The Arabs have also an infallible means of ridding themselves of the locusts. Here is what General Daumas tells us on the subject According to Ben-Omar, the Prophet read one day, on the wings of a locust, written in Hebrew characters: "We are the troops of the Most High God; we each one lay ninety-nine eggs. If we were to lay a hundred we should devastate the whole world." Upon which Mahomet, greatly alarmed, made an ardent prayer, in which he begged God to destroy these enemies of Mussulmans. In answer to this invocation, the angel Gabriel told Mahomet that a part of his prayer should be granted. Since that epoch, indeed, words of invocation to the Prophet, written on a piece of paper, and enclosed in a reed, which is planted in the middle of a wheat-field or orchard, have the power of turning away the locusts.[80] This receipt is infallible, at least so say the devout Mussulmans. [80] "Le Grand Désert," par le Général E. Daumas et E. de Chaucel. In 18mo. Paris, 1860. There exists another quite as efficacious. They take four locusts, and write on the wings of each a verse of the Koran (four verses of the Koran are appropriated to this purpose). They then let the locusts thus marked fly into the midst of the swarm, and the flying army immediately take another direction. By what the Arabs say, the locusts possess a number of virtues. When you see them in a dream, they announce the future; if you dream that you are eating them, it is a good omen; if you dream that it rains golden locusts, God will restore to you that which you have lost; &c. When Omar-ben-el-Khottal was Caliph, the locusts seemed to have completely disappeared. There was great sadness in the country in consequence. The Caliph especially was very much afflicted at it. He sent carriers into Yemen, into Cham, and into Irak, to see if they could not find a few. One of the _envoyés_ succeeded in his mission, and brought back a handful of locusts. "God is great!" cried Omar, who from that day had no more misgivings. In order to understand first the despair and then the satisfaction of the Caliph Omar, it is written, so say the Mussulmans, that the human race will disappear from the earth after the extinction of the locusts; that these insects were formed of the rest of the clay out of which man had been formed, and that they were destined to serve him as food. And so locusts and fish are the only creatures which God allows the Mussulman to eat without being skinned. They must, however, have been killed by one of the faithful, for otherwise their flesh is impure! The Arabs eat, and are very fond of locusts. When he was asked his opinion on this article of food, the Caliph Omar-ben-el-Khottal said, "I only wish I had a basketful of them, wouldn't I scrunch them!"