The founder of the sect of the Stylites, the fanatical pillar-saint Simeon Sisanites, the son of a Syrian herdsman, is said to have passed thirty-seven years in religious contemplation on the summits of five successive pillars, each higher than the preceding. The last pillar was 40 ells high. He died in the year 461. For seven hundred years there continued to be men who imitated this manner of life, and were called “sancti columnares” (pillar saints). Even in Germany, in the Diocese of Treves, it was proposed to erect such aerial cloisters, but the Bishops opposed the undertaking (Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. 1755, p. 215.)
[33] p. 17.—“Towns on the banks of the streams which flow through the Steppe.”
Families who live not by agriculture but by the care of cattle, have congregated in the middle of the Steppe in small towns, which, in the cultivated parts of Europe, would hardly be regarded as villages. Such are Calabozo, in 8° 56′ 14″ N. lat. and 67° 42′ long. according to my observations, Villa del Pao, lat 8° 38′ 1″, long. 66° 57′, S. Sebastian, and others.
[34] p. 17.—“Conical-shaped clouds.”
The singular phenomenon of these “sand spouts,”—something analogous to which may occasionally be seen on a small scale in Europe where four roads meet,—is particularly characteristic of the Peruvian Sand Desert between Amotape and Coquimbo. Such a dense cloud of sand or dust may prove dangerous to the traveller who does not cautiously avoid its approach. It is also worthy of notice that these partial conflicting currents of air only arise when the air generally is perfectly calm. The aerial ocean resembles the sea in this respect, for in the latter also the small currents which are often heard to ripple audibly, (filets de courant), are only perceptible in a dead calm (calme plat).
[35] p. 18.—“Increases the suffocating heat.”
I have observed in the Llanos de Apure, at the Guadalupe cattle farm, the thermometer rise from 27° to 29° Reaumur (92°.7 to 97°.2 Fahr.) whenever the hot wind began to blow from the Desert, which at such times was covered either with sand or with short withered turf. In the middle of the sand-cloud the temperature was for some minutes 35° R. (111° F.). The dry sand in the village of San Fernando de Apure had a temperature of 42° R. (126° Fahr.)
[36] p. 18.—“The illusive image of a cool rippling watery mirror.”
The well-known phenomenon of the mirage is called in Sanscrit the “thirst of the gazelle.” (See my Relation historique, T. i. pp. 296 and 625; T. ii. p. 161.) All objects appear to hover in the air, and are at the same time seen reflected in the lower stratum of air. At such times the entire desert assumes the aspect of the wave-covered surface of a wide spread lake. Palm trees, cattle, and camels, sometimes appear inverted on the horizon. In the French expedition to Egypt, the soldiers, parched with thirst, were often brought by this optical illusion into a state of desperation. This phenomenon has been remarked in all quarters of the globe. The ancients were acquainted with the remarkable refraction of the rays of light in the Lybian Desert. I find mention made in Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. 184, Rhod. (p. 219, Wessel), of extraordinary illusive images, an African Fata Morgana, with most extravagant explanations of the supposed conglomeration of the particles of air.
[37] p. 19.—“The Melon-Cactus.”