(_sultan
jeraad_) the king of the locusts had taken his departure eastward
early in the morning; the myriads of locusts followed, so that in a
quarter of an hour not one was to be seen. The depredations of
these devouring insects was too soon felt, and a direful scarcity
ensued. The poor would go out a locusting, as they termed it: the
bushes were covered; they took their (_haik_) garment, and threw it
over them, and then collected them in a sack. In half an hour they
would collect a bushel. These they would take home, and boil a
quarter of an hour; they would then put them into a frying-pan,
with pepper, salt, and vinegar, and eat them, without bread or any
other food, making a meal of them. They threw away the head, wings,
and legs, and ate them as we do prawns. They considered them
wholesome food, and preferred them to pigeons. Afterwards, whenever
there was any public entertainment given, locusts was a standing
dish; and it is remarkable that the dish was always emptied, so
generally were they esteemed as palatable food.

A few years after the locusts appeared, I performed a journey from
223 Mogodor to Tangier. The face of the country appeared like a newly
ploughed field of a brown soil; for it was completely covered with
these insects, insomuch that they had devoured even the bark of the
trees. They rose up about a yard, as the horses went on, and
settled again; in some places they were one upon another, three or
four inches deep on the ground; a few were flying in the air, and
they flew against the face, as if they were blind, to the no small
annoyance of the traveller. It is very remarkable, that on reaching
the banks of the river[163] Elkos, which we crossed, there was not,
on the north side of that river, to my great astonishment, one
locust any where to be seen; but the country was flourishing in all
the luxuriance of verdure, although the river was not wider than
the Thames at Windsor. This extraordinary circumstance was
accounted for by the Arabs, who said that not a locust would cross
the river, till (_sultan jeraad_) the king of the locusts should
precede and direct the way.

[Footnote 163: See the Map of the empire of Marocco.]

224

ON THE INFLUENCE
OF THE