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a better notion of the heat and the sensation than any other comparison could give. These winds, which mostly come from the south-east, differ in the degree of heat and the length of time they last, according to circumstances. The larger and more sandy the desert from which it comes, the hotter the wind is, and the longer it keeps its heat. So in some places it is felt no more than in successive gusts of warmish air, while in others it is a strong and regular current of burning wind. The time of its coming differs also with the degree of distance from the desert. It blows near the deserts from noon towards sunset, and at more distant places from midnight to sunrise. It seldom lasts more than six hours, and not in general so long. In some parts, however, at times during the summer months, it lasts for some days together; and if then very hot, the effect is destructive to the harvest: as the corn is then, and occasionally even by the heat of the daily wind, burnt up and rendered useless. I have been told that it promotes the growth of plants and ripens the fruits, and I can believe this is the case when the country happens to be well watered and the air moist; but this is not often

the case in the country between the rivers Euphrates and Heermind, which is among the driest countries in the world.

H. Does the wind do any harm to men and cattle?

U. O. It is not quite easy to answer that question. If the wind is destructive, it is clear that men will not inhabit or frequent the districts where its violence is most felt; because men will not expose themselves willingly to all but certain destruction and to all but fruitless labour. But from what it occasionally does, even in districts where men build their cities and where they consider it worth their while to cultivate the ground, I think we have no reason to doubt what is generally stated of the destructive effect of this wind in the large deserts. I cannot speak from my own experience, because when there was a choice of routes, I used to agree with the people in seeing no necessity for preferring that which was most exposed to the ill effects of these winds. Those who have felt them, however, state that the approach of the wind is foretold by the atmosphere becoming thick and suffocating. It is said and from what I have felt in more protected situations, I

can believe it-that when a traveller meets such a wind in the open desert, he cannot stand against it; he falls; his flesh blackens, while both it and the bones become so corrupted that the body separates if any attempt is made to move it. The only means of avoiding this fate is to lie down on the ground and bury the face in the sand; but it does not seem that even this remedy is always effectual. Some of those who thus lie down never rise again.

H. Is it the heat that kills them?

U. O. It could not exactly be mere heat which produced such effects as I have mentioned. It is not merely a hot wind, but when in its full vigour it is a poisonous wind as well. Even its names do not so much signify" hot wind” as "pestilential wind." When it has passed over, a sulphureous, and, indeed, loathsome smell, like that of putridity, remains; and the terrible effects I have mentioned must doubtless be chiefly owing to the poison of which this is the smell.

H. But where does that poison come from, sir?

U. O. I cannot give you a reason, and I will not give you a mere conjecture; I don't know. H. Do such things often happen?

U. O. No; for the reason I have already given. People will not, if they can help it, go where they are likely to be killed; nor will they plant where their harvests and fruits are likely to be consumed. In the cities near deserts, it is annoying, but not destructive. When the wind is blowing, the streets are like ovens, and anywhere, in the open air, a current of hot steam seems passing by. The effect is oppressive and relaxing. People like then to be shut up in their coolest rooms, and hate to have anything to do. In such towns I used to like to lie down and take a nap, or else read, until the wind was overblown. It seems very likely that the general custom in the east of sleeping for an hour or two after noon, first arose from the weariness and feebleness occasioned by this wind.

Mr. D. I feel much obliged to you, Mr. Oldcastle, for your account of the Simoom, the effects of which are so differently described by different travellers. May I ask how you account

for such different statements?

U. O. Why, Sir, my opinion is, that the current of heated air called the Simoom has its greatest heat and destructive power chiefly in the middle of its width, while it is comparatively

harmless and mild near the edges. Thus travellers may speak differently even of the same Simoom, if they happened to be so placed that different parts of its breadth passed over them. The middle part of the wind might kill one person, while another near its borders would only feel slightly distressed. I do not know that any person has thought of this before, but it has often occurred to me.

The Sand wind, which in the east is generally known by its Arabic name of Camseen, which means fifty," is only very terrible in those

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deserts where there is much sand. But the deserts of Persia are generally rather salt than sandy, and hence the sandy tract along the Persian Gulf and the desert of Seistan are the districts in Persia which chiefly suffer from this wind.

H. Will you please to tell us why the wind is called "fifty"?

U. O. I think it is because the Arabs have observed that it prevails during a period of fifty days in the season of spring, while the Simoom prevails during the warmest months of summer and autumn. The sand-wind is easily explained. The deserts that are properly sandy consist of a

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