LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 115 



hallooing all the while ; never leaving them till they are 

 driven into the sea, or some river, where they fall down and 

 are drowned."^ 



Yolney says, that w^hen the Locusts first make their ap- 

 pearance on the frontiers of Syria, the inhabitants strive to 

 drive them off by raising large clouds of smoke; and if, as 

 it too frequently happens, their herbs and wet straw fail them, 

 they dig trenches, in which they bury them in great numbers. 

 The most elhcacious destroyers of these insects are, how- 

 ever, he adds, the south and southeasterly winds, and the 

 bird called the Samarraar.^ 



Capt. Riley tells us, it is said at Mogadore, and believed 

 by the Moors, Christians, and Jews, that the Bereberies in- 

 habiting the Atlas Mountains have the power to destroy 

 every flight of Locusts that comes from the south, and from 

 the east, and thus ward off this scourge from all the coun- 

 tries north and west of this stupendous ridge, merely by 

 building large fires on the parts of the mountains over 

 which the Locusts are known always to pass, and in the 

 season when they are likely to appear, which is at a definite 

 period, within a certain number of days in almost every year. 

 The Atlas being high, and the peaks covered with snow, 

 these insects become chilled in passing over them, when, 

 seeing the fires, they ar.e attracted by the glare, and plunge 

 into the flame. What degree of credit ought to be attached 

 to this opinion, Capt. Riley says he does not know, but is 

 certain that the Moorish Sultan used to pay a considerable 

 sum of money yearly to certain inhabitants of the sides of 

 the Atlas, in order to keep the Locusts out of his dominions. 

 He also adds, the Moors and Jews affirmed to him, that 

 during the time in which the Sultan paid the said yearly 

 stipend punctually, not a Locust was to be seen in his do- 

 minions ; but that when the Emperor refused to pay the 

 stipulated sum, because no Locusts troubled his country, 

 and thinking he had been imposed upon, that the very same 

 year the Locusts again made their appearance, and have 

 continued to lay waste the country ever since. '^ 



An impostor, who is believed to have been a French ad- 

 venturer, at one time, it is said, endeavored to persuade the 



1 Pinkerton's Col. of Voy. and Trav., vii. 257. 



2 Volney's Trav., i. 387. 



3 Riley's Narrative, p. 236-7. 



