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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



reason the natives have always given 

 "Abo Saad"* a warm welcome (see page 



5H). 



While collecting these eggs many of 

 the cells were found to contain eggs laid 

 by certain species of flies, probably the 

 Ida lumata Fabr. and the Anthomya 

 cana Macq., the young worm or larva of 

 which, when hatched, lives upon the lo- 

 cust eggs, sucking them dry, till devel- 

 oped into the chrysalis and emerging a 

 full-fledged fly. Wild birds and domestic 

 fowls developed a ravenous appetite for 

 locusts, while with the smaller larvae and 

 pupae turkeys and chickens simply gorged 

 themselves, with the result that the yolk 

 of their eggs became a deep-red color. 



At breakfast one morning Allie brought 

 on a most gorgeously tinted omelet, when 

 little SpafTord, fixing his astonished eyes 

 on it and hearing that the chickens feed- 

 ing on locusts were responsible for the 

 change in color, broke out with "Mama, 

 if we hatched those eggs, would locusts 

 come out with the chicks ?" 



But while countless numbers thus fall 

 prey to the appetites of tiny worms or 

 these larger birds, it is said that the locust 

 is its own worst enemy, as later we shall 

 see (pages 544 and 547). 



A TRICK IN EVERY TRADE 



Of late the city natives have revived 

 an old dish called "ishareyeh," a sort of 

 macaroni rolled by hand from dough 

 into small particles which exactly resem- 

 ble locust eggs. While many forms of 

 evading the law were sought, one of the 

 trickiest ways was by a certain Jerusa- 

 lemite who, not wishing to exert himself 

 in collecting the locust eggs, shirked the 

 burden in true Oriental style onto his 

 wife. She, procuring some white clay, 

 rolled it like "ishareyeh" into forms so 

 like the locust eggs that, when presented 

 to the officer in charge, they readily 

 passed for the genuine article. She, of 

 course, could not keep the secret; it was 

 too good to keep, and that is how it is 

 now known. 



THE CREEPERS REACH JERUSALEM 



Scarcely had Jerusalem gotten over the 



*Abo Saad (Father of Good Luck), the 

 Arabic name for the stork. 



excitement of the search for eggs, 

 scarcely had they relapsed into a sense of 

 something like safety from disaster as a 

 result of those efforts, than word poured 

 in that first the lowlands, or Plain of 

 Sharon, and then the hill country to the 

 west of the city, were teeming with the 

 young larvae. 



At Jerusalem proper no eggs had been 

 laid, as above noted, the nearest fields 

 being in the Valley of the Roses, out of 

 which the railroad emerges on approach- 

 ing Jerusalem. From here, then, and 

 from the Bethlehem district came the 

 forces to attack the "Holy City." 



When first hatched they were quite 

 black and resembled large ants, having 

 no signs of wings; but as they developed, 

 passing through one stage and into an- 

 other, they cast their little outer skins, 

 now no longer large enough to contain 

 the growing body. Thus they pass 

 through several moults, of which, how- 

 ever, but three stages are plainly distin- 

 guishable — the larva or wingless stage 

 (see page 518), the pupa, with small 

 wings, or properly wing sacks develop- 

 ing (see pages 536 and 543), and the full- 

 fledged flying locust (see page 538). 



Once hatched the little fellows seemed 

 to hold together for a few days, till a 

 little developed and in sufficient numbers, 

 when they would start their forward 

 march of from 400 to 600 feet per day, 

 clearing the ground of any vegetation 

 before them. 



It was observed that these new broods 

 instinctively went in the reverse direc- 

 tion to that from which their flying par- 

 ents had come, making practically for the 

 northeast. None but those who have seen 

 them can begin to imagine their count- 

 less multitudes and the destruction to fol- 

 low. No wonder, then, that the writer 

 of the book of Judges likens the hordes 

 of the Midianites, who had for years dev- 

 astated Israel's land, to locusts, and to 

 "the sand which is upon the sea-shore for 

 multitude" (Judges 7:12) (see page 

 519). "For they (Midian) came up with 

 their cattle and their tents ; they came in 

 as locusts for multitude ; both they and 

 their camels were without number: and 

 they came into the land to destroy it" 

 (Judges 6:5). 



