which usher in the rainy season, and it lasts till the rain falls regularly and in abundance. This interval does not generally exceed two or three weeks, but when it is prolonged—as in the year 1855, of which I am writing—fevers or other epidemics prevail.
On the 2d of November, a strong sirocco wind, hot, dry, and scorching, as if it came from a furnace, warped our books, and split and cracked our olive-wood furniture. We closed all the window-shutters on the eastern side of the rooms, but we could not exclude the fiery air.
There were four English merchant ships at anchor in the port, as well as several small Greek brigs. The masters complained, in no very gentle terms, of the injury done by the fierce hot wind to the woodwork and fittings of their vessels.
An English captain, on the point of embarking, came in, saying, "I hope you will give me a clean bill of health, Consul."
"As clean as I can," he answered: "but I must state, 'Six deaths within six days—sudden, and reported cholera.'"
After this the street- cleaning was for a time abandoned, and I noticed funeral processions almost daily, sometimes going from the mosque out at the east gate to the Moslem burial-ground, sometimes from the Greek or Latin churches slowly walking toward the Christian cemeteries through the west gate. Moslems are always carried to the grave in the open bier, head foremost, and buried in costume. I shuddered the first time that I saw a body thus committed to the earth, it looked so much like being buried alive.
January; and then it ceases till March or April,when Spring showers are eagerly looked for and welcomed, for they give strength and vigor to the ripening crops. This is the "latter rain;" for it is written, "The Lord your God will cause to come down for you the latter rain in the first month," which is the month called in Hebrew "Abib," or "the month of young ears of corn," and corresponds with the end of March and the beginning of April. "Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, till he receive the early and the latter rain." In the Summer-time, that is, from May till September, no rain is ever seen in Palestine,
