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126 DAYS IN THE SUN
262 times in nine years, twenty-nine times a year; pre-
cipitation enough. In the same nine years there were
three storms. Some persons go so far in their theory
of our natural need of obstacles, as to maintain that
even the grain must have wind, since the stalk could
not otherwise grow strong enough to support the ears;
but in this country the loveliest cereals grow without
ever having had an opportunity to sway in the wind.
The beneficent peace that spreads within us and around
us in northern countries on a quiet summer evening—
when everything is so silent and motionless that we
can see the blades of grass resume their upright posi-
tions as if a softly moving cat had trod them down, and
so noiseless that individual calls may be heard from
village to village—such peace prevails in this region
all day long and for months and months without any
interruption. Nothing stirs the solemn cypress point-
ing heavenward in petrified repose; high up in the air
the mighty crown of the pine-tree seems to be resting
upon air; smoke rising from the fires of the shepherds
ascends vertically to heaven. The landscape seems as
if enchanted in a sparkling sun-slumber, and over it
hangs the pall of the monotonous sound given out by
the bells of grazing beasts and caravans of donkeys.
So silent is the foliage, that you start up in fright when
a bird disturbs it; the air is so motionless that if you
should put down a feather on a rock, you would find
it a month later on the same spot.
Not without reason that the people who live here
call the sun God and Creator; they are light-hearted
children of the sun. They do not at all possess the
superiority of the northerner to matters of climate
and temperature. On rainy days they are attacked by
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