St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-12
DEATH IN A CLOUD.
Perils of the Hot, Dry Air Storms
on the Plains of Arabia.


on the Plains of Arabia.
| Cornhill Magazine.
A simeon is first seen as small haze
on the horizon. but, quickly spreading,
| the cloud advances, sometimes slowly,
sometimes rapidly, the tall pillars being
visible long way off, darkening the
atmosphere and bringing with them
great destruction. In the whirl the
wind blows with the force of hurri-
cane, hills of sand are taken up and are
| either scattered Or ale 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 Sen
nacherib and Of Cambyses.
So terribly dry is the air in these
storms that it is fatal to vegetation,
while the density of the dust cloud
makes it almost impossible for human
beings to breathe. This gives rise to
the idea that the wind contains deadly
poison; hence the Arabic simeon, sig
nifying a poisonous wind; but it is no
more poisonous than any other wind,
its fatal qualities being the excessive
dryness and the quantity of fine sand
with which it is loaded. The tempera-
ture of the air has been known to rise
is seen in dried-up mouth and
nostrils, in skin cracking, intense
thirst, painful and difficult breathing,
and Inability to sleep. The time occu-
pied in passing given spot varies be-
tween a few minutes and twenty and
twenty-fOur hours, the blast leaving be-
hind it unmistakable 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
decomposition has time to set in, causes
the flesh to lose all its firmness and
consistency, so that it drops or may be
taken Off the bones easily.
A party of officers sleeping on the
roof OF Gen. Jacobs house at Jacoba-
bad thus recount their experience of the
simeon: ''They were awakened by a
sensation OF sufiocation, and an exceed
ingly hot, oppressive feeling in the air,
while at the same time powerful
smell of sulphur speryaded the at
mosphere. On the following morning
number OF trees in the garden were
found to be Withered in remarkable
manner. 1t was as if a current of fire
about twelve yards in breadth had
passed drought the garden in straight
line, smuggling and destroying every
green thing in its course. Entering on
one side and passing out Oil the other,
its path was as the defined as the course
of river"
Palgrave was overtaken by one of
these ScourgeS in North Arabia. After
some preliminary remarks on the adj
vance of the simeon, he proceeds: $50
dark was the atmosphere and so burn
ing 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 concentrated pOisOn-blast
was coming round we were already
PROSTATE. one and all wrapped up. al
most suffocated, indeed, but safe; while
our camels lay without like dead, their
long necks stretched out on the sand,
awaiting the passing of the gale.
1--WE remained thus for ten minutes,
during which still heat, like that of Il
red-hot iron slowly passing over us, was
alone to be felt. Then the tent walls
began again to flap in the returning
gusts, and announced that the worst of
the simeon had gone by. My comrades
appeared more like corpSes than living
men, and SO, L suppose, did l. How
ever, ] could not forbear, in spite of
warnings, to step out and look at the
cameiS: they were still lying fiat, as
though they had been dead, and the air
was still darkish, but before long bright
ened up to its usual dazzling clearness.
During the whole time the simeon lasted
the atmosphere was entirely free from
sand or dust; so that hardly know how
to account for its singular obscurity."