The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-11
AN EASTERN SAND
Graphic Description of Elemental Dis
turbance Which Rivals Iowa Cyclone

turbance Which Rivals an Iowa Cyclone.
Dongola CORES pondeDce 10 ndon News.
Midday everything sweltering and seething in
the sun that happens to be exposed to it; every
body bubbling- positively bubbling- with
perspiration that happens to be in the shade:
thermometer looks as if it would burst--I
afraid to say how high the mercury has risen
in fact, the perSpration p0urs so into my eyes
that | cannot see the small figures. Rock and
sand pain the eye by their glare. A BLACK, dense,
mudcolored cloud suddenly appears on the hori-
zon at the south, at first speck then growing
larger and larger, rolling rapidly toward US, now
In the distance, now nearer and nearer. Down
go tents and up in the air go straw nuts
and sheds, while the palm branches wave and
nod like the plumes of hearse caught in gale,
or of the helmet of knight at mad gallop
On, on, 1t rolls, that grimy, fastrldlng cloud.
Now cannot see twenty yards ahead OF me.
The landscape is suddenly enveloped in black
shroud. 1t bursts upon my howell. Away, away,
away go my half answered home letters. Who
shall catch them2 Go run after them;
quickly, quickly, boy" l am enveloped in sand.
Over goes my only globe amp-crash. My
bottle of seven days allowance of lime juice
1t totters and capsizes. My last Daily News
makes wings to itself. and flies far, far
away Down come the SPIDERS and away
bolt the rats-whom l encourage to run about
and eat the scorpions, centipedes and
white ants. In comes flock of little
crimson headed bats, and tumble exhausted. |
have no doors or windows to be blown in. and
there is no fear of shower of broken glass,
such as | have seen during a sirocco the
shores of the Levent. Books, sketches. writing
paper. manuscripts, linen lie scattered on the
floor L was going to say-no. the earth-we
have no floors here in Ethopia-buried in mo-
ment in black dust and over goes my only bot
tie of cognac, kept for medical purposes. Luck
lily the cork in. But the only bottle of
whisky an Irish friend had been at he had left
the cork out; it was light, not much balance
left, and over it went. An aroma of mountain
dew pervades the room. BiSsaah! 1t was to
have accompanied me across the desert to Wady
Hafa, where some say CambyseS lost his army,
though others near Meroe
put my head out of my window, was / going
to write-l mean square hole in of the
four mud walls forming what is called by cour-
teSy house. / was blinded as quickly as any
inhabtant of the Cities of the Plain was by the
hand of the angel. My eyes were instantly
filled with sand, every molecuie of which was
burning spark-every particle a scintllatlOn. 1t
weared me to find my way to my-washing-
stand; mean my pile of old wooden cases on
which was carefully balanced my basin-an old
biscuit tin, with caSscallyShaped red am
phora in it. Finding it at length, | cleanse my
eyes smarting with the fiery dust, and
put on pair of huge green goggles
all glass; these are the only kind
that keep out the sand. Thus armed, |
looked forth into the moving mountain of sand.
burning blast, like unto the breath of fiery
furnace scorches my face, dries up my skin,
stopping every pore. look unto the heavens,
The sun was a blood red ball of fire, floating all
in a hot and copper sky" while along the hori
zon hung lurid light, such sees on the
ocean before storm. In the distance trees,
huts and tents were invisible; but near one
could just make out the winding, lead coored
Nile, dashed into pillows. A dense cloud, which
enveloped all, seemed raining fire. The at
mOsphere as if seething boiling suffering.
And now Waiting, whirling along the banks
come the devils (shaytams), the Arabs
call them, the sand spouts-aerial giants
each INDUCING in pas seul, their huge fan
taStlc figures rearing their heads from earth
to heaven. One is reminded of the din of the
Arabian Nights" let out of the casket in which
King Solomon had sealed them up and rising as
a tall column of smoke. How grim and grue
some they! No doubt the fanciful ghotls,
efreets and geni of Arab folk lore drew their
origin from such as these.
And a destructive element are these rolling.
spiral sand biOws-pOwerful agents of disin-
tegratlon, having a grinding, roughing action on
rocks and stones--as they ride to the whirlwind,
acceleratlng destruction in country replete
with decaying pedigrees of decay--a country
where all changes are, not of life but of destruc-
uon-where the characteristic of the scenery
around are heaps of rocks breaking into frag
ments. And these gusts of sand penetrate every
where, into cefts and assures Of stones eating into
and sappiGG their foundations, and acting with
immense mechanical strength, lifting and rolling
rock rock. There is 4 weird and CHASTITY
dance all around in dull and lurd glare Now
| am enveoped in heaving mountain of sand;
the air is sitting. my mouth is parched speech
is impossible without wetting the lips; the
tongue is swollen. | never before properly
understood the darkness of the Egyptian
plague" which could be felt" Half an hour
the sand tornado has swept by. l can hear the
rush of scared horses, mules, donkeys and cattle
as they rush madly by, having broken loose;
the tremendous gutteral roar and gruntng of
camels, the bowling of dogs, and the shrill
screeching of vultures and kites flying before
the gale. All nature groans. Half an hour-the
Doncola carnival of the wild elements of the
''Soudan" is over.