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Show PUZZLED ARABS. Singular phenomenon at Aden, the hottest place in the world. A singular phenomenon is reported from Aden. A heavy shower of rain has actually fallen there, and the Arabs and other inhabitants are at a loss to account for it. Such was the effect of the downpour, that the air afterward became so cool that Europeans could tolerate a light overcoat, and Arabs and Abyssinians their ratten-cloth, without feeling in the least discommoded. This is truly a wonderful state of matters for Aden, which is the only station the British possess upon the coast of Arabia. It has the unenviable reputation of being the hottest place in the world. Situated at the southern bend of the Red Sea, not far from that celebrated Bab el Mandch, or Gate of Tears, which the Arabian and Indian navigators at one time never entered without believing that in all probability they would neither survive either the shoals or the calm, stifling heat of the Red Sea. Aden is built at the foot of a bare volcanic rock, and is not much oftener visited by a refreshing breeze than it is by rain. British soldiers whose lot has cast them upon that bleak spot of earth, tell wicked stories about it. One is that an Irishman died "from drink, and then said the climate killed him." When he had been buried for a time he reappeared as a ghost at the beside of a former comrade, and beseeched that he might be given his great coat, "because after Aden, hell was cowld." Another is that European residents are, in the absence of shady trees on the barren peninsula, accustomed to cluster under the lean flag staff that stands on Aden Point in the hope that they may share the grateful shadow that it casts upon the ground. In the vicinity of Aden there are enormous ?? tanks, which the Arabs assert to have been built by Moses. These tanks (three in number) are situated in a corner formed by a junction of high volcanic rocks, and are connected by gradually descending flights of Titanic steps. They have never been even half filled within the memory of man, and this has made certain philosophers opine that the seasons in the Red Sea must have changed within the last two thousand years as Moses would never have been so foolish as to build colossal stone reservoirs if he knew there would never be rain enough to fill them. Previous to the construction of the Suez Canal, Aden used to be visited by light showers about once every three years, but within the last twelve years these showers have become more and more frequent and now they appear to have culminated in the downpour which has caused so much surprise. Old navigators of the Red Sea are confident that this seasonal change is due to the Suez Canal, and perhaps their theory is correct and that the new water connection between the ?? and the ancient ?? rain clouds to travel from East ?? until they are broken by the ?? of Aden and ?? in the form of rain.-N. Y. Times |