clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them."[1] "This evidently indicates the collection of rain, or the waters, in the clouds, in hottles or vessels; and this is apparently a common view of the matter, for in the Book of Enoch, Enoch states, "There I saw the receptacles of wood out of which the winds became separated, the receptacle of hail, the receptacle of snow, the receptacle of the clouds, and the cloud itself, which continued over the earth before the creation of the world;"[2] also, "The spirit of dew has its abode in the extremities of heaven, in connection with the receptacle of rain; and its progress is in winter and summer. The cloud produced by it, and the cloud of the mist, become united; one gives to the other; and when the spirit of rain is in motion from its receptacle angels come, and opening its receptacle bring it forth."[3]
In India we find that "Upon the sky above the hill-country of Orissa, Pidzu Pennu the Rain-God of the Khonds rests as he pours down the showers through his sieve;"[4] and "Over Peru there stands a princess with a vase of rain, and when her brother strikes the pitcher men hear the shock in thunder and see the flash in lightning."[5]
In Polynesia rain is supposed to be caused by the sun, and they say that if he is a long time without giving any some of the stars get angry and stone him until he causes rain to fall. If we descend lower we find that there have not been wanting men who profess—
"To guide the thunder and direct the storm;"
but it is of course difficult to say exactly where imagination begins and actual influence does end. Battles, great fires, telegraph wires, railways, &c., have been supposed to affect the rainfall. Some years since Mons. Helvetius Otto brought before the Academy of Sciences at Paris a "Pluvifuge," or machine for blowing away rain-clouds. It consisted of a huge bellows on a high platform.[6] There is a curious letter of Philip Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain
