WEATHER SUPERSTITIONS 105 



government office something in the nature of witch- 

 craft is needed to steer the horticulturist through 

 the dangers of such weather. So the astrologer tells 

 us not only the coming fate of empires and ministries, 

 and the dangers that befall every humble person 

 born at certain conjunctions of the planets, but, if you 

 will read him carefully, the fluctuations of Dover 

 A's, the frosts of May, and the hail-storms of July. 

 If, as usually happens, the prediction is falsified, no 

 one says anything about it, but on the rare occasions 

 when some cryptic oracle is made clear by a dramatic 

 happening, the fame of the prophet is renewed for 

 many years. Ever since one of them foretold a 

 snow-storm in July that actually came off, his 

 trustworthiness has been secure against every dis- 

 appointment. 



If that nipping frost that, in fact, comes almost 

 every year does not come this year at all, gardener 

 will not be disturbed in his faith. Some purely 

 terrestrial event must have interfered with the in- 

 fluences of the stars. Even at the dawn of the week 

 for which calamity has been predicted, the country- 

 side oracle can tell you that the almanac man has 

 somehow made a miscalculation. He is in the 

 superior position of him who told the parson that 

 it was no good praying for rain with the wind in such 

 and such a quarter. He would debate the question 

 of next week's weather with the astrologer without 

 deference or respect, but the question of next year's 

 weather is in the province of the wizard, and when 

 seen in print many months beforehand, it must be 

 considered as a magic beyond the countryman's 

 comprehension, 



