PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE STORM. 137 



the pilgrim encounters in the Arabian Desert, and which seem 

 confined to that region. Dean Stanley, on his route from Suez to 

 Sinai, met with one which prevailed the whole day. " Imagine," he 

 says, " the caravan toiling against this, the Bedouins each with his 

 shawl thrown completely over his head, half of the riders sitting 

 backwards, the camels, meantime thus virtually left without guid- 

 ance, though from time to time throwing their long necks sideways 

 to avoid the blast, yet moving straight onwards with a painful sense 

 of duty truly edifying to behold. Through the tempest, this roaring 

 and driving tempest, which sometimes made me think that this must 

 be the real meaning of ' a howling wilderness,' we rode on the 

 whole day."* 



A French cavalier, M. Tremaux, while crossing the Desert of 

 Korosko, had the good fortune to witness the course of a Simoom, 

 while himself in a position of safety. 



It was the 8th of February 1848. The horizon in the south- 

 west wore a hue of the evillest augury. Gusts of wind, which 

 seemed to have issued from some red-hot brazier, beat in the face 

 of the travellers. The camel-drivers, accustomed to interpret these 

 sinister signs, and assured that a tempest was at hand, felt them- 

 selves called upon to give M. Tremaux a few counsels, which were 

 by no means reassuring. 



" As soon as the storm darkens the air," said one of them, " by 

 surrounding us with a cloud of sand, we must throw ourselves prone 

 on the ground, wrap our heads in our finest stuffs, to protect our 

 respiration from this sand, which burns the throat. It will be use- 

 less to trouble ourselves about the camels ; they will lie down 

 of their own accord, bend their head against their burden, and 

 never stir so long as the tempest lasts. If the sand accumulates 

 by our side, we must move in such a manner as to prevent it from 

 covering us, making it roll under itself, but without exposing 

 our heads. Remember these things carefully ; and the will of God 

 be done !" 



* Dean Stanley, " Sinai and Palestine," pp. 68, 69. 



