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Physical & Miscellaneous

OBSERVATIONS

IN

SEVERAL PARTS

OF THE

LEVA N T.

VOLUME II.-PART II.

CHAPTER I.

Physical Observations, &c. or an Essay towards the Natural History of Syria, Phanice, and the Holy Land.

THE air and weather, in these countries, differ very little from the descriptions that have been given of them in the natural history of Barbary*. For among many other particulars of the like nature and quality, which need not be repeated, we find the westerly winds to be here attended with rain. When we see a cloud, says our Saviour, Luke xii. 54. rise out of the west, sraightway ye say, There cometh a shower, and so it is t. But the easterly winds are usually dry, notwithstanding they are sometimes exceeding hazy and tempestuous; at which times they are called, by the seafaring people, Levanters, being not confined to any one single point, but blow in all directions, from the N. E. round by the N. to the S. E. The great wind, or mighty tempest, or vehement east wind, described by the prophet Jonas, (i. 4. and iv. 8.) appears to have been one of these Levan

ters.

* Vid. p. 245, &c.

The

This branch of the natural history is further taken notice of, 1 Kings xviii. 41, &c.

The Euroclydon* also, which we read of in the history of St Paul, (Acts xxvii. 14.) was, in all probability, the same. For it was, as St Luke describeth it, vos tvQavixos †, a violent or tempestuous wind, bearing away all before it; and, from the circumstances which attended it, appears to have varied very little, throughout the whole period of it, from the true east point. For after the ship could not, arropdadμ«r, bear, or in the mariner's term, loof up against it, ver. 15. but they were obliged to let her drive, we cannot conceive, as there are no remarkable currents in this part

of

Evgoxλudav, according to the annotations of Erasmus, Vatablus, and others, is said to be, vox hinc ducta, quod ingentes fluctus as if those commentators understood it to have been, as Phavorinus writes it (in voce Tupa) Evguxxvdar, and, as such, compounded of sugus, (latus, amplus, &c.) and xxvdwy, fluctus. But rather, if an etymology is required, as we find xλudy used by the LXXII, (Jon.i. 4, 12.) instead of yo, which always denotes a tempest, as I conjecture, properly so called, Evgonλvdar will be the same with Eugg Audav, i. e. an eastern tempest, and so far express he very meaning that is affixed to a Levanter at this time.

+ Though Tupa or Tupas may sometimes denote a whirlwind, yet it seems in general to be taken for any violent wind or tem. pest. According to an observation of Grotius upon the place, Judæis Hellenistis Tvows est quævis violentior procella. Tus yag καταιγιδώδεις άνεμων Τύφως καλέσι, says Suidas. Aristot. De Mundo, c. 4. seems to distinguish it from the Пensng (which he calls a violent strong wind), by not being attended with any fiery meteors. Εαν δε (πνευμα) ημιπυρον η, σφοδρον δε άλλως και adgoov, Пgnτης [καλείται] εαν δε άπυρον η παντελως, Τυφων. Tuowy, as Olympiodorus, in his comment upon the foregoing passage, instruct us, is so called, δια το τυπτειν δια τα ταχες τε πνεύματος ; οι δια το τυπ opodes, as we read it in C. a Lapide. Acts xxvii. 14. TUQWY γας έσιν ή τε ανέμε σφόδρα πνοη· ός και ευρυκλυδων καλείται. Phavor. in lex. One of these Levanters is beautifully described by Virgil (Geor. ii. ver. 107.) in the following lines:

ΤΗΝ

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