114f DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
of January, distinguished only by their intense 
and penetrating cold. While the sun is in the 
southern tropic, his rays fall more obliquely on 
the desert, and the current of air which descends 
on Egypt is tempered by the snowy mountains of 
Abyssinia. Sudden or violent squalls are unfre- 
quent on the coast, from the regularity of the 
temperature, which prevents any rapid rarefaction 
pr condensation. The northerly and westerly 
winds, denominated by the Arabs the fathers of 
rain, notwithstanding the humidity with which 
they are impregnated, seldom or never produce 
copious rains in Egypt. When this phenomenon 
occurs, it continues only a few minutes, and even 
then the rain seems to be obstructed in its des- 
cent. In the Delta it occurs only in winter, and 
above Cairo it is considered as a species of mira- 
cle. The phenomena of thunder and lightning 
are still more uncommon than rain, and so far 
divested of their terrific qualities, that the Egyp- 
tians are unable to associate with them the idea 
of destructive force, or to comprehend how they 
are ever productive of injury. Slight showers of 
hail, descending from the hills of Syria, and pass- 
ing along the plains of Palestine, sometimes reach 
the confines of Egypt. The production of ice is 
so extremely uncommon, that once, when it ap- 
peared in Lower Egypt, the Arabs collected it 
from the ditches in the vicinity of Alexandria,, 
