DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 68 



pass. On the shores of the Persian Gulf, the 

 south-east wind is accompanied with a degree of 

 moisture which, when the heat is intense, occasions 

 violent perspiration, and on that account is deemed 

 more disagreeable than the north-west, which is 

 more torrid, and heats metals in the shade. Water 

 placed in jars, exposed to the current of this hot 

 wind, is rendered very cool by the effect of the sud- 

 den evaporation ; but its blasts often suffocate both 

 men and animals. In the lower part of the Red Sea, 

 the winds blow from the same quarter about nine 

 months in the year, or from the end of August till 

 May ; but from Cosseir to Suez the opposite mon- 

 soon or north wind prevails. 



Arabia is frequently visited by the terrible simoom, 

 called by the natives shamiel, or the wind of Syria, 

 under whose pestilential influence all nature seems 

 to languish and expire. This current prevails chiefly 

 on the frontiers, and more rarely in the interior. It 

 is in the arid plains about Bussora, Bagdad, Aleppo, 

 and in the environs of Mecca that it is most dreaded ; 

 and only during the intense heats of summer. The 

 Arabs, being accustomed to an atmosphere of g-reat 

 purity, are said to perceive its approach by its sul- 

 phurous odour, and by an unusual redness in the 

 quarter whence it comes. The sky, at other times 

 serene and cloudless, appears liu-id and heavy ; the 

 sun loses his splendour, and appears of a violet 

 colour. The air, saturated Avith particles of the 

 finest sand, becomes thick, fiery, and unfit for respi- 

 ration. The coldest substances change their natural 

 qualities ; marble, iron, and water are hot, and de- 

 ceive the hand that touches them. Every kind of 

 moisture is absorbed ; the skin is parched and shriv- 

 elled ; paper cracks as if it were in the mouth of an 

 oven. When inhaled by men or animals, the simoom 

 produces a painful feeling, as of suffocation. The 

 lungs are too rarefied for breathing, and the body is 

 consumed by an internal heat, which often termi- 



