Some allege that Africa was so named by the Greeks, as being without cold; the Greek letter _alpha_ signifying privation, void of, or without, and _phrice_ signifying cold; as, although it has a cloudy and tempestuous season instead of winter, it is yet never cold, but rather smothering hot, with hot showers, and such scorching winds, that at certain times the inhabitants seem as if living in furnaces, and in a manner half ready for purgatory or hell. According to Gemma Phrisius, in certain parts of Africa, as in the greater Atlas, the air in the night is seen shining with many strange fires and flames, rising as it were as high as the moon, and strange noises are heard in the air, as of pipes, trumpets, and drums, which are caused perhaps by the vehement motions of these fiery exhalations, as we see in many experiments wrought by fire, air, and wind. The hollowness also, and various reflections and breakings of the clouds, may be great causes thereof, besides the great coldness of the middle region of the air, by which these fiery exhalations, when they ascend there, are suddenly driven back with great force. Daily experience teaches us, by the whizzing of a burning torch, what a noise fire occasions in the air, and much more so when it strives and is inclosed with air, as seen in guns; and even when air alone is inclosed, as in organ pipes and other wind instruments: For wind, according to philosophers, is nothing but air vehemently moved, as when propelled by a pair of bellows, and the like.