[120]This is the same engagement as that taken by Mohammed Múlid.
[121]Amongst the papers of Mr. D. was found the following description of the Simúm, written while it was passing:—“To describe the awful scourge of the desert defies all the powers of language. The pencil assisted by the pen might perhaps afford a faint idea of it. Winged with the whirlwind, and chariotted in thunder, it urged its fiery course, blasting all nature with its death-fraught breath. It was accompanied by a line of vivid light, that looked like a train of fire, whose murky smoke filled the whole wide expanse, and made its horrors only the more vivid. The eye of man, and voice of beast were both raised to heaven, and both then fell upon the earth. Against this sand-tempest, all the fortitude of man fails, and all his efforts are vain. To Providence alone must he look. It passed us, burying one of my camels. As soon as we rose from the earth, with uplifted hands to heaven for its preservation, we awoke to fresh horrors. Its parching tongue had lapped the water from our water-skins, and having escaped the fiery hour we had to fear the still more awful death from thirst.”
[122]Dagger.
[123]The Holy Book, i.e. the Pentateuch.
[124]Jewish Arabic, for Asháb, i.e. Companions, Plur. of Sáhib.
[125]Robbers.
[126]The spellings of several proper names in these Notes are very doubtful.
APPENDIX.
