Heavy night dews alone refreshed the earth.
The summer crops (millet, sesame, figs, melons, grapes, olives, &c.) are fertilized by the heavy " dews " which are one of the most remarkable climatic features of the country and to a large extent atone for the total lack of rain for one half the year.
High districts covered with oaks and chestnuts succeed to this almost tropical vegetation; a little higher up and we reach the elevated regions of the Pollino and the Sila, covered with firs and pines, and affording rich pastures even in the midst of summer, when heavy dews and light frosts succeed each other in July and August, and snow begins to appear at the end of September or early in October.
Heavy dews in summer give the needed moisture after the rains of June have ceased.
749) they are the custodians of the gates of Olympus, which they open or shut by scattering or condensing the clouds; that is, they are weather goddesses, who send down or withhold the fertilizing dews and rain.