</i> sound, not the <i>s</i>)
is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root <i>sharaga</i>,
`it rose.' The name of the wind, <i>sirocco</i>, alludes in
its original Arabic form to its rising, with its cloud of sand,
in the desert high-lands of North Africa. True, it is defined
by Skeat as `a hot wind,' but that is only a part of its
definition. Its marked characteristic is that it is
<i>sand-laden</i>, densely hazy and black, and therefore
`choking,' like the <i>brickfielder</i>. The not unnatural
assumption that writers by comparing a <i>brickfielder</i> with
a <i>sirocco</i>, thereby imply that a <i>brickfielder</i> is a
hot wind, is thus disposed of by this characteristic, and by
the notes on the passages quoted. They were dwelling only on
its choking <i>dust</i>, and its suffocating qualities,--`a
miniature sirocco.' See the following quotations on this
character of the sirocco:--

1841. `Penny Magazine,' Dec. 18, p. 494:

"The Islands of Italy, especially Sicily and Corfu, are
frequently visited by a wind of a remarkable character, to
which the name of sirocco, scirocco, or schirocco, has been
applied. The thermometer rises to a great height, but the air
is generally thick and heavy . . . . People confine themselves
within doors; the windows and doors are shut close, to prevent
as much as possible the external air from entering; . . . but a
few hours of the <i>tramontane</i>, or north wind which
generally succeeds it, soon braces them up again. [Compare this
whole phenomenon with (b) above.] There are some peculiar
circumstances attending the wind. . . . Dr. Benza, an Italian
physician, states:--`When the sirocco has been impetuous and
violent, and followed by a shower of rain, the rain has carried
with it to the ground an almost impalpable red micaceous sand,
which I have collected in large quantities more than once in
Sicily. . . . When we direct our attention to the island of
Corfu, situated some distance eastward of Sicily, we find the
sirocco assuming a somewhat different character. . . . The
more eastern sirocco might be called a refreshing breeze
[sic]. . . . The genuine or black sirocco (as it is called)
blows from a point between south-east and south-south-east.'"

1889. W. Ferrell, `Treatise on Winds,' p. 336:

"The dust raised from the Sahara and carried northward by the
sirocco often falls over the countries north of the
Mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture