LOCUSTS. 2Q3 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 j 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 * 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.

* See the Map of the empire of Marocco.