Every hour of the journey presented some additional evidence that the
kafila was leaving the Great Desert behind, and drawing near a land that
might be considered fertile.
On the day after parting from the wreckers, a walled town was reached;
and near it, on the sides of some of the hills, were seen growing a few
patches of barley.
At this place the caravan rested for the remainder of the day. The
camels and horses were furnished with a good supply of food and water
drawn from deep wells. It was the best our adventurers had drunk since
being cast away on the African coast.
Next morning the journey was continued.
After they had been on the road about two hours, the old sheik and a
companion, riding in advance of the others, stopped before what seemed
in the distance a broad stream of water.
All hastened forward, and the boy slaves beheld a sight that filled them
with much surprise and considerable alarm. It was a stream, a stream of
living creatures moving over the plain.
It was a migration of insects, the famed locusts of Africa.
They were young ones, not yet able to fly; and for some reason, unknown
perhaps even to themselves, they were taking this grand journey.
Their march seemed conducted in regular order and under strict
discipline.
They formed a living moving belt of considerable breadth, the sides of
which appeared as straight as any line mathematical science could have
drawn.
Not one could be seen straggling from the main body, which was moving
along a track too narrow for their numbers, scarce half of them having
room on the sand, while the other half were crawling along on the backs
of their _compagnons de voyage_.
Even the Arabs appeared interested in this African mystery, and paused
for a few minutes to watch the progress of the glittering stream
presented by these singular insects.
The old sheik dismounted from his camel: and with his scimitar broke the
straight line formed by the border of the moving mass, sweeping them off
to one side.
The space was instantly filled up again by those advancing from behind,
and the straight edge restored, the insects crawling onward without the
slightest deviation.
The sight was not new to Sailor Bill's brother. He informed his
companions that should a fire be kindled on their line of march, the
insects, instead of attempting to pass around it would move right into
its midst until it should become extinguished with their dead bodies.
After amusing himself for a few moments in observing these insects, the
sheik mounted his camel, and followed by the kafila, commenced moving
through the living stream.
A hoof could not be put down without crushing a score of the creatures;
but immediately on the hoof being lifted, the space was filled with as
many as had been destroyed.
Some of the slaves, with their naked feet, did not like wading through
this living crawling stream. It was necessary to use force to compel
them to pass over it.
After looking right and left, and seeing no end to the column of
insects, our adventurers made a rush, and ran clear across it.
At every step their feet fell with a crunching sound, and were raised
again, streaming with the blood of the mangled locusts.
The belt of the migratory insects was about sixty yards in breath; yet,
short as was the distance, the boy slaves declared that it was more
disagreeable to pass over than any ten miles of the desert they had
previously traversed.
One of the blacks, determined to make the crossing as brief as possible,
started in a rapid run. When about half way through, his foot slipped,
and he fell full length amidst the crowd of creepers.
Before he could regain his feet, hundreds of the disgusting insects had
mounted upon him, clinging to his clothes, and almost smothering him by
their numbers.
Overcome by disgust, horror, and fear, he was unable to rise; and two of
his black companions were ordered to drag him out of the disagreeable
company into which he had stumbled.
After being rescued and delivered from the clutch of the locusts, it was
many minutes before he recovered his composure of mind, along with
sufficient nerve to resume his journey.
Sailor Bill had not made the crossing along with the others; and for
some time resisted all the attempts of the Arabs to force him over the
insect stream.
Two of them at length laid hold of him; and, after dragging him some
paces into the crawling crowd left him to himself.
Being thus brought into actual contact with the insects, the old sailor
saw that the quickest way of getting out of the scrape was to cross over
to the other side.
This he proceeded to do in the least time and with the greatest possible
noise. His paces were long, and made with wonderful rapidity; and each
time his foot came to the ground he uttered a horrible yell, as though
it had been planted upon a sheet of red-hot iron.
Bill's brother had now so far recovered from his feigned illness, that
he was able to walk along with the boy slaves.
Naturally conversing about the locusts, he informed his companions that
the year before he had been upon a part of the Saaran coast where a
cloud of these insects had been driven out to sea by a storm and
drowned. They were afterwards washed ashore in heaps; the effluvia from
which became so offensive that the fields of barley near the shore could
not be harvested, and many hundred acres of the crop were wholly lost to
the owners.