INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 221 



dor to Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of the 

 earth was covered by them — at that time a singular inci- 

 dent occurred at El Araiche. The whole region from the 

 confines of the Sahara was ravaged by them : but on the 

 other side of the river El Kos not one of them was to be 

 seen, though there was nothing to prevent their flying 

 over it. Till then they had proceeded northward; but 

 upon arriving at its banks they turned to the east, so that 

 all the country north of El Araiche was full of pulse, 

 fruits and grain, — exhibiting a most striking contrast to 

 the desolation of the adjoining district. At length they 

 were all carried by a violent hurricane into the Western 

 Ocean ; the shore, as in former instances, was covered 

 by their carcases, and a pestilence was caused by the 

 horrid stench which they emitted : — but when this evil 

 ceased, their devastations were followed by a most abun- 

 dant crop. The Arabs of the Desert, " whose hands are 

 against every man^," and who rejoice in the evil that 

 befalls other nations, when they behold the clouds of 

 locusts proceeding from the north are filled with glad- 

 ness, anticipating a general mortality, which they call 

 El-Khere (the benediction) ; for, when a country is thus 

 laid waste, they emerge from their arid deserts and pitch 

 their tents in the desolated plains''. 



The noise the locusts make when engaged in the work 

 of destruction has been compared to the sound of a flame 

 of fire driven by the wind, and the effect of their bite 

 to that of fire'^. A wild poet of our day has very strik- 

 ingly described the noise produced by their flight and 

 approach : 



^ Genes, xvi. 12. '' Jackson's Travels in Marocco, 54. 



•^ See Bochart, Hicrozoic. P. 1. iv. c. 5. 474-5. 



