N RAIN-MAKERS--INCIDENT RELATED BY
CATLIN--RAIN-DOCTORS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA--RAIN-DOCTORS OF
CEYLON--SUPERSTITIONS GIVING WAY TO THE TEACHING OF
MISSIONARIES--CONCLUSION.

There are many proverbial sayings among country people concerning the
state of the weather, which, having been derived from long observation,
have become axioms, and were designated by Bacon "the philosophy of the
people." These prognostics are being set aside by the more certain
lights of science, but there is no doubt that many natural objects may
indicate symptoms of change in the atmosphere before any actually takes
place in it to such an extent as to affect our senses. Some of these
prognostics are of a general character applying to all seasons, and there
are others which apply only to a particular season; but they may all be
derived from appearances of the heavenly bodies and of the sky, the state
of meteorological instruments, and the notions and habits of certain
plants and animals. The author of the "Journal of a Naturalist" has some
good observations on this subject. He says:--

"Old simplicities, tokens of winds and weather, and the plain
observances of human life, are everywhere waning fast to decay. Some
of them may have been fond conceits; but they accorded with the
ordinary manners of the common people, and marked times, seasons, and
things, with sufficient truth for those who had faith in them.
Little as we retain of these obsolete fancies, we have not quite
abandoned them all; and there are yet found among our peasants a few,
who mark the blooming of the large water-lily (_lilium candidum_),
and think that the number of its blossoms on a stem will indicate the
price of wheat by the bushel for the ensuing year, each blossom
equivalent to a shilling. We expect a sunny day too, when the
pimpernel (_anagallis arvensis_) fully expands its blossoms; a
dubious, or a moist one, when they are closed. In this belief,
however, we have the sanction of some antiquity to support us. Sir
F. Bacon records it; Gerarde notes it as a common opinion entertained
by country people above two centuries ago; and I must not withhold my
own faith in its veracity, but say that I believe this pretty little
flower to afford more certain indication of dryness or moisture in
the air than any of our hygrometers do. But if these be fallible
criterions, we will notice another that