It ma\ be added that travellers have, perhaps uncon- sciously, exaggerated the barrenness of the land, from confining themselves too closely to the southern portion of Palestine; the northern portion, Galilee, of such pe- culiar interest to the readers oi the GOSpels, is fertile
and beautiful (see Mauley. Sinai and Palestine, ch. x. and Van de Velde, there quoted), ami in his description of the valley of Nablus, the ancient Shechem, Robinson < Biblical Researches, ii. 275) becomes almost enthusias- tic I [ere a scene ofluxuriant ami almost unparalleled
verdure hursts upon our view. The whole valley was tilled with gardens "I vegetables ami orchards of all fruits, watered by several fountains, which burst forth in various pan- ami flow westward in re- freshing Btreams. It came upon us suddenly, like a scene of fairy enchantment We saw nothing like it in all Palestine." The account given by a recent lady travel! r | Egypti in Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines, by Miss Beaufort i of the luxuriant fruit-trees and vegeta- bles which she saw at -Mc-hiillam's farm in the vallej of Iria-. a little south of & thlehem (possibly the site ol Sol-
o n's gardens, Eccles. ii, 4 6), may serve to prove how
much now. as ever, maj he . lied, ,| by irrigation (<i.v.).
Lain frequently furnishes the writers of the Old Test. with fori ible and appropriate metaphors, varying in their characti r according as thej n gard it as the beneficent and fertilizing shower, or the destructive storm pouring down the mountain-side and sweeping away the labor of years. Thus Prov. xxviii. :i. of the poor man that op- presseth the poor; Ezek. xx xviii, 22, of the just punish- ments and righteous vengeance ol God (comp. Psa. xi, 6; Job xx, 23). On the other hand, we have it used of speech wise and lining, rein -hing the souls of men ; ol words earnestly waited for and needfully listened to (Deut. xxxii. •_'; Job xxix. 23); of the cheering favor of the Lord coming down ince more upon the penitent soul; of the gracious presence and influence for good of the righteous king among his people; of the gifts, and graces of the reign oi the Messiah (Hos. \ i, 3 ; I' Sam. xxiii. 1 ; Psa. lxxii. 6 I. - Smith.
Rain Dragon, 'I'm . a Chinese deity, from whose capacious mouth ii is believed the waters are spouted forth which descend upon the earth in the form of rain. Ihi- god i- worshipped by those who cultivate the soil, only, however, when his power is fell either by the ab- sence of rain or by too abundant a supply. Sometimes the farmers earnestly implore him to give them more rain and sometimes less. In cases ofdroughl each fam- ily keeps erected al the front door of the house a tab- let on which is inscribed, " To the Dragon King of the Five Lakes and the Four Sea-." Before this tablet, on an altar of incense, thej lay out their sacrificial i BR rinc,s to propitiate the gods. Processions are also got up, among the farmers particularly, to attract the favor of the gods. On these occasions there may sometimes he seen a huge figure of a dragon made of paper or of cloth, which is carried through the strei ts w ith sound of gongs and trumpets. — Gardner, Faiths qftht World, 8. v.
Rainald of Citeaux, a mediaeval ecclesiastic, flourished in the tirst half of the 12th century. He was son ofMilon, and had St. Bernard for teacher. In 1113, on the death of St. Stephen, he hecamc abbot of Citeaux, and here he gave shelter to Abelard, and became the mediator for the restoration of thai great mediaeval phi- losopher and theologian io papal favor. In IIIs Rai- nald was president of a general chapter of his order. lie died Dec. 13, 1151. He published a Recueil (in eighty-seven chapter- 1 on divers chapters of the Order of Citeaux. etc. See Gallia Christiana, vdLiv, coil. 985; Histoin Litterain *!< la France, xii, 418 ; Re'musat,Pte de Abelard, i, 25 1. — Uoefer, Nouv. Biog. i
Rainaldi, Francesco, an Italian Jesuit, wa- born at Matelica, in the Ancona marshes, in L600. At twen- ty-two he entered the Order of the Jesuits, and passed his life at Rome in the house of the Society of Jesus, lie died in 1(177. We mention of his writings. Lumen ffominis Devoti | Rome, 1633, 24mo) : — Cibo dell' Anvna (ibid.1637, L2mo): '-Vita J. Lainez (ibid. 1672, 8vo).
See Southwell. Bibl. SOC. J tan. p. 246. II 01
Biog.G '«/<.s.v.
Rainaldi, Theophilus. See Raynaud.
Rainbow i. 1 1 el >. r\V}]?,kesheth, i.e. a bow with which to shoot arrows, Gen. ix, 13-16; Ezek. i, 28; Sept. ro^ov,
soKcclus.xliii.il: Vulg.arcu*. In Ihc New Te-t. Rev. iv, 3; x. I |, 7oic), the token of the covenant which God
made with Noah when hecamc forth from the ark that the waters should no more become a ll 1 to destroy all
flesh. With respect to the on enanl itself, as a charier ol mil a ml blessings and mercies (" the world's covenant, m.t the Church's"), re-establishing the peace ami order of physical nature, which in the flood had undergone k" great a convulsion, sec Davidson, "" Prophecy, lect. iii. p. 7b so. With respect I., the token of the covenant, the right interpretation of Gen. ix. 13 b& msto be that God took the rainbow, which had hitherto been but a beautiful object Bhining in the heavens when the sun's rays fell on falling rain, and consecrated it as the sign of bis love ami ihc wiine-s of his promise. The bow in Ihc cloud, seen by even nation under lma\ en. is an tin-