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the effect by which it was followed, are all satisfactorily illustrated by a parallel instance, at the end of the great drought before alluded to. This cloud (ʼn veþéλŋ) was that cloud, in the shape of a man's hand, which the servant of Elijah, at his seventh errand, saw and reported to be rising from the sea: after which, in a very short time, and almost before Ahab could prepare his chariot for departing, The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. It is reasonable to presume that this was a familiar phenomenon in Judæa; the natural effect of a long continuance of dry and sultry weather; and the natural prognostic also of its speedy termination, by the setting in of the autumnal rains *.

With regard to the other phenomenon; the south, in reference to Judæa, is the region of the sandy desert of Idumæa and of Arabia; that is, it is the region of barrenness, heat, and thirst: a wind from that quarter, therefore, would naturally be the forerunner of sultry weather. Concerning the south winds in that quarter, Diodorus writes thus: θερμοί γίνονται καθ ̓ ὑπερβολὴν, ὥστε καὶ τὰς ὕλας ἐκπυροῦν, καὶ τῶν καταφευγόντων εἰς τὰς ἐν ταῖς καλύβαις σκιὰς ἐκλύειν τὰ σώματα: Seneca, Auster quoque, qui ex illo tractu venit, ventorum calidissimus est: Pliny; Austros ibi tam ardentes flare, ut æstatibus sylvas accendant, invenimus apud auctores a: Philo Judæus; ξηρός τε γάρ ἐστι, καὶ κεφαλαλγὴς, καὶ βαρυήκοος, ἄσας τε καὶ ἀδημονίας ἐμποιεῖν ἱκανὸς, καὶ μάλιστ ̓ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, κειμένῃ κατὰ τὰ νότια, δι' ὧν αἱ περιπολήσεις τῶν φωσφόρων αστέρων, ὡς ἅμα τῷ διακινηθῆναι, τὸν ἀφ ̓ ἡλίου φλογμὸν συνεπωθεῖσθαι, καὶ πάντα καίειν b

* According to Mr. Harmer the same natural phenomenon is

X 1 Kings xviii. 41-end.

ii. 22.

the prognostic of the same natural event still.

y Diodorus Sic. iii. 47. Vide also Herodotus, z Naturalium Quæst. iv. 2. §. 18. a H. N. xii. 42. b Operum ii. 99. 1. 37-43. De Mose. Vide also Aristotle, Meteorologica, ii. 3. 5.

But this is not all. A variety of notices, relating to the south wind, may be specified from ancient authors; which, as it appears to me, are applicable to the case in point.

I. The year being taken throughout, the prevailing winds, almost every where, are described as the north and the south. Πλείστοι γὰρ βορέαι καὶ νότοι γίγνονται τῶν ἀνέμων Πλείστων δὲ ὄντων, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, βορείων καὶ νοτίων α

II. The south wind, in southern regions, was a fair wind; and hence one of its names, and perhaps the most appropriate, was that of Λευκόνοτος. Αργέστην δὲ νότον, τὸν λευκόνοτον· οὗτος γὰρ ὀλίγα τα νέφη ποιεί —Ἔνιοι τὸν νότον οἴονται διὰ παντὸς ὑγρὸν εἶναι· τὸ δ' οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει· φαίνεται γὰρ ἐνίοτε ξηρὸς γινόμενος· ὃν καὶ προσαγορεύουσιν οἱ ἰδιῶται λευκόνοτον_Permutant et duo naturam cum situ. Auster Africæ serenus, Aquilo nubilus 6Ὁ μὲν γὰρ νότος ἀεὶ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ τόποις αἴθριος —Ομοίως δὲ καὶ ὁ νότος αἴθριος τοῖς περὶ τὴν Λιβύην'—Καὶ γὰρ τὸν νότον παρ ̓ ἡμῖν μὲν εἶναι χειμέριον, περὶ δὲ τὴν Αἰθιοπίαν αἴθριον ὑπάρχειν κ.

ALBUS ut obscuro deterget nubila cœlo

Sæpe NOTUS, neque parturit imbres

Perpetuos

Horace, Carminum i. vii. 15.

Quare ne tibi sit tanti Sidonia vestis,

Ut timeas, quoties nubilus Auster erit,

Propertius, ii. xvi. 55.

III. The south wind was an etesian or monsoon, as well as the northern. Both Pliny and Diodorus1 attest that the etesian winds were not confined to the northern quarter of the heavens. Ὅθεν καὶ τὸ θαυμα

c Aristotle, Meteorologica, ii. 4. medium. e Strabo, i. 78. H. N. ii. 48. h Theophrastus, De Ventis, 403. ad medium. i Aristotle, Meteorologica, ii. 3. k Diodorus Siculus, i. 4r. Diodorus, i. 39.

d Theophrastus, De Ventis, 404. ad f Galen, Operum ix. 258. B. g Pliny,

1 Pliny, H. N. ii. 48.

ζόμενον ὡς οὐκ ὂν, διατὶ βορέαι μὲν ἐτησίαι γίνονται, νότοι δὲ οὐ γίνονται, φαίνεται πως συμβαίνειν k_Etesiæ et prodromi...qui certo tempore anni, cum Canis oritur, ex alia atque alia parte cœli spirant-P. Nigidii in secundo librorum, quos de vento composuit, verba hæc sunt; Etesiæ et Austri anniversarii, secundo sole, flant1.

IV. The northern monsoons were in general the summer wind; and the southern the winter. Hence Lucretius, in his beautiful picture of the seasons :

It Ver, et Venus; et Veris prænuncius ante
Pennatus graditur Zephyrus, vestigia propter
Flora quibus mater, præspargens ante viaï
Cuncta, coloribus egregiis et odoribus obplet.
Inde loci sequitur Calor aridus, et comes una
Pulverulenta Ceres, et Etesia flabra Aquilonum.
Inde Auctumnus adit, graditur simul Euius Euan:
Inde alia Tempestates, Venteique, sequuntur;
Altitonans Volturnus, et Auster fulmine pollens.
Tandem Bruma niveis adfert, pigrumque rigorem
Reddit ; Hyems sequitur, crepitans ac dentibus Algu.

ν. 736. Hence also his description of the equinoctial points themselves:

Ib. 688.

Nam medio cursu flatûs Aquilonis et Austri, Distinet æquato cœlum discrimine metas. Αποροῦσι δέ τινες διὰ τί βορέαι μὲν γίνονται συνεχεῖς, οὓς καλοῦμεν ἐτησίας, μετὰ τὰς θερινὰς τροπὰς, νότοι δ' οὕτως οὐ γίνονται μετὰ τὰς χειμερινάς. ἔχει δὲ οὐκ ἀλόγως για νονται μὲν γὰρ οἱ καλούμενοι λευκόνοτοι τὴν ἀντικειμένην ὥραν (τοῖς βορείοις)m. Quia flatibus Etesiarum implentur vada (Caspii sc. maris); hibernus Auster revolvit fluctus". Ὅτε ὁ ἥλιος ἐστιν ἐν Αἰγοκέρωτι, τῷ Τυβὶ μηνὶ, ὅς ἐστι κατὰ ̔Ρωμαίους Ιανουάριος, ὅτε καὶ ὁ νότος ἐν χει μῶνι πνεί ηη.

nn

n Tacitus, Ann. vi. 33.

1 Aulus Gellius, ii. 22. nn Scholia

* Theophrastus, De Ventis, 404. ad calcem. m Aristotle, Meteorologica, ii. 5.

ad Arati Phænomena, 408.

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V. The southern wind, among its other times, blew most regularly at the close of the brumal quarter, and the beginning of the vernal. Columella, De Re Rustica; xvii. Kalend. Febr... Africus, interdum Auster, cum pluvia-v. Kalend. Febr. Auster, aut Africus, hiemat"-Sex diebus ante Maias idus; quod tempus austrinum est o. Εκατέρων οἷον τάξις, ἐν οἷς χρόνοις μάλιστα πνέουσι, κατὰ λόγον ἐστί· τοῖς μὲν βορείοις, χειμώνός τε, καὶ θέρους, καὶ μετοπώρου τοῖς δὲ νοτίοις, κατὰ χειμῶνά τε, καὶ ἀρχομένου ἔαρος, καὶ μετοπώρου ληγόντος—οἱ γὰρ ἠρινοὶ νότοι καθάπερ ἐτησίαι τινές εἰσιν· οὓς καλοῦσι λευκονότους· αἴθριοι γὰρ, καὶ ἀσυννεφεῖς, ὡς ἐπίπαν—τὸν βορέαν ἐπιπνεῖν τῷ νότῳ, τὸν δὲ νότον μὴ τῷ βορέᾳ— Ζῶσι δ ̓ ἀπὸ ἀκρίδων, ἃς οἱ ἐαρινοὶ λίβες καὶ ζέφυροι, πνέοντες μεγάλοι, συνελαύνουσιν εἰς τοὺς τόπους τούτους—Ὑπὸ δὲ τὴν ἐαρινὴν ἰσημερίαν, ὅτε λίβες παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ ζέφυροι πνέουσι, παμμεγεθών ἀκρίδων πλῆθος ἀμύθητον...μετὰ τῶν ἀνέμων παραγίνεται– Κατὰ γὰρ τὴν ἐαρινὴν ὥραν παρ' αὐτοῖς ζέφυροι καὶ λίβες παμμεγέθεις ἐκρίπτουσιν ἐκ τῆς ἐρήμου πλῆθος ἀκρίδων ἀμύ θητον 9. This wind, from its bringing the birds of passage, Aristotle and Pliny call ornithian, or chelidonian: ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὰς χειμερινὰς τροπὰς πνέουσιν οἱ ὀρνιθίαι· καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι ἐτησίαι εἰσὶν ἀσθενεῖς· ἐλάττους δὲ καὶ ὀψιαίτεροι τῶν ἐτησίων πνέουσιν· ἑβδομηκοστῇ γὰρ (which is dated from the τροπαὶ χειμεριναί, or winter solstice) ἄρχονται πνεῖν F. Spirant autem et a bruma, cum vocantur Ornithiæ; sed leniores, et paucis diebus-Favonium quidam ad VIII. Kalendas Martii Chelidoniam vocant, ab hirundinis visu; nonnulli vero Ornithian, uno et LXX. die post brumam, ab adventu avium, flantem per dies novem *s.

* Harduin reads here in Pliny uno et Lx. die post brumam :

n Lib. xi. 2.

Ο

but Pliny took the statement from Aristotle, who speaks of

• Pliny, H. N. ii. 47. p Theophrastus, De Ventis, 404.

ad principium et ad calcem. q Strabo, xvi. 4. §. 12. 411. Agatharchides, apud Geographos Veteres, i. 42. Diodorus Sic. iii. 28.

• Pliny, Η. Ν. ii. 48. 47.

r Aristotle, ut supra.

Accordingly Josephus speaks of the south wind as blowing in a given instance, at the time of the recapture of Masada, on the fifteenth of Xanthicus, Tuesday, April 11, U. C. 826; and Solomon, Canticles iv. 16, alludes to both the north and the south as winds peculiar to the vernal quarter, and wont to succeed each other; Awake O north wind! and come thou south! blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Moreover, the Indian caravans, which set out upon their return to Egypt between the end of December and the middle of January in every year, upon entering the Red sea, which they did after forty days' voyage, are said to have finished the rest of the journey, which took up thirty days' more ", africo vel austro; each of them a monsoon, or trade wind. On this principle those winds must have begun and continued to blow, in the Red sea, contiguous to Judæa, seventy days after the beginning of January; that is, until as late as the first or second week in March: which would be the beginning of the dry season in that country*.

the seventieth day after the winter solstice.

* According to Mr. Harmer, both Pococke and Maillet attest that the people in Egypt scarcely eat any thing, during the months of April and May, but fish and vegetables; the great heats taking away their appetite for any sort of flesh meat. (Vol. ii. 327. Ch. ix. Obs. xii.)

The cause of these heats, according to Maillet, is the blowing of the south wind; which sets in in April. (See p. 445-) Cf. vol. iv. 295. 299. chap. ix.

t Bell. Jud. vii. viii. 5. ix. 1. Solinus, Polyhistor, liv. §. 9, 10.

Obs. clxxix. and 316. Obs. clxxxiii.

Mr. Harmer (p. 327, 328) explains the murmuring of the Israelites, Numbers xi. 4,5, and their pining for the fish and fruits of Egypt, on this principle. Numbers x. 11. 33, this would be in May or June.

If such winds commonly set in in Egypt in the spring quarter of the year, they could scarcely fail to affect Judæa in a similar manner. And this is a remarkable coincidence not only in illustration of the pre

u Pliny, H. N. vi. 26. Vide also

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