214 



RAIN-PRAYERS. 



of life, abundant respect from an ignorant laity, 

 and the great political influence wliicli they com- 

 mand, boldly assert an empire over the meteors. 

 The folly is not confined, be it said, to these 

 barbarous lands : in Ireland the owner of a four- 

 leaved shamrock can or could cause or stop 

 showers, and the Eins on board our ships still 

 deal with the clerk of the weather for fair winds. 

 The Hindu Jogi, the Bayragi, and the Sita-Bami 

 have similar powers : at Porebunder I heard of a 

 man who, when torrents of rain injured the crops, 

 was threatened by the E^aja with a ' cotton coat,' 

 that is to say, with a padded dressing-gown, well 

 oiled and greased, girt tightly round him, and set 

 on fire. In civilization the last remnant of the 

 barbarous belief is the practice of public prayer for 

 rain, a process far less troublesome and not nearly 

 so efiicacious as planting trees and preserving the 

 land from being disforested. During the last 

 threatened drought in Syria the people of Bayrut 

 assembled in the main square, all separated into 

 groups according to their faiths, of which there 

 are a couple of dozen. One party was of chil- 

 dren, who, when the seniors failed, thus addressed 

 heaven : ' O Lord, if Thou disregard the petitions 

 of our parents, they being sinners, and so forth, 

 at least listen to us, being still in our virginal in- 



