Note 409 — SECOND PART. The Astronomy of Dante. (continued 2)

“There riseth up from Ethiopia’s sands A wind from far-off clime which rends the air, Through the sun’s orb that heats it with its ray. The sea it crosses; thence, o’er all the lands Such clouds it brings that but for wind more fair O’er all our hemisphere ’twould hold its sway; And then it breaks and falls in whitest spray Of frozen snow and pestilential showers.” Canz. xv. 14-21. (Plumptre).