LOCUSTS. 419 



they make in flying is like the rush of a waterfall, and stuns 

 the inhabitants with fear and astonishment. "V\Tien they 

 alight upon a field, it is wasted and despoiled of its verdure 

 in an instant. The palm-trees are stripped of every leaf and 

 green particle, — nothing being left but naked boughs as in 

 the dead of winter. Pulse and succulent crops are devoured ; 

 but grain, either ripe or nearly so, is preserved, being too 

 hard for their use. No pen has so beautifully depicted their 

 ravages as that of the Prophet Joel : — " The land is as the 

 garden of Eden before them, and behmd them a desolate 

 wilderness."* Africa, Egypt, Persia, and the whole of Asia, 

 are subject to their visitations. In Arabia the locusts come 

 invariably from the East, which makes the Arabs suppose 

 that they are produced by the water of the Persian Gulf. 

 Nejed is particularly exposed to their ravages ; and when 

 they have destroyed the harvests, they penetrate by thou- 

 sands into private dwellings, and devour whatever they can 

 find, — even the leather of the water-vessels. The Bedouins 

 of Sinai are frequently driven to despair by the multitudes of 

 these vermin, which remain generally during a space of 

 forty or fifty days, and then disappear for the rest of the sea- 

 son. They arrive towards the end of May, when the Plei- 

 ades are setting, which leads the natives to suppose tl"iat 

 locusts entertain a dread for that constellation. A few visit 

 the country annually ; but the great flights take place every 

 fourth or fifth year. All Arabs, except those of Sinai, wher- 

 ever they reside, are accustomed to eat locusts. In almost 

 every town tnere are shops where they are sold by measure. 

 In preparing them the cook throws them alive into boiling 

 water, with which a good deal of salt has been mixed. After 

 a few minutes they are taken out, and dried in the sun ; the 

 head, feet, and wings, are then torn off; the bodies are 

 cleansed from the salt, and perfectly dried, after which they 

 are put up into sacks or bags. Sometimes they are broiled 

 in butler, and spread on the unleavened bread used at break- 

 fast. The Jewish Arabs beheve that the food of which the 

 Israelites ate so abundantly in the desert was showers of 

 locusts ; and they laugh at our translators, who suppose that 

 quails were rained where quails were never found. 



♦ See Africa, in Edinburgh Cabinet Library, 2d edit. p. 500, 

 501. 



