There is, however, my dear Atterley, little
satisfaction in tracing the origin of vulgar superstitions. They grow up
like a strange plant in a forest, without our being able to tell how the
seed found its way there. It is generally believed in the east, that the
moon, at particular periods of her revolution round the earth, has a
great influence in causing rain; though every one must see, that,
notwithstanding such influence must be the same in every part of the
earth, it is invariably fair in one place, at the very time that it is
rainy in another. Nay, we may safely aver that there is not a day, nor
an hour, in the year, in which it is not dry and rainy, cloudy and
clear, windy and calm, in hundreds of places at once."
I told the Brahmin that the same opinion prevailed in my country. That
the vulgar also believe the moon, according to its age, to have
particular effects on the flesh of slaughtered animals; and that all
sailors distinguish between a wet and a dry day, according to the
position of the crescent.
We then inquired of the warden of this flowery plain, if he had ever
remarked any difference in the number of roses which sprung up in a
given period of time. He said he thought they were more numerous about
five and twenty or thirty years ago, than he had ever seen them before
or since. With that exception, he said, the number appeared to be nearly
the same every year.
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