where he landed October II. On the 23d of that month he landed at Acra, (which he confidered as his entrance into the Holy-Land); and meeting with many hindrances from the exactions of the Arabs, and the difficulty of procuring protection, he got not to Jerufalem till the 4th of November. The first rains that are taken notice of in his Journal, after the fummer drought, or which he could remember, fell cn the 2d and the 4th of November. On the first of thofe days he found fome rain between Joppa and Ramah; and on the 4th of that month his Journal remarks, that they were nine hours and an half in the rain, which fell not conftantly, but in heavy showers. He added, that the day after his arrival at Jerufalem (November 5) he was prevented from going out by rain, and that it continued unfettled weather until the 19th of that month, when he left that city, but which in the climate of Britain would have been deemed very good, as the rain fell not in large quantities, or without intermillion, through the day. This traveller then found the rain fell in the Holy-Land fooner than the beginning of November, O. S, for he found it defcended on the second of November, N. S, which answers to the 22d of October of the style Dr. Shaw made use of. It is not unlikely that they might begin to fall still sooner in Judæa, fince he found the peasants ploughing up their ftubbles for wheat, as he passed through the vale of Efdraelon, B 2 which which appeared to him to be, probably, the best and moft extenfive spot of arable land in Palaftine, as, by what remained, the crop must have been very great, and, what was the more remarkable, had never received the leaft manure, or the foil been turned more than 6 inches in depth; for, according to Dr. Shaw', the Arabs do not begin to break up the ground to fow wheat, and plant beans, 'till after the falling of the first rains. He found them alfo ploughing, between Joppa and Jerufalem, with a guard attending them, to prevent their being robbed of the grain they were about to fow; a circumstance I have taken notice of in a preceding volume.". Agreeably to this fuppofition, of the still earlier fall of the rain in Palæftine than the 22d of October, O. S, Rauwolff tells us he found the Hemerocallis near Joppa, where he arrived the 13th of September, 1575, which Dr. Ruffell defcribes as a plant that makes not its appearance 'till after the first fall of the autumnal rain, and which town Rauwolff feems to have quitted the fame day, before which, therefore, the rain must have fallen 3. But, be this as it may, it is indifputable that in 1774 it was found that the rain, in the Holy-Land, fell feveral days fooner than Dr. Shaw affigns for its first appearance, namely, November 2, N. S, or October 22, · P. 137. 3 Obferv. on div. Paff. of Scrip. vol. 1. ch. 2. obf. 5. O.S: O. S in like manner I have been affured by the author of the Hiftory of the Revolt of Ali Bey, whom I confulted upon this matter, and who lived fome years in Palæftine, though born in another part of the Eaft, that the rains are wont to begin to fall in the HolyLand about the latter end of September, O. S; to which he added, that in the year in which Ali Bey encamped at Joppa', the rain began to fall before the middle of September, O. S, he thought about the 7th. This affords an additional ground of believing, that Ruffell's account of the weather. at Aleppo may be confidered as defcriptive of that at Jerufalem, or very nearly fo. Indeed, as to this point, the time of the firft descent of the autumnal rain, the lying of one place to the South more than another, seems to make no great difference, if any at all thus Niebuhr informs us, that he found Auguft and September almost entirely ferene at Bafra, when he was there; that on the 7th of October clouds began to appear, and increafed 'till the 27th, when the rainy feafon began with a storm 3. But to return to the Journal of 1774: The • A. D. 1772. 2 P. 42. ¢ After the first rains in the autumn, "the fields every where throw out the autumnal lily "daffodil, and the few plants which had flood the unmer now glow with fresh vigour.' Hemerocallis is, I think, the Latin name for the autumnal lily daffodil. ત 3 Voy. en Arabie & en d'autres pays circonvoifins, tom, 2. p. 186. gentleman that wrote it was told, that the rain, at that time, was more than ufual at that feafon of the year, the rain generally preceding the froft, which was feldom earlier than Chriftmas, and then not to any excess. This information feems to amount to this, That daily rain was not ufual fo early in the year as the beginning of November, but that, in common, great wet was wont to be delayed until the approach of Christmas, at which time frofty weather was common, but ufually with no great feverity. It may not be much amifs to add, that travellers have found the like copious rains in Galilee, about Christmas, that the people of Jerufalem spoke of. So Haynes, who visited feveral places in Galilee, in the year 1767, and arrived at Tiberias, on the fea of Gennefaret, on the 29th of December of that year, found, that a few days before he arrived, there had fallen very heavy rains, which rendered the Streets exceeding muddy, fo much fo, that in fome places it was as high as their horses knees. I would finish this article with observing, that, according to Jofephus, copious rain defcended about Jerufalem before the Feast of Tabernacles, in the year that Antiochus Pius befieged that city, the Pleiades being near fetting, δυομενης πλειάδος 1. • P. 125, 126. 2 Antiq. Lib. 13. cap. 8. §. 2. p. 657. Ed. Haverc. 3 That conftellation actually fets the beginning of No vember. OBSER OBSERVATION II. The Jews feem to be at a great loss, when they would explain the ground of that ceremony of pouring out water with folemnity at the Feast of Tabernacles; of which ceremony Mofes fays nothing in the law, but to which our Lord is fuppofed to allude in the 7th of John, when "in the laft day, that great day But of the feaft, Jefus ftood and cried, faying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, " and drink. He that believeth on me, as "the fcripture hath said, out of his belly "fhall flow rivers of living water. "this fpake he of the spirit, which they that "believe on him should receive'." It feems to be of late obfervance, and is not well accounted for. 3 That festival is defcribed by Mofes as a memorial of the dwelling of Ifrael in Tents, in the wilderness'; and alfo, as being a time of rejoicing, on account of the in-gathering of all the fruits of the earth, at the end of the year but no mention is made of its connexion with the rains that were then foon expected to follow, 'till after the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. Then, indeed, the prophet Zechariah faid, "It shall come to pass, that every one that • V. 37, 38, 39. - Lev. 23. 43. |