The incidence of rainfall, apart from its volume, is of importance. It is on the rainfall of the six winter months, October to March, that the prosperity of the Island depends, and any shortage during this period cannot be balanced by heavier summer rains, which are more liable to cause harm than good, by damaging the corn lying on the threshing-floors and by causing sudden floods.
Much importance attaches to the rains in March, without which the grain crop, however ample the earlier rains may have been, will not be satisfactory, as described in a maxim which I have attempted to render in English.
If twice in March it chance to rain,
In April once, a shower in May,
In weight in gold of man and wain,
The farmer's crops are sure to pay.
If roads are dry at Christmas time,
But Epiphany finds both mud and slime,
And at Carnival they still hold many a pool,
The farmer finds his barns quite full.
Administration
The Island is administered by a High Commissioner. There is an Executive Council and a Legislative Council consisting of six official members and twelve elected members, of whom three are elected by the Moslem and nine by the non-Moslem inhabitants. The Island is divided into six districts, in each of which the Executive Government is represented by a Commissioner.
Weights, Measures and Currency
Nearly everything except corn, wine, oil, carobs, cotton and wool is sold by the oke.
An oke, dry measure, equals 400 drams, or 2-4/5 lb.
The liquid oke is reckoned as equivalent to a quart.
Grain is measured by the kilé, regarded as equal to a bushel.