Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/317

310 unusual violence, shook the house to its foundations, and disturbed all the sleepers. The Arab servants, who rose and went from room to room to make the shutters and windows more secure, said, "It is well; this strong wind will bring rain. The cisterns will be filled with water, and the corn will grow. "Praised be God!"

On the following morning, March 19th, torrents of rain and hail began to fall, and continued without intermission all day and during the night. On Thursday the storm was even more violent. The hailstones generally were as large as cherry-stones, but some were three or four times the size. At midday wide flakes of snow fell, but melted quickly.

On Good Friday, March 21st, the first sounds I heard on waking, were the joyful voices of the children. They knocked at my door, crying, "The Kedron is flowing! the Brook Kedron, you know! It is flowing; make haste and get up. See, here is some of the water!"

I found that the peasantry had entered the city at sunrise, in triumph, to announce the news. They had brought several goatskins and jars filled with the water. The bearers of good tidings are now, as of old, entitled to a backshîsh, so these peasants reaped a good harvest that morning in Jerusalem.

The storm continued, and did not cease for a moment till Saturday morning, and there was scarcely an upper chamber in Jerusalem which was uninjured by it. I was assured that three such days of rain had never been witnessed there at that season by any one living. Spring showers are generally of short duration, and quickly followed by sunshine. But this unexpected supply of water was very welcome, for the Winter rains had been less abundant than usual, and had not filled the pools, or "sent the springs into the valleys which run among the hills."

On Saturday afternoon the sun shone brightly on the rain-refreshed earth, and hundreds of people went out to look at the waters of the Brook Kedron. I rode with my