i The Photograph at the Left
Gethsemane with Its Trees and
as They Were Before the Plague of Locusts Swept It.
'At the Right Is Seen the Sacred Garden Divested by the
Insect Hordes of Every Green Plant, the Cedars
Being the Only Thing to Escape.
R'
. ECENT cabled dispatches from Jerusalem reputed the fall of the
famous olive tree "El Butinl" In
Under this tree, as under its seven
Savior is supposed to have walked during the Night of Agony. A tradi
tion has long been, held that -when "El Butini" fell the Turkish Empire
would also tall. The dispatches said that the great olive tree had been
blown down by the wind. It had, as a matter of fact, been pr&ctkally
killed in 1915, when an unprecedented plague of locusts swept down
upon Jerusalem, destroying every grfen thins for many miles around.
The extraordinary facts of this locust storm, paralleling that which the
bld'Testament records as having overwhelmed at Moses's command
ancient Egypt, are here told for the first time by Mr. John i. Whiting.
American Vice-Consul at Jerusalem.
The New Plague of Locusts
By John D. Whiting.
, American Vice-Consul at Jerusalem. -
"H1
BAR y this ye elders, and give
ear. all ye inhabitants of the
land hath this ever happened
In your days? . . . That which was
left by the creeping locust hath " the
swarming locust eaten; and that which
was left by the grass locust hath the corn
locust eaten. Awake ... and weep
and howl . . . for a nation hath come
up over my land, bold and without num
ber." Thus the old Biblical prophet Joel,
writing some seven or eight hundred years
B. C, begins his description of a locust
plague, and having witnessed the destruc
tion to crops and fields toy these insects
la this historic land, one marvels how the
ancient writer could have given so graphic
and true a description of a devastation
caused toy locusts in so condensed a form.
The plague referred to occurred in the
Spring and Summer of 1915, when Pales
tine was closed to the outside world by
the war. That the locust helped the Al
lied cause there is no denying. They rav
aged the country from the borders of
Egypt to the Taurus Mountains, and were
a source of anxiety for many months both
to the Turkish authorities and the native
population. They consumed every green
thing which meant a serious shortage of
food and fodder, which greatly militated
against the movement of the Turkish
forces on both the Egyptian and Mesopo
tamian fronts.
The full story of the plague, the destruc
tion wrought, how the band of - American
citizens in Jerusalem assisted the author
ities in fighting it are here told tor the
first time. It was toward the end of Feb
ruary that one of our members, Mr- Lewis
Larson, returned from the picturesque
Ain Fara gorge, which borders on the
Wilderness of Judea and is only a few
miles east of Jerusalem, with word that
swarms of locusts had flown overhead In
such thick clouds as to obscure the sun
for the time being. However, before they
were seen a loud noise, "produced by the
flapping ot myriads of wings, was beard,
described as resembling the , distant
rumble of waves, or, as the Bible has It,
"the sound of their wings was as the
sound of chariots of many horses running
Into battle."
(Immediately afterward rumors poured
In from Es Salt, on the uplands east of
the Jordan, and Bethlehem that similar
awarms had also visited these places,
causing much destruction. It was several
days later, however, that the-locusts were
first seen In Jerusalem. Attention was
drawn to them by the sudden darkening
of the (bright sunshine. At times their
elevation was in hundreds of feet; at
other times they came dowa quite low,
detached members alighting. The clouds
of them would be bo dense as to appear
quite black, with the edges vignetted, till
they thinned down and faded away into
the clear blue sky.
For several days Jerusalem was thus
THE OREGON v SUNDAY JOUKNAL; POKTLAN1), SUNDAY MOKNiNU, MAKCH 21, 1920.
Shows the Garden of
Flowers and Shrubbery
the Garden of Gethsemane.
mates in the sacred place, the
visited, causing much excite
ment among tfhe populace.
The destruction wrought by
tlie8eflying cloudswas enor
mous, more especially as the
country was cut off from all
outside supplies, and fodder
and food were In great'demanld
for the troops. When, there- j
fore, the flying locusts left,
everyone breathed a sigh of re-
left, but far worse was to
follow.
Before the pests disappeared
they laid their eggs, literally by the hun
dreds of millions, all over the land. With
her ovipositors the female is able to sink
a hole as much as four inches deep through
hard, compact soil, such as would try the
strength of human muscles even with iron
tools.
Once the alarming extent to which
these eggs were laid was realized the
authorities - made a proclamation, requir
ing each male person from sixteen years
to sixty to gather eleven pounds weight
of the eggs. It is estimated by competent
authorities that as many as sixty-five to
seventy-five thousand locust eggs are con
centrated in a square meter of soil. Al
lowing for a loss of thirty per cent in
hatching, some sixty thousand destroyers
can emerge from a space thirty-nine
inches square.
Scarcely had Jerusalem got over the ex
citement of the search for eggs than word
poured in that the country was teeming
with the young larvae. When first hatched
they were quite black and resembled large
ants, having no signs of wing; but as they
developed, passing through one stage Into
another, they cast their little .outer skins,
now no longer large enough to contain the
growing body. Thus they pass- through
several moults, of which, however, but
three stages are plainly distinguishable
the larva or wingless stage, the pupa with
small wings, or properly wing sacks de
veloping, and the full-fledged flying locust.
Once hatched the little fellows seemed
to hold together for a few days, tin a little
developed and In sufficient numbers, when
they start their forward march of from
400 to GOO feet per day, and clearing the
ground f any vegetation "before them.
It was observed that these new broods
instinctively went In the reverse direction
to which their flying parents had come,
making practically for the northeast
None but those who have seen them can
imagine their countless multitudes and
the destruction they wrought.
Countless numbers of them 'poured Into
the broad walled road leading into Jeru
salem from the west, past the United
States consulate to the Jaffa Gate. For
three or four days an Incessant and' un
ending stream filled the road from side to
side like numbefless troops marching on
parade, and in spite of the traffic at this
junction, which to this city is like lower
Broadway to New York, their ranks, at
"Vfll! HUH IIV:W5a li-rTVw'k44
Ki' Tt ll1 '-jit Jf liL. Ai --tWiR
"EI Butini," the Most Famous of the Garden of Gethsemane's Eight
Olive Trees, Under Which the Saviour Is Supposed to Have Walked.
This Great Tree, Weakened by the Locust Plague. Has Recently Col
lapsed. "When 'El Butini' Falls, Then Falls the Turk," Runs the
Legend. (And Above) One of the Largest Forms of the Locust
Which Swept in Clouds Over the Holy Land.
though thinned, entered the ancient gate
way and the New " Breach. The moat .
around "David's Tower" was so filled till
the dry earth seemed to he a living, mass.
Up and up the city walla and the castle
they climbed to their very heights.
It was the 28th day of May when the
larvae, already transforming Itself into the
pupa stage, reached the quiet of the Gar
den of Gethsemane, now In its full Sum
mer bloom; but scarcely had a day passed
before every tender thing was consumed,
and even the leaves of the' woody cypress
and of the olive trees, the latter about one
thousand years old, were attacked. The
Garden was ravaged.
The entire city of Jerusalem, with the
(C) 1920. International Feature Service. Inc.
??v f
exception of the portion within the walls,
'fell a prey to the ravages of -the creeping
pests, while the entire land from "Dan to
Beersheba" was laid desolate.
. Fortunately, by the time the young
broods had hatched, a large portion of the
grain crops had already been harvested,
but the fruit and Summer - crops were
ruined. The native vineyards and orch
ards are 'always planted in perfect con
fusion. Between the vines one finds figs,
olives, pomegranites, quinces and other
trees. These were the places at which
the locusts naturally halted, for the rapid
ity Of their marches or their stops seemed
all to be regulated by the amount of for
age encountered.
' Great Britain ElfhU fieserred, "
How Storms of
Grasskoppers Destroyed
tne Trees and Plants
of the Sacred Place
Wherein the Saviour
Walked
Did When M
Them to Plague
Wicked Pharoah
Onca entering a "vine
yard," the sprawling vines
would, in the shortest
time, be nothing but bare
bark, the long dark stems
lying flat on the ground,
much resembling snakes.
Fig leaves, perhaps of all
things, best suited . their
taste, and when once a
tree fell a prey to them
the ground about would be literally layers
deep, and the trunk so covered with crawl
ers as to make it a bright yellow color.
Disastrous as they were in the country,
equally obnoxious they became about the
homes, crawling up thick upon the walls,
and, squeezing in through cracks of closed ,
doors or windows, entered the very dwell
ing rooms. When unable to find an en
trance they often scaled the walls to the
roofs and then getting into the houses by
throwing themselves into the open courts
such as most priental houses are built
around. Women frantically swept the
walls and roofs of their homes, but to no
avail. In Nazareth it required several
hundred men busily sweeping the locusts
together and destroying them, and eight
donkeys to carry away to near-by fields
the miniature carcasses. Stores were
closed and .some houses even abandoned.
About our homes in Jerusalem the pests
became so thick that one could not help
crushing them with every step. They even
fell into one's shirt collar from the walls
above, and crawled up onto one's person.
Women were especially troubled with
them, and on one occasion a lady, after
being away from home for half a day, re
turned with one hundred and ten of the
creatures concealed within her skirts.
Whenever touched, or especiallyjphen find
ing themselves caught within one's
clothes,, they exuded from their mouth a
dark fluid, an irritant to the skin and soil
ing the garments in a most disgusting
manner. Imagine the feeling, and I speak
from experience, with a dozen or two such
creatures, over an Inch long, with saw
like legs and rough bodies, making a race
course of your back!
While In the pupa stage, that is, with
their wings only partially developed and
unable to fly, it was comparatively easy to
trap them as they marched over the coun
try in long, endless columns. In their path
would be sunk a bottomless box with the
Inside lined with shining tin up which the
locusts cannot crawl.
The fighters now make two long lines,
one on each side of the trap. To noise
and racket the locusts seemed only to turn
a deaf ear, but a large flag the darker the
better with which to cast a deep shadow
apia the ground, proved to be1 the most
formidable tool one could employ to make
them move in the desired direction.
After two weeks' steady and relentless
work the fight to save the fields was given
Just
They
as
Sent
oses
upland efforts concentrated upon protect
ing our homes and garden plots. Was it
a losing fight? The natives, who pre
dicted that it was useless to combat
"Allah's army," surely would have said it
was. Frdm the standpoint of dollars and
cents' worth saved to ourselves, it cer
tainly was. But when we calculated the
tons' weight and countless numbers of
the pests eliminated from the coming
stages of disaster, to say nothing of the
value of a good example and the engros-
ing interest in observing their habits and
development, we fert that the results more
than outweighed the costs and efforts.
In the early days of June a few scat-.
tered locusts were- seen about the tree
tops 'of a decided , red color. Some sup
posed them to be a kind of graHsbopper,
for they were so different in color to the
fliers that first came and laid tbeir eggs
that it was difficult to detect in them the
resemblance to the parents. A few days
. later the air was filled with xjiantities of
, these new flying locusts with the thin
transparent wings, producing the effect of
a large-flaked snowstorm.
It was at first hard-to realize that these
had not, as most supposed, flown in from'
elsewhere, but right under our eyes had
been transformed from the small creeping
locusts, millions of which we bad de
stroyed. During the day they kept busily
hovering about from tree to tree, or alight
ing on some green patch, while toward
evening they settled for the night by myr
lads upon the olive trees, almost covering
them and, transforming the dark green foli
age into a distinctive red appearance.
Up to this time the olive orchards bad
suffered comparatively little. The creep
ing locusts had not seemed to care for the
tough titter leaves while better things
were at hand, and as a rule only severely
damaged individual trees where other food
was scarce. But now that these raven-
ously hungry, freshly moulted fliers ap
peared, food had already become scarcer,
obliging the creepers to seek the hereto
fore desfftsed olive, crawling up the trunks
layers deep.
Between the two they stripped every
leaf, berry and even the tender bark, leav
ing only, where such existed, the green
tufts of the poisonous mistletoe.
It was then that the famous olives ot
the Garden of Gethsemane were ravaged.
Likewise, every variety of tree was at
tacked and stripped, with the sole excep
tion of the Persian lilac and the oleander
bushes. ,
The devastation was complete, and only
those resident in the country at the time
can appreciate the sufferings and hard
ships the locusts caused. All vegetables
and fruits virtually disappeared as by
magic. Olives and olive oil were almost
unobtainable. Were It not for the arrival
of a ship load of flour and other food com
modities from America the condition of
the populace would have been serious.