Nothing green save the fruits, especially the grapes, huge clusters of which were depending from the “parras”; for the locust touches not the fruit whilst a single leaf remains to be devoured.  As we passed along the walks these horrible insects flew against us in every direction, and perished by hundreds beneath our feet.  “See the ayanas,” said the old Mahasni, “and hear them eating.  Powerful is the ayana, more powerful than the sultan or the consul.  Should the sultan send all his Mahasniah against the ayana, should he send me with them, the ayana would say, ‘Ha! ha!’ Powerful is the ayana!  He fears not the consul.  A few weeks ago the consul said, ’I am stronger than the ayana, and I will extirpate him from the land.’  So he shouted through the city, ’O Tangerines! speed forth to fight the ayana,—­destroy him in the egg; for know that whosoever shall bring me one pound weight of the eggs of the ayana, unto him will I give five reals of Spain; there shall be no ayanas this year.’  So all Tangier rushed forth to fight the ayana, and to collect the eggs which the ayana had laid to hatch beneath the sand on the sides of the hills, and in the roads, and in the plains.  And my own child, who is seven years old, went forth to fight the ayana, and he alone collected eggs to the weight of five pounds, eggs which the ayana had placed beneath the sand, and he carried them to the consul, and the consul paid the price.  And hundreds carried eggs to the consul, more or less, and the consul paid them the price, and in less than three days the treasure chest of the consul was exhausted.  And then he cried, ’Desist, O Tangerines! perhaps we have destroyed the ayana, perhaps we have destroyed them all.’  Ha! ha!  Look around you, and beneath you, and above you, and tell me whether the consul has destroyed the ayana.  Oh, powerful is the ayana!  More powerful than the consul, more powerful than the sultan and all his armies.”

It will be as well to observe here, that within a week from this time all the locusts had disappeared, no one knew how, only a few stragglers remained.  But for this providential deliverance, the fields and gardens in the vicinity of Tangier would have been totally devastated.  These insects were of an immense size, and of a loathly aspect.

We now passed over the see to the opposite side, where stand the huts of the guardians.  Here a species of lane presents itself, which descends to the sea-shore; it is deep and precipitous, and resembles a gully or ravine.  The banks on either side are covered with the tree which bears the prickly fig, called in Moorish, Kermous del Inde.  There is something wild and grotesque in the appearance of this tree or plant, for I know not which to call it.  Its stem, though frequently of the thickness of a man’s body, has no head, but divides itself, at a short distance from the ground, into many crooked branches, which shoot in all directions, and bear green and uncouth leaves, about half an inch in thickness, and