290 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ing the evening, and sometimes continues through a greater part of the 

 night. Consequently, however hot the day may have been in Jerusalem, 

 the nights during the Summer season are almost always cool. Thus, this 

 wind, although often strong, disagreeable, and filling the air with clouds of 

 dust, is a great blessing to the inhabitants; but at the same time it makes 

 it very necessary for them to take precautions to protect themselves from 

 its influence at night. Easterly winds are rare in Summer, while they are 

 common in each of the other seasons. The average for sixteen years has 

 been three days of easterly winds for each month from June to September, 

 and eleven days for each month from October to May, inclusive. 



EAST WIND AND SIROCCO. 



The east wind in Winter is usually accompanied by a clear blue sky, 

 and is dry, stimulating, and if not too strong, very agreeable. In the 

 warmer months it is unpleasant and depressing from its great heat and 

 dryness, and the occasional haze and dust which occasionally accompanies 

 it. The southeast winds are those which are popularly termed "Siroccos," 

 and which are most disagreeable. " The worst kind of sirocco," says Dr. 

 Chaplin, " dries the mucous membrane of the air passages, producing a 

 kind of inflammation resulting in catarrh and sore throat; it induces great 

 lassitude, incapacitating for mental as well as bodily exertion, in those 

 who walk or work in it; headache, with the sense of constriction, as if a 

 cord were tied around the temples, oppression of the chest, burning of the 

 palms of the hands and soles of the feet, accelerated pulse, thirst, and 

 sometimes fever. It dries and cracks furniture, loosening the joints of 

 tables and chairs, curls the covers of books, and pictures hung in frames, 

 parches vegetation, and sometimes withers whole fields of young grain. 

 Its force is not usually great, but sometimes severe storms of wind and fine 

 dust are experienced, the hot air burning like a blast from an oven, and 

 the sand cutting the face of the traveler who has the misfortune to en- 

 counter it. This kind of air has a peculiar smell, not unlike that of the 

 neighborhood of a burning brick kiln. Sometimes the most remarkable 

 whirlwinds are produced, especially in the western plain near the hills, by 

 the meeting of a strong east or southeast wind with a wind from the west 

 or north. Clouds of sand fly about in all directions, now taking the traveler 

 in front, now behind, and now on the side, and the gusts of wind are so 

 violent as to blow weak persons from their horses, and overturn baggage 

 animals. The cold siroccos- of Winter often blow with much force, and 

 when it comes from a few degrees north of east, it is so cold and piercing 

 as sometimes to kill those who are exposed to it without sufficient clothing, 

 instances of which occurred in 1867." 



It is an old and popular saying with the people of the country that a 

 sirocco always lasts three days, but they have been known to last for twenty 

 and even thirty days. 



SCARCITY OF CLOUDS. 



A noticeable feature of Palestine is its cloudless skies. There has been 

 an average of one hundred and forty days in each year for sixteen years 

 which were cloudless at 9 a. m. Still during a large part of the year, clouds 

 are present, and they affect the climate in various ways, but chiefly by 

 moistening the atmosphere and by producing a shade which moderates the 

 otherwise intense heat of the season. The smallest amount of clouds dur- 

 ing the year is in the months of July and August. 



