Weather – Dog Days end (not
noticeably).
[Of course, if it seems like the Dog Star hasn’t given up, there are other dates on which the Dog Days are said to end. Pick one.]
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In an 1832 book titled (take
a deep breath):
THE
ANNIVERSARY CALENDAR,
NATAL BOOK,
AND
UNIVERSAL MIRROR:
EMBRACING
ANNIVERSARIES OF PERSONS,
EVENTS, INSITITUTIONS, AND
FESTIVALS, OF ALL
DENOMINATIONS, HISTORICAL,
SACRED, AND DOMESTIC, IN
EVERY PERIOD AND STATE OF
THE WORLD, FOR THE CREATION
TO THE
PRESENT AGE.
(phew)
I found the following entry
under 11 August: “Noah sends the dove
forth again, Saturday, who returns no
more. “
(Previous entries were the 5th
of April: “The ark rests upon Mount
Ararat, in Armenia, midway between the southern extremities of the Euxine and
Caspian seas…”;
the 18th of June:
“The tops of the mountains are first seen by the inhabitants of the ark,
seventy-four days from the resting of
the vessel”;
the 28th of July:
“Noah… opens the window of the ark, and sends forth a dove and a raven, forty
days after the appearance of the mountains”;
and the 4th of
August: “Noah releases the dove a
second time, who returns in the evening with an olive-leaf in her mouth – a sign that the waters had abated.”
(I looked for an entry that
said, “Noah invents wine,” but I guess that wasn’t an important anniversary to
the author.)
You can find the story of
Noah in Genesis, starting in chapter 6 (he invents wine in Chapter 9). The Golden Legend expanded on it a
little: “The seventh month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the ark rested
on the hills of Armenia. The tenth
month, of the first day of the month, the tops of the hills appeared
first. After these forty days
after the lessing of the waters, Noah opened the window and desired sore to
have tidings of ceasing of the flood.
And sent out a raven for to have tidings, and when she was gone she returned
no more, for peradventure she found some dead carrion of a beast swimming on
the water, and lighted thereon to feed her and was left there. After this he sent out a dove which
flew out, and when she could find no place to rest ne set her foot on, she
returned unto Noah and he took her in.
Yet then were not the tops of the hills bare. And seven days after he sent her out again, which at even
returned, bearing a branch of an olive tree, burgeoning, in her mouth. And after other seven days he sent her
again, which came no more again.”
After which God made a
covenant with Noah and with those who would come after him, setting his rainbow
in the heavens as a token.
“All the days of the earth,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall
not cease.” Genesis 8:22.
[As I write, the Smallest
State is experiencing le Deluge, which I would gladly share with my friends in
the Midwest.]
And those of you of a
certain age might remember the conversation between God and Noah (courtesy of Bill
Cosby):
"How long can you tread water?
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Artwork: Mosaic in Basilica di San Marco, Venice. Swiped from Wikipedia.
