220 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



sad occasioDj fathers sold their children, and husbands 

 their wives •^. When they visit a country, says Mr. 

 Jackson, speaking- of the same empire, it behoves 

 every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay 

 from three to seven years. When they have devoured 

 all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming 

 first the leaves and then the bark. From Mogador to 

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

 earth was covered by them — at that time a singular 

 incident occurred at El Araiche. The whole region 

 from the confines of 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 north- 

 ward ; 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 abundant crop. The Arabs 

 of the Desert, " whose hands are against every man%" 

 and who rejoice in the evil tliat befalls other nations, 

 when they behold the clouds of locusts proceeding from 

 the north are filled with gladness, anticipating- a gene- 

 ral mortality, which they call El-Khere (the benedic- 

 tion) ; for, when a country is thus laid waste, they 



^ Southey's Thalaba,i. 171. " Genes, xvi. 12. 



