[A passage from part 3 of THE RELIC by José Maria de Eça de Queirós, translated by Aubrey F.G. Bell.]
. . . dipping a piece of bread in the saffron sauce, the profound doctor explained the earth.
It was flat and rounder than a disk; in its center stood Jerusalem the holy, a heart filled with the love of the Highest; Judea, rich in balsam and palms, encircles it with shade and scent; beyond Judea live the pagans in harsh regions where both honey and milk are scarce; after that come the seas enveloped in darkness; and above all is the sounding, solid sky.
Solid! muttered my wise friend in his astonishment.
The slaves were handing round yellow beer of Media in silver cups. Gamaliel with careful attention advised me that in order to give it a savor I should take a bite of fried cicada. And Rabbi Eliezer, wise more than other men in the things appertaining to Nature, revealed to Topsius the divine construction of the sky.
It is made of seven hard wonderful gleaming layers of crystal; above these continually roll the great waters, and on the waters the spirit of Jehovah floats and gleams. These crystal layers, pierced like a sieve, glide over one another with a sweet music which the most favored prophets sometimes hear. He himself one night, as he prayed on the terrace of his house at Silo, had, by a rare grace of the Highest, heard that harmony; so piercing sweet that the tears fell one by one upon his open hands. In the months of Kisleu and Tebeth the holes in the heavenly sheets coincide, and through them drops of the eternal waters fall upon the earth and cause the crops to grow.
“The rain?” asked Topsius reverently.
“The rain,” answered Eliezer calmly.