Chap. LXIL 
HEAVY RAINS. 
315 
rendered totally impassable. The rain which fell in 
the afternoon of the last day of July was of such 
violence that a fourth part of the houses in the town 
suffered more or less ; and in one dwelling, which 
was totally destroyed, eleven goats were killed, while 
the inmates themselves had only just time to escape. 
It was discovered that just life enough remained in 
these poor animals in order to enable their owners to 
perform the essential ceremony of cutting their throats; 
for they also have a touch of Islam. 
In the beginning of this my journey to the west, I 
had been very anxious to move on as fast as possible, 
in order to avoid the w^orst part of the rainy season ; 
but seeing that all was in vain, I had become, in a 
certain degree, indifferent to the loss of time; but 
when the first of August broke upon me in this 
village, I became deeply concerned, and wrote in 
•my journal : " May the Almighty bless this month, 
and lighten the difficulties which stand in my way, 
that before its close I may safely reach the place of 
my destination !" 
It was most interesting to observe from the top of 
the hill the uninterrupted sheet of water, which, after 
the immense quantity of rain that had fallen, was 
spreading out over the low grounds in the plain ; and 
the people themselves whose dwellings had suffered 
so much, and which were just about to undergo the 
necessary repairs, were standing gazing with delight 
upon the deluge which promised to them a very rich 
crop. My clever Arab from the west lay almost dead 
