So Ahab went up to eat and to drink,.... Up to his chariot, as some think, or rather to some place higher than that in which he now was:and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; higher still, where he both might be alone, and have the opportunity of observing the clouds gathering, and the rain coming:and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees; expressive of his humility, and of his earnestness, and vehement desire, and continued importunity, that rain might fall; for this was a posture of prayer he put himself into, and continued in; and it is certain that it was through his prayer that rain came, Jas 5:18 and from hence came the fable of the Grecians concerning Aeacus praying for rain in a time of drought, when it came .
So the Chinese writers report that at the prayers of their emperor Tangus, after a seven years' drought, great rains fell. Pausan. Attica, sive, l. 1. prope finem. Isocrat. Evagoras, p. 373. Martin. Sinic.
Hist. l. 3. p.