For instance, whenever a train of dogs had been travelling for a long time, almost perishing with the heat and their heavy loads, a glimpse of water would cause them to forget all their responsibilities.
In Mingrelia, when the crops are suffering from want of rain, they take a particularly holy image and dip it in water every day till a shower falls; and in the Far East the Shans drench the images of Buddha with water when the rice is perishing of drought.
They cut their clothes in such a manner that they could only be prevented from falling off by being held together by both hands; and the weather was so cold--the ground, moreover, being covered with snow--that the men could only save themselves from perishing by keeping their clothes around them.