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- Sir J. Chardin observes, "In the Lower Asia, in particular, the day is always hot; and as soon as the sun is fifteen degrees above the horizon, no cold is felt in the depth of winter itself. On the contrary, in the height of summer the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of March. It is for this reason that in Persia and Turkey they always make use of furred habits in the country, such only being sufficient to resist the cold of the nights. I have travelled in Arabia, and in Mesopotamia (the theatre of the adventures of Jacob), both in winter and in summer, and have found the truth of what the Patriarch said, "That he was scorched with the heat in the day, and stiffened with cold in the night" ("[Thus] I was;¹ in the dayª the droughtª consumedª° me, and the frostª by night;ª and my sleepª departedª° from mine eyes.ª¹" {Gen 31:40}). This contrariety in the qualities of the air in twenty-four hours is extremely great in some places, and not conceivable by those that have not felt it; one would imagine that he had passed in a moment from the violent heats of summer to the depth of winter. Thus it had pleased God to temper the heat of the sun by the coldness of night, without which the greatest part of the East would be barren, and a desert."
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