WEATHER PROPHETS 70 



collection of the ' male ' fish (see Chapter IX, ]). 193) 

 tumbling and wriggling about. The natives said they 

 were mating." The next day was noted as " a beastly 

 cold, stormy day, with black clouds, after a lot of thunder 

 and rain at 1 a.m." On Feburary 21st the same occur- 

 rence was seen off Wema Island ; the small fish hopping 

 out of the water, and male tumbling about. The 

 following day, however, was also fine and hot, and rain 

 did not come until the twenty-third. 



I think this behaviour of the fish is not of any immediate 

 significance, but occurs just before the rains commence 

 in earnest, in March. 



It was again noticed very often when voyaging in 

 January and February 1919 ; sometimes the canoe 

 would be so close that the men could almost have netted 

 the fish. 



Insects, as might be expected, furnish many signs of 

 coming rain. 



The most obvious is the appearance of immense numbers 

 of a non-biting gnat, of the family Chironomidae, called 

 by the natives " E'sami " (pronounced Sammee). They 

 appear as brown clouds drifting over the lake, along the 

 horizon, like smoke from a distant steamer. Eventually 

 they are blown ashore, where they seek shelter among 

 trees. These clouds are most often seen just before 

 and during the heavy rains. If Sami happen to arrive 

 at one's camp after dark they swarm around the lamp and 

 drive one nearly desperate. Other insects also come to 

 the lamp before rain, particularly Ephemeridae of different 

 sizes. One, about the size of the common English " may- 

 fly," once came to the camp fire in such numbers, anS 

 their burnt bodies made such an appalling stench, that 

 it was too much even for the natives, who put out the 

 fire and retreated ! A smaller, paler species has the 

 extremely annoying habit of alighting upside down on 

 one's table or writing paper, and flopping miserably about 



