Like other peoples the Greeks and Romans sought to procure rain by magic, when prayers and processions(80) had proved ineffectual. For example, in Arcadia, when the corn and trees were parched with drought, the priest of Zeus dipped an oak branch into a certain spring on Mount Lycaeus. Thus troubled, the water sent up a misty cloud, from which rain soon fell upon the land.(81) A similar mode of making rain is still practised, as we have seen, in Halmahera near New Guinea. The people of Crannon in Thessaly had a bronze chariot which they kept in a temple. When they desired a shower they shook the chariot and the shower fell.(82) Probably the rattling of the chariot was meant to imitate thunder; we have already seen that in Russia mock thunder and lightning form part of a rain-charm. The mythical Salmoneus of Thessaly made mock thunder by dragging bronze kettles behind his chariot or by driving over a bronze bridge, while he hurled blazing torches in imitation of lightning. It was his impious wish to mimic the thundering car of Zeus as it rolled across the vault of heaven.(83) Near a temple of Mars, outside the walls of Rome, there was kept a certain stone known as the _lapis manalis_. In time of drought the stone was dragged into Rome and this was supposed to bring down rain immediately.(84) There were Etruscan wizards who made rain or discovered springs of water, it is not certain which. They were thought to bring the rain or the water out of their bellies.(85) The legendary Telchines in Rhodes are described as magicians who could change their shape and bring clouds, rain, and snow.(86)