Part 32 (1/2)
[Here again its dust is noted as the distinguishi+ng feature of the wind, just as sand is the distinguishi+ng feature of the `sirocco' in the Libyan Desert, and precipitated sand,--`blood rain' or `red snow,'--a chief character of the sirocco after it reaches Italy]
1847 Alex Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p 61:
”The hot winds which resemble the siroccos in Sicily are, however, a drawbackbut they are almost invariably succeeded by what is there called a `brickfielder,' which is a strong southerly wind, which soon cools the air, and greatly reduces the temperature”
[Here the cold temperature of the brickfielder is described, but not its dust, and the writer compares the hot hich precedes the brickfielder with the sirocco He in fact thinks only of the heat of the sirocco, but the two preceding writers are thinking of its sand, its thick haze, its quality of blackness and its suffocating character,--all which applied accurately to the true brickfielder]
1853 Rev H Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and 1853,' p 228:
”After the languor, the lassitude, and enervation which so these hot blasts, comes the `Brickfielder,' or southerly burster”
[Cold temperature noticed, but not dust]
1853 `Fraser's Magazine,' 48, p 515:
”When the wind blows strongly from the southward, it is what the Sydney people call a `brickfielder'; that is, it carries with it dense clouds of red dust or sand, like brick dust, swept froht soil which adjoins the town on that side, and so thick that the houses and streets are actually hidden; it is a darkness that may be felt”
[Here it is the dust, not the temperature, which deterinal ,--a severe hot wind In this inverted sense the word is now used, but not frequently, in Melbourne and in Adelaide, and so quotations show It will be noted that one of theinal prime characteristic of the wind, its dust
1861 T McCoang of convicts, toiling in a broiling `brickfielder'”
1862 F J Jobson, `Australia with Notes by the Way,' p 155:
”The `brickfielders' are usually followed, before the day closes, with `south-busters' [sic]”
1886 F Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch':
”The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; and red-hot Sie from cold to hot) may be traced to several causes It may arise--
(a) Fro at the word brickfielder as a nain of the name, would readily adapt it to their own severe hot north winds, which raise clouds of dust all day, and are described accurately as being `like a blast froer generation in Sydney, having received the word by colloquial tradition, losing its origin, and knowing nothing of the old brickfields, ht apply the word to a hot blast in the same way
(b) Froe of temperature is a special feature of the Australian coastal districts A raging hot wind from the interior desert (north wind in Melbourne and Adelaide, ind in Sydney) will blow for two or three days, raising clouds of dust; it will be suddenly succeeded by a `Southerly Buster' froreatest at thesorees in a few ned originally to the latter part--the dusty cold change Later generations, losing the finer distinction, applied the word to the whole dusty phenomenon,and ultimately specialized it to denote not so much the extrereeable extreme heat of its earlier phase
(c) Froh not real, confusion of terms, by those who have described it as a `sirocco'--The word sirocco (spelt earlier schirocco, and in Spanish and other languages with the sh sound, not the s) is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root sharaga, `it rose' The nainal Arabic forh-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 sand-laden, densely hazy and black, and therefore `choking,' like the brickfielder The not unnatural assu a brickfielder with a sirocco, thereby imply that a brickfielder 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 dust, and its suffocating qualities,--`aquotations 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 therenerally thick and heavyPeople confine themselves within doors; the s and doors are shut close, to prevent as ;but a few hours of the traenerally succeeds it, soon braces theain [Compare this whole phenomenon with (b) above] There are so the windDr 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 ie quantities more than once in SicilyWhen we direct our attention to the island of Corfu, situated so a soht be called a refreshi+ng 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 ether The terees”
1889 `The Century Dictionary,' sv Sirocco:
”(2) A hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing frohlands of Africa to the coasts of Malta, Sicily and NaplesDuring its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze”