-"'iSv' 



Photo by American Colony Photos 

 DRYING THE WINGS 



The locust now has its wings in their normal shape and is 

 ready to try to fly. As the new flying locust casts its nymph skin 

 the colors of its body are the most delicate hues, but after a 

 couple of days of flying they deepen into a pronounced red effect. 



lentless work, after faces were crimson 

 and peeling and hands blackened from 

 wind and sun, the fight to save the fields 

 was given up and efforts concentrated 

 upon protecting our homes and garden 

 plots. Was it a losing fight? The aged 

 fellah who predicted that it was useless 

 to combat "Allah's army" surely would 

 have said it was. From the standpoint 

 of dollars and cents' worth saved to our- 

 selves, it certainly was. But when we 

 calculated the tons' weight and countless 

 numbers of the pests eliminated from the 



coming stages of dis- 

 aster, to say nothing of 

 the value of a good ex- 

 ample and the engross- 

 ing interest in observing 

 their habits and develop- 

 ment, we felt that the 

 results more than out- 

 weighed the costs and 

 efforts. 



ESSa's parables 



During the latter 

 stages of the fight Essa 

 had stayed at home pro- 

 tecting a garden from 

 the locusts that by this 

 time were encroaching 

 upon the newer residen- 

 tial sections of Jerusa- 

 lem. One evening Essa 

 was found perched upon 

 a rubble wall, two flags 

 in hand, mechanically 

 waving off the stubborn 

 intruders. He looked as 

 if he had an attack of 

 something akin to St. 

 Vitus' dance, for having 

 been on the job for about 

 two weeks his motions 

 seemed automatic and 

 almost without effort. 

 Up to that time the lo- 

 custs had tried to get 

 into our garden only by 

 the back wall, and at the 

 time the writer was ig- 

 norant of their fresh ef- 

 forts from other direc- 

 tions. 



"W ell, Essa, the 

 Wrestler (for such is 

 his nick-name), are you 

 losing wrestler?" Essa 

 dropped his flags a moment as if to rest, 

 stroked his shaggy beard and adjusted 

 his clumsy headgear, and then added with 

 a twinkle of his small, dark eyes : 



"Master, a certain son of evil on a 

 lonely road met a peasant taking to mar- 

 ket two large goatskins of oil, and, cov- 

 eting the superior donkey carrying them, 

 bethought himself of a method by which 

 to get possession of it. Pretending to be 

 anxious to buy the oil, the owner was 

 persuaded to unload the two skins upon 



['aphers, Jerusalem 



a gaming or 



538 



