State Library of NSW
[Page 49]
10Just in from Maadi where I had a few games of tennis. Talk about the plagues of Egypt. We had one this afternoon. True bill. It started at about 3 oclock & lasted till after sundown. Millions & millions & billions & billions and quadrillions &c &c &c of locusts. The air was absolutely full of them, darkening the sun. As far as the eye could see, nothing but myriads of locusts. - big yellow & black & brown ones mostly about two inches long. They sounded like thousands of whirring wheels, and their droppings on the roof sounded like rain. Where they landed they left everything as bare as a bone. All along the Nile the Gyppies turned out banging tin cans to drive them off. You can never imagine anything like the extent of the visitation. The telegraph wires were black with them --- like long beards. Some of the beautiful Maadi gardens were left bare.... great country Egypt.
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