"The Most Surprising Effect Of The Wind Is Not The
Mere Fact Of Its Causing Death, But Its Operation On The Bodies Of Those
Who Are Killed By It.
It seems as if they became decomposed without losing
shape, so that you would think them to be merely asleep, when they are not
merely dead, but in such a state that if you take hold of any part of the
body it comes away in your hand.
And the finger penetrates such a body as
if it were so much dust." (III. 286.)
Burton, on his journey to Medina, says: "The people assured me that this
wind never killed a man in their Allah-favoured land. I doubt the fact. At
Bir Abbas the body of an Arnaut was brought in swollen, and decomposed
rapidly, the true diagnosis of death by the poison-wind." Khanikoff is
very distinct as to the immediate fatality of the desert wind at Khabis,
near Kerman, but does not speak of the effect on the body after death.
This Major St. John does, describing a case that occurred in June, 1871,
when he was halting, during intense heat, at the post-house of Pasangan, a
few miles south of Kom. The bodies were brought in of two poor men, who
had tried to start some hours before sunset, and were struck down by the
poisonous blast within half-a-mile of the post-house. "It was found
impossible to wash them before burial.... Directly the limbs were touched
they separated from the trunk." (Oc.
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