogether impossible. A day or two after one of these broods was in motion others were already hatched to march and glean after them, gnawing off the very bark, and the young branches of such trees, as had before escaped with the loss only of their fruit and foliage. So justly have they been compared by the prophet to a great army,' who further observes, that the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness.""

In Light's Travels in Africa, edited by Campbell, the writer remarks, "I never saw such an exhibition of the helplessness of man as I have seen to day. While we were sitting at dinner, a person came into the house, quite pale, and told us that the locusts were coming. Every face gathered darkness. I went to the door-I looked above, and all round, and saw nothing. Look to the ground,' was the reply, when I asked where they were. I looked to the ground, and there I saw a stream of young locusts without wings, covering the ground at the entrance of the village. The stream was about five hundred feet broad, and covering the ground, and moving at the rate of two miles an hour. In a few minutes they covered the garden wall, some inches deep, and the water was immediately let into the channel, into which it flows to water the garden. They swim with the greatest ease over standing water, but the stream carried them away, and after floating in it about a hundred paces, they were drowned. All hands were now at work to keep them from the gardens, and to keep them from crossing the stream. To examine the phenomenon more clearly, I walked about a mile and a half from the village, following the course of the stream. Here I found the stream extending a mile in breadth, and, like a thousand rivulets all flowing into one common channel. It appeared as if the dust under my feet was forming into life, and as if God, when he has a controversy with a people, could raise the very dust of the earth on which they tread in arms against them. Man can conquer the tiger, the elephant, the lion, and all the wild beasts of the desert; he can turn the course of the mighty rivers, he can elude the violence of the tempest, and chain the wind to his car; he can raise the waters into clouds, and, by the means of steam, create a power that is yet beyond human measurement; he can play with the lightnings of heaven, and arrest its thunders; but he is nothing before an army of locusts. Such a scene as I have witnessed this afternoon would fill England with more consternation than the terrific cholera. One of the people here informs us, that he had seen a stream that continued ten days and nights flowing upon his place. During that time every person in the place was at work to preserve his garden; as to the corn fields they were obliged to give them up. They continued to the fifth day defending their gardens; on the evening of the fifth day, the locusts were between five and ten feet deep, and the mass by this time became terrible, and literally fell in pieces over the garden walls."

Major Moore, when at Poonah, had the opportunity of seeing an immense army of these creatures which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to have come from Arabia. "The column they composed," says he, “extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it when on the wing, that like an eclipse it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object;" and some lofty tombs, distant from his residence not two hundred yards, were rendered quite invisible.

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Singular as the permission to eat locusts may appear, as recorded in Leviticus 11. 22, yet nothing is more certain, than that several nations, both of Asia and Africa, anciently used these insects for food, and that they are still eaten in the East. The locusts which formed part of the food of John the Baptist, (Mark 1.6,) were these insects, and not as has been sometimes supposed the fruit of the locust tree. Diodorus Siculus mentions a people of Ethiopia, who were so fond of eating them that they were called acridophagi, eaters of locusts. They made large fires which intercepted the flight of the locusts, which they collected and salted; thus preserving them palatable till the season for again collecting them returned. Pliny relates that, in some parts of Ethiopia, the inhabitants lived upon nothing but locusts salted, and dried in the smoke; and that the Parthians also accounted them a pleasant article of food. The modern Arabs catch great quantities of locusts, of which they prepare a dish by boiling them with salt, and mixing a little oil, butter, or fat; sometimes they toast them before a fire, or soak them in warm water, and without any other culinary process, devour almost every part except the wings. They are also said to be sometimes pickled in vinegar. At Bushire, in Persia, Mr. Price saw "many Arab women employed in filling bags with locusts, to be preserved and eaten like shrimps." 'Locusts," says Jackson, in his Account of Morocco, "are esteemed a great delicacy, and during the time of their swarming, dishes of them are generally served up at the principal repasts. There are various ways of dressing them; that usually adopted is to boil. them in water half an hour, then sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and fry them, adding a little vinegar. The head, wings, and legs, are thrown away, the rest of the body is eaten, and resembles the taste of prawns. As the criterion of goodness in all eatables among the Moors is regulated by the stimulating qualities which they possess, so these locusts are preferred to pigeons, because supposed to be more invigorating. A person may eat a plate full of them containing two or three hundred without any ill effects."

Ano

Locusts are also eaten by the Bedouins, who collect them in great numbers in the beginning of April. After having been roasted a little upon the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks with the mixture of a little salt. ther way is to throw them alive into boiling water, in which a good deal of salt has been mixed; after a few minutes they are taken out and dried in the sun; the heads, feet, and wings are then torn off, the bodies are cleansed from the salt and perfectly dried, after which they are stowed away in sacks. They are never served up as a dish, but every one takes a handful of them when hungry. They are sometimes eaten broiled in butter; and they often contribute materials for a breakfast when spread over unleavened bread mixed with butter. In some parts, after being dried, the Arabs grind them to a powder, of which a kind of bread is made in small cakes. Of all the Bedouins encountered by Burckhardt, those of Sinai alone abstain from using locusts as an article of food; and in the towns of Arabia there are shops in which locusts are sold by measure. They are not eaten by the peasants of Syria; although some poor fellahs in the Haouran will make a meal of them when pressed by hunger. They break off the heads, and take out the entrails before drying them in the sun, whereas most of the Bedouins swallow them entire.

From their swarming together, and the havoc they make, locusts are in Scripture an ordinary symbol of hostile armies, the words "caterpillars," or "cankerworm," being, however, often used in our translation.

As the symbolical locusts mentioned in Revelation 9. 4, are said to hurt man, which the natural locusts do not, further than by injuring vegetation, this must be understood of a class of persons who resemble that insect only in some of its more remarkable qualities; such as number, noxiousness, and capacity of devastation, especially when they are represented (v. 7) as having human faces, and (v. 8) "hair like women," and wearing golden crowns. Almost all interpreters agree, that by the locusts in the Apocalypse, the Saracens are intended, and the rise of the Mohammedan imposture and power, about A.D. 606. Mede, Daubuz, Lowman, and Bishop Newton, appear to agree on this subject. To explain the imagery of Revelation 9. 1-11, Taylor has translated the following passage from Niebuhr:-"An Arab of the desert, near Bussorah, informed me of a singular comparison of the locust with other animals. The terrible

locust of chapter 9 of the Apocalypse not then occurring to me, I regarded this comparison as a jest of the Bedouin, and paid no attention to it, till it was repeated

by another from Bagdad. It was thus: he compared the head of the locust to that of the horse; its breast to that of the lion; its feet to those of the camel; its body to that of the serpent; its tail to that of the scorpion; its horns, if I mistake not, to the locks of hair of a virgin; and so of other parts."

LOD. See LYDDA. LODEBAR,

(Without pasture,) the name of a place in Gilead, (2Sam. 17. 27,) probably the same which in Joshua 13. 26 is called Debir., (See DEBIR.) In 2Sam. 9. 4,5, the name is spelled 727is`

LODGE, miloonah, (Isai. 1. 8,) signifies a shed or lodge for the watchman in a garden; it also refers to a sort of hanging bed or hammock, which travellers in hot climates, or the watchmen of gardens or vineyards, hang on high trees to sleep in at night, probably from the fear of wild beasts. The word occurs in Isaiah 24. 20, where it is said in our version, "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage," the latter clause should read, "and shake like a hammock."

The lodge here referred to was a little temporary hut covered with boughs, straw, turf, or similar materials, for a shelter from the heat by day and the cold and dews by night, for the watchmen that kept the garden, or vineyard, during the short season while the fruit was ripening, (Job 27. 18,) and speedily removed when it had served that purpose. It is usually erected on a slight artificial mound of earth, with just space sufficient for one person, who, in this confined solitude, remains constantly watching the ripening crop, as the jackals during the vintage often destroy whole vineyards, and likewise commit great ravages in the gardens of cucumbers.

LODGING-PLACE, ji malon. The prophet Jeremiah says, (ch. 9. 2,) "Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them!" "People in the East," Roberts remarks, "on their journeys to other towns or countries, are obliged to travel through the most lonely wilds. Hence the native sovereigns, or opulent men, erect what are called rest-houses, or choultries, where the travellers or pilgrims reside for the night. It is in the wilderness where the devotees and ascetics live retired from men; there either for life, or for a short period, they perform their austerities, and live in cynical contempt of man. When a father is angry with his family he often exclaims, 'If I had but

a shade in the wilderness, then should I be happy; I will become a pilgrim, and leave you.' Nor is this mere empty declamation to alarm his family; for num bers in every town and village thus leave their homes and are never heard of more. There are, however, many who remain absent for a few months or years, and then return. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder, when a father or husband threatens his family he will retire to the Katu (wilderness), that they become greatly alarmed. But men who have been reduced in their circumstances become so mortified, that they also retire from their homes, and wander about all their future lives as pilgrims. Alas, alas! I will retire to the jungle and live with wild beasts,' says the broken hearted widow."

LOFT, y aleyah, (1Kings 17. 19,) signifies a small covered place on the flat roof of an Oriental house. In Acts 20. 9, the large upper chamber of the fell down, is called "the third loft." See CHAMBER; house in which St. Paul was preaching when Eutychus

EUTYCHUS; HOUSE.

LOG, 5 (Levit. 14. 10,) a small measure for liquids, being, according to the Rabbins, the twelfth part of a hin; thus, equal to five-sixths of a pint.

LOINS,

л mathnayim, (Exod. 12. 11,) the upper part of the hip where the girdle is worn.

hhagar mathnayim, "to gird the loins," is an expression of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures. In Eastern countries those who travel on foot are obliged to fasten their garments at a greater height from their feet than they are accustomed to do at other times. This is what is understood by girding their loins: not simply having girdles about them, but the wearing their garments at a greater height than usual. Sir John Chardin remarks there are two ways of doing this; the dress of the Eastern people is a long vest reaching down the calf of the leg, more or less fitted to the body, and fastened upon the loins by a girdle, which goes three or four times round them. This dress is fastened higher up two ways: the one, which is not much used, is to draw up the vest above the girdle, just as the monks do when they travel on foot; the other, which is the common way, is to tuck up the fore parts of their vest into the girdle and so fasten them. All persons in the East that journey on foot always gather up their vest, by which they walk more commodiously, having the leg and knee unburdened and unembarassed by the vest, which they are not when that hangs over them." In this manner he supposes the Israelites were prepared for their going out of Egypt when they ate the first Passover.

Roberts informs us, "When people take a journey, they have always their loins well girded, as they believe they can walk much faster and to a greater distance. Before the palanquin bearers take up their load, they assist each other to make tight a part of the sali or robe round the loins. See the man who has to run a race or take a journey; he girds up his loins with a long robe or shawl. Elijah (1 Kings 18. 46) therefore thus prepared himself to run before the chariot of the king. Great persons have always men running before them, with an ensign of office in their hands. Elijah probably did this in consequence of the wonderful events that had taken place: fire having come from heaven, Baal's priests having been destroyed, the rain having descended, and the proud king his enemy having been reconciled, he ran before as the priest of the Lord, to show from whom the blessings had come.