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Show [ IOO ) -Long ranks in vain their fhining blade~ extend, To De1non-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend. 480 Wheel in wide circle, fonn in hollow [quare, And now they front, and now they fly the war, Pierce the deaf tempeft with lan1enting cries, Prefs their parch' d lips, and clofe their blood-lhot eyes. maj,efl:ic ilownefs; at intervals we thought tlley were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and fmall quantities of fand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat fo as to be almofi out of fight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often fcparated from the bodies; and thefe, once disj oined, difperfed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken in the mid<lle as if flruck with large cannon- fhot. About noon they began to advance with confide~ rable fwiftnefs upon us, the wind being very firong at north. Eleven of them ranged .along fide of us about the difiance of three miles. The greatefi diameter of the large!l: ap_peared :o me at that diflance as if it would meafure ten feet. They retired from us with a wmd at S.. E. leaving an impreffion upon my mind to which I can give no name, . though furely one ingredient in it was fear, with a confiderable deal of wonder and afi_oni!hment. It was rn vain to think of flying; the fwiftefl: horfe, or faflefl: failing 1}11p, could be of no ufe to carry us out of this danger; and the full perfuafion of this riveted me as if to the fpot where I fl:ood. ".The fame appearance of moving pillars of fand prefented themfelves to us this day m form_and difpofition like thofe we had feen at Waad Halboub, only they feemed to be more m number and lefs itl flze. They came feveral times in a direCtion c1 fc llpon_us, t_hat is, I_ believe, within lefs th:m two miles. They began immediately af~e: fun nfe, !Jke a thtck wood and almofi darkened the fun. His rays fhining through. them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became defp~rate, the Greeks lhrieked out and faid it was the day of judgement; Ilmael ·prr onounced Jt to be heir; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire " B • 1 v . ruce s Jave s, ol. IV. p. ss3,_555 .• From this account it wm~ld appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to the long· ;:mge of b_roken ~ocks, wh1ch bounded one fide of the fandy defcrt, and bent the curtents of lllr, wh1ch fl:ruck againfl: their fides; and were thus like the eddies in a fl:rean~. ( lQI ) -GNOMES! o'er the wafte You led your myriad powers,. Cli1nb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty £bowers! 486 Onward refifilefs rolls the infuriate furge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains tnountains urge; Wave over wave the driving defert fwims, Burfts o'er their heads, inhumes their fl:ruggling limbs ;. Man mounts on man, on camels camels rufh, 49 I Hofis march o'er hofis, and nations nations cru.fh,~ rheeling in air the winged i:l1ands fall, And one great earthy Ocean covers all !---ro Then ceafed the ftorm,-N IGHT bow' d his Ethiop brow To earth, and lifien' d to the groans below,_ 496: Grim HoR~OR iliook,-awhile the living hill Heaved with convulfive throes,-a-nd. all was ftill! X. '' GNoMES! whofe fine forms, in1paffive as the air, Shrink with foft fympathy for human care ; sao ~f water, which falls again!l: oblique obflacles. This explanation is probably the true. , one, as thefe whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightening like the tornadoes cf the Weft-Indies. |