RAIN 199 



"It is that dust that daubs your nose yellow when 

 you smell a lily too close, " declared Jules. 



"Exactly. It is called pollen. Well, in falling 

 at a distance, sometimes alone, sometimes accom- 

 panied by rain, the pollen gathered up from the 

 forests by a breath of wind causes the so-called sul- 

 phur- rain. " 



Your rain of blood or sulphur is n't at all terrify- 

 ing/' Claire remarked. 



"Of course not; and yet whole populations have 

 their hearts frozen with fear at the inoffensive fall of 

 a whirlwind of pollen or red dust. They believe 

 themselves visited with plagues, precursors of the 

 (.ml of the world. Ignorance is a pitiful thing, my 

 dear children, and knowledge is a fine thing, even if 

 it only served to deliver us from stupid terrors." 



"In future," said Jules, stoutly, "it can rain sul- 

 phur or blood; if any one is afraid, it will not be I." 



"There can also fall from the sky, with or with- 

 out rain, various mineral substances, such as sand, 

 for example, or powdered chalk, or dust from the 

 roads. There is even mention of showers of small 

 animals, caterpillars, insects, and very young toads. 

 The marvelous feature of these rains disappears if 

 our considers that a violent blast of wind can carry 

 with it all light substances encountered in its course, 

 and can transport them long distances before letting 

 them fall again. 



"At othrr times a rain of insects is due to some- 

 tin n LT ( 1 se besides transportation by the wind. Some 

 kinds of grasshoppers, for example, gather together 

 in immense swarms to go to another district \vlim 



