a hot wind which blows occasionally in the deserts of Africa, and probably in other widely extended countries parched in the same manner by a vertical sun. Its effects on the human body are dreadful. If inhaled in any quantity, it produces instant suffocation, or at least leaves the unhappy sufferer oppressed with asthma and lowness of spirits. The approach of this awful scourge of God is indicated by a redness in the air, well understood by those who are accustomed to journey through the desert; and the only refuge which they have from it, is to fall down with their faces close to the ground, and to continue as long as possible without drawing in their breath.

Mr Bruce, who, in his journey through the desert, suffered from the simoon, gives of it the following graphical description: "At eleven o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chig-Trevels, gre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we vol. iv. were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, P. 559. Idris our guide cried out, with a loud voice, fall upon you faces, for here is the simoon. I saw from the south-east a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so comprelied or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of bluish upon the air, and it moved very rapidly; for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground as if dead, till Idris told us it was grown over. The meteor or purple haze which I saw was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten..."