OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



155 



Btony desert ; the risk of meeting with bands of 

 predatory and merciless Bedawins ; the rapacity 

 of guides, and the extortionate demands of petty 

 chieftains when they have once got the stranger 

 in their power; the jealousies perpetually 

 reigning among the small communities into 

 which the interior of Arabia is divided, with the 

 bigotry and fanaticism of the people; these, 

 together with the heat of the climate, and the 

 forbidding aspect of the desert, are enough to 

 deter the most courageous anf indefatigable 

 traveller.* 



The deserts of Arabia, 7, like 

 those of Africa, are sometimes 

 visited by a hot wind, which the 

 Arabs call samoom, or simoom, 



7 



479. 



the Egyptians khamsin. It oc- 

 curs in most countries which are 

 situated at no great distance from 

 sandy deserts, and it blows al- 

 ways from that quarter in which 

 the desert is situated. Thus, in 

 Senegambia and Guinea it blows 

 from the north-east, in the Delta 

 of the Nile from the south-south- 

 west and south-west, on the east- 

 ern shores of the Gulf of Suez 

 from the north-east, in Syria 

 from the south-east, at Mecca 

 from the east, at Bagdad from 

 the west, at Basra from the north- 

 west, and at Surat from the north. 

 These winds are extremely hot, 

 and a considerable quantity of 

 fine sand is generally suspended 

 in the air, which has been col- 

 lected by the winds in rushing 

 over the desert. They affect the 

 human body very powerfully, 



* Blackie't Imperial Gazetteer. 



producing great feebleness, and 

 sometimes even death. They 

 usually consist of a quick succes- 

 sion of hot and cold puffs of 

 wind; and the difference of the 

 temperature between these puffs, 

 which is stated to amount to 

 more than twenty degrees of 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, is pro- 

 bably one of the reasons of their 

 effect on animal bodies being so 

 great. It is also thought that 

 the hot puffs bring a pestilential 

 air, as a putrid and sulphureous 

 smell is perceived when they 

 blow. To shelter themselves 

 from the effects of the wind, the 

 Arabs cover their faces with the 

 kefieh, a handkerchief which they 

 wear on their heads. 



Mr. Bruce, a celebrated African traveller, 

 describes the efiect of the simoom, accompanied 

 by pillars of burning sands. He says, "We 

 were at once surprised and terrified by a sight — 

 one of the most magnificent in the world. In 

 the vast expanse of desert, from west and to 

 the north-west of us, we saw a number of pro- 

 digious pillars of sand at different distances, at 

 times moving with great celerity, and at others 

 stalling on with a majestic slowness ; at inter- 

 vals we thought they were coming in a very few 

 minutes to overwhelm us ; and small quantities 

 of sand did actually more than once reach us. 

 Again they would retreat, so as to be almost 

 out of sight, their tops reaching to the very 

 clouds. There the tops often separated from 

 the bodies ; and these, once disjoined, dispersed 

 in the air, and did not appear more. Some- 

 times they were broken near the middle, as if 

 struck with a large cannon shot. About noon 

 they began to advance with considerable swift- 

 ness upon us, the wind being very strong at 

 north. Eleven of them ranged alongside of us 

 about the distance of three miles. The dia- 

 meter of the largest appeared to me at that 

 distance as if it would measure ten feet. They 

 retired from us with a wind at south-east, 

 leaving an impression upon my mind to which 

 I can give no name, though surely one ingre- 

 dient in it was fear, with a, considerable deal of 

 wonder. It was in vain to think of flying ; the 

 swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of 

 no use to carry us out of this danger. 



The Isthmus of Suez connects 

 Africa with Asia, and separates 

 the Mediterranean and Red Seas. 

 Although the tract is in extent 

 only from north to south about 



