Page:Poems on Various Subjects - Coleridge (1796).djvu/193

 solace ourselves with plenty of good water, cried out with a loud voice, 'Fall upon your faces, for here is the Simoom.' I saw from the S. E. an haze come on, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick.—It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground.We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead, till  told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed; but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation.

Travels, vol. 4. page 557.

Used poetically for a very large quadruped; but in general it designates the Elephant.