110 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
ry to light candles at noon-day. P Every green 
leaf is soon shrivelled, and every thing formed of 
wood is warped and cracked. The effect of 
these winds on animated bodies is equally perni- 
cious, and when they blow in sudden squalls, they 
sometimes occasion immediate death. Respiration 
becomes quick and difficult, the pores of the skin 
are closed, and a feverish habit is induced by sup- 
pressed perspiration. The ardent heat pervades 
every substance, and the element of water, divest- 
ed of its coolness, is rendered incapable of mitigat- 
ing the intolerable sensation excited. Dead si- 
lence reigns in the streets ; the inhabitants, by con- 
fining themselves to their houses, vainly attempt to 
elude the showers of fine penetrating dust, which, 
according to the Oriental expression, will enter an 
egg through the pores of the shell. These are the 
hot winds of the desert, termed by the Arabs si- 
moom, and by the Turks samieL They are fre- 
quently denominated the winds of fifty days 9 be- 
cause they prevail chiefly between Easter and Whit- 
suntide, or during the fifty days at the period of 
the equinox. When they continue longer than 
three days, their heat becomes insupportable, and 
peculiarly injurious to persons of a plethoric habit. f 
* Antes' Observations on Egypt, p. 94. 
f Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, Vol. I. p. 62* 
