SHEMSKEIN.
239
Those which I saw in the Haouran, and afterwards in the gardens
of Damascus, fly in separate bodies, and do not spread over a
whole district. The young of this species are quite black until a
certain age.
The Bedouins eat locusts, which are collected in great quantities ¬
in the beginning of April, when the sexes cohabit, and they are
easily caught; after having been roasted a little upon the iron
plate (L), on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun,
and then put into large sacks, with the mixture of a little salt.
They are never served up as a dish, but every one takes a handful -
of them when hungry. The peasants of Syria do not eat
locusts, nor have I myself ever had an opportunity of tasting
them : there are a few poor Fellahs in the Haouran, however, who
sometimes pressed by hunger, make a meal of them; but they
break off the head and take out the entrails before they dry thein
in the sun. The Bedouins swallow them entire. The natural enemy
of the locust is the bird Semermar (); which is of the size of
a swallow, and devours vast numbers of them ; it is even said that
the locusts take flight at the cry of the bird. But if the whole feathered ¬
tribe of the districts visited by locusts were to unite their
efforts, it would avail little, so immense are the numbers of these
dreadful insects.
At eight hours and three quarters from Aaere, and at a short
distance to the right, is the village Obta (); our route N. W. by N.
Nine hours and a quarter, we saw, at one hour to the left, the village ¬
El Kherbe (). Nine hours and three quarters, Shemskein
), one of the principal villages in the Haouran. As we had
rode at a very brisk pace, the above distance of nine hours and
three quarters may be computed at nearly twelve hours of the common ¬
travelling. Shemskein, a village containing upwards of one
hundred families, is situated on the Hadj road, on the side of Wady
