Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-12-05
THe ARABIC siMooN..

THE ARABIC SIMEON.
Pcrils Of tLs Hot, Dry-Air storms on tho
| Plains OF Arabia. ssa5fi Il y
a simeon Is first seen as a small haze
on the horizon, but, quickly spread
Ing, the cloud advances, sometimes
slowly, sometimes rapidly, the tall pill.
lars being visible q long way off, dark
enlng the atmosphere and bringing
with them great destruction. In the
whirl the wind blows with the force OF
hurricane. hills Of sand are taken up
aud are either scattered or are again
gathered into new hills wherever the
storm chooses to deposit them, so that
the desert Is dotted with frequently
shifting sand ranges. Under these are
buried whole caravans of traders,
travellers and even armies. & The
simeon is supposed to have annihilated
the armies of Sennacherib and Of Cam
byses. .@ Fl .
So terribly dry is the air in these
storms that it Is fatal to vegetation,
while the density of the dust cloud
makes 1t almost impossible for human
beings to breathe. This gives rise to
the idea that the wind contains a deadly
poison, hence the Arabic simeon, sig.
nifying poisonous wind; but it is no
more poisonous than any other wind,
It's fatal qualities being simply the ex-
cessive dryness and the quantity of fine
sand with which it is loaded. The
temperature of the air has been known
to rise one hundred and thirty three
degrees. and its dessicating effect ia
seen in dried-up mouths and nostrils,
in skin cracking, intense thirst, pain
full and difficult breathing and inability
to sleep. The time occupied in pass
ing a given spot varies between few
minutes and twenty and twenty-fo four
hours, the blast leaving behind it UNI
mistakable evidence of the path it has
travelled. The hot, piercing air of the
simeon, almost as soon as the breath
is out of the body, and before decom-
position has time to set in, causes the
flesh to lose all its firmness and con-
sistency, so that it drops or may be
taken off the bones easily.
A party of officers sleeping on the
roof of General Jacobs house at ia
cobabad thus recount their experience
of the simeon: ''They were awakened
by a sensation of suffocation, and an
exceedingly hot, oppressive feeling in
the air, while at the same time pow
erful smell of sulphur pervaded the at
mosphere. On the following morning
a number of trees in the garden were
found to be withered in remarkable
manner. 1t was as if current of fire
about twelve yards in breadth had
passed through the garden in straight
line. singeing and destroying every
green thing in its course. Entering on
one side and passing out on the other,
its path was as defined as the course of
a river" -.
Palgrave was overtaken by one of
these scourges in Northern Arabia.
After some preliminary remarks on
the advance of the simeon, he pro-
ceeds: $50 dark was the atmosphere
and so burning the heat that it seemed
that hell had risen from the earth or
descended from above. But at the
moment when the worst of the con-
contracted poison-blast was coming
round we were already PROSTATE, one
and all wrapped up, almost suffocated,
indeed, but safe; while our camels lay
without like dead. their long necks
out on the sand, awaiting the
passing of the gale.
1--WE remained thus for ten minutes,
during which a still heat. like that of
a red-hot iron slowly passing over us,
was alone to be felt. Then the tent
walls began to flap in the returning
gusts, and announced that the worst OF
the simeon had gone by. My COM
rades appeared more like corpses than
living men, and so, I suppose, did L.
However, could not forbear, in spite
of warnings, to step out and look at
the camels; they were still lying fiat,
as though they had been dead, and the
air was still darkish, but before long
frightened up; to its usual dazzling
clearness. During the whole time the
simeon lasted the atmosphere was en-
tirely free from sand or dust; so thatI
hardly know how to account for its
singular obscurity. "-CornhiN Maga-
zine.