There are some winds that are awfully destructive. In the Gulf of Persia, particularly at Ormus, during the months of June and July, a hot suffocating wind sometimes blows from the west, for a day or two together, which scorches up and destroys any animal exposed to it. On this account the people of Ormus then leave their habitations, and retire to the mountains. Winds similar to this in kind, but not in degree, are sometimes felt on the coast of Coromandel, where they are called _terrenos_; and likewise on the Malabar coast. On the coast of Africa, north of Cape Verd, during the months of December, January, and February, an easterly wind sometimes blows for a day or two, called by sailors _harmattan_, so intensely cold, as to be almost as destructive as the west winds at Ormus. The _simoon_ is a hot wind which blows occasionally in the deserts of Arabia, parched by a vertical sun. If inhaled in any quantity, it produces instant suffocation, or at least leaves the unhappy sufferer oppressed with an asthma and lowness of spirits. Its approach is perceived by a redness in the air, well understood by those who are accustomed to journey through the desert; and the only refuge which they have from it, is to fall down with their faces close to the ground, and to continue as long as possible without respiration.[71] _Sirocco_ is a periodical wind which generally blows in Italy and Dalmatia every year about Easter. It blows from the south-east by south; it is attended with heat, but not rain; its ordinary period is twenty days, and it usually ceases at sunset. When the sirocco does not blow in this manner, the summer is almost free from easterly winds, whirlwinds, and storms. This wind is prejudicial to plants, drying and burning up the buds; though it hurts not man any otherwise than by causing in him an extraordinary weakness and lassitude; inconveniences that are fully compensated by a plentiful fishing, and a good crop on the mountains. In the summer time, when the westerly wind ceases for a day, it is a sign that the sirroco will blow the day following, which usually begins with a sort of whirlwind. When St. Paul was sailing close to the shore at Crete, there arose in the north-east, a tempestuous wind, called by the sacred historian, _euroclydon_; by Pliny, the _mariner’s plague_; and in modern language, a _levanter_, which drove the ship from the coast: this not being a point wind, but rather a kind of hurricane, often shifting its quarter, tossed them backward and forward in the Adriatic.