310 THE INSECT WORLD. 



to lay a hundred we should devastate the whole world." Upon which 

 Mahomet, greatly alarmed, made an ardent prayer, in which he begged 

 God to destroy these enemies of Mussulmans. In answer to this 

 invocation, the angel Gabriel told Mahomet that a part of his prayer 

 should be granted. Since that epoch, indeed, words of invocation to 

 the Prophet, written on a piece of paper, and enclosed in a reed, 

 which is planted in the middle of a wheat-field or orchard, have the 

 power of turning away the locusts.* This receipt is infallible, at least 

 so say the devout Mussulmans. 



There exists another quite as efficacious. They take four locusts, 

 and write on the wings of each a verse of the Koran (four verses of 

 the Koran are appropriated to this purpose). They then let the 

 locusts thus marked fly into the midst of the swarm, and the flying 

 army immediately take another direction. 



By what the Arabs say, the locusts possess a number of virtues. 

 When you see them in a dream, they announce the future ; if you 

 dream that you are eating them, it is a good omen ; if you dream that 

 it rains golden locusts, God will restore to you that which you have 

 lost ; &c. When Omar-ben-el-Khottal was Caliph, the locusts seemed 

 to have completely disappeared. There was great sadness in the 

 country in consequence. The Caliph especially was very much 

 afflicted at it. He sent carriers into Yemen, into Cham, and into 

 Irak, to see if they could not find a few. One of the envoyes succeeded 

 in his mission, and brought back a handful of locusts. " God is 

 great ! " cried Omar, who from that day had no more misgivings. In 

 order to understand first the despair and then the satisfaction of the 

 Caliph Omar, it is written, so say the Mussulmans, that the human 

 race will disappear from tlie earth after the extinction of the locusts ; 

 that these insects were formed of the rest of the clay out of which 

 man had been formed, and that they were destined to serve him as 

 food. 



And so locusts and fish are the only creatures which God allows 

 the Mussulman to eat without being skinned. They must, however, 

 have been killed by one of the faithful, for otherwise their flesh is 

 impure ! The Arabs eat, and are very fond of locusts. When he was 

 asked his opinion on this article of food, the Caliph Omar-ben-el- 

 Khottal said, " I only wish I had a basketful of them, wouldn't I 

 scrunch them !" 



According to General Daumas, locusts, fresh or preserved, are 



* «' I e Grand Desert," par le General E, Daumas etE, de Chaucd- In iSma 



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