the ignorant vulgar look upon rain as a mifchief brought upon
the country by the force o f witchcraft. In confequence o f this
idea, they eledt a friar to exorcife the meteors, and keep the rain
o ff the iiland. I f notwitbftanding the poor friar’s endeavours,
the fummer happens to be rainy, he lofes his reputation, and
his bread ; but, i f two or three dry feafons. follow fucceffively,
he meets with great reverence and advantage.
A t Novaglia, where they have a different intereft from that
o f the fait pits, they make ufe o f as ridiculous means to obtain
rain as their neighbours do to have dry weather. There are
numberlefs other fuperftitious cuftonas among thofe poor ignorant
iflanders, which are chiefly cultivated and ' maintained by.
the friars for their own intereft, and fometimes for more criminal
ends i but as little good can be vpropofed by expoiing
the folly o f the people, or the knavery o f the monks, I fhall
let them alone as they are.
APPENDIX
A P P E N D I X
. . . T O T H E
O b s e r v a t i o n s o n CI 1 E R SO a n d 0 S E R O 4
GIVING SOME A C CO U N T O F L IT T O R A L CROATIA, T I IE *
ISLANDS OF PAGo ' a ND FEG'ttA, '
I n T hree L e t t e r s from the ; A bbe p % Ttrs3 if ) ° | | l p | t ’
Efq, His BRITANNiqK. M4JESTYf’E MlNljSpR... AT VENICE. .
r p H E unlucky accident th a t,, in \jTA» .was . the ¿aut"e o f
my return from Dalmatia much ■ againft my will, gave
me an opportunity o f vifiting the Iflajids o f the tuamaro, and
o f making fome Obfervations on thd'iittoral COafts o f'th a t g u l f , ,
.which, though'longi and uneonnedted, I am now to communt- -
cate to your Excellency, fuch as they a re.-'
T h e littoral ’ parts o f the guarnaro, belonging to the R ep u b --
lic k o f Venice, reach but little beyond Fianona, the ancient
Flanona o f the Geographers, which gave the name o f Sinus Fla-
naticus to the adjacent fea, and which now is reduced to a mi-
ferable condition. T h e Houfe o f Auftria is fovereign o the
interior coaft, from Berfen as far as Lucova, which tradt o f country
is called Littoral Croazia.' T h e fea, that baths this coaft, ,
is called the channel o f Morlacca, and i takes the denomination
from the mountains that rife above it. T h is channel is exceedingly
tempeftuous, through the violence o f the boreal winds, ■
w h i c h often, on a fudden, put it in dreadful agitation, raifnig