320 A FARMER'S YEAR 



and scattering fragments of bark and wood on to the tin roof of the 

 hut. This was the same boy who, as I think I have mentioned, 

 once lay for an hour under the bull's manger, while that animal, 

 having first knocked him there, sniffed and pawed at his prostrate 

 form. If he is not now a firm believer in a protecting Providence 

 he must be of a singularly sceptical turn of mind. 



But, after all, the tempests which we experience here compared 

 to those of Africa are much as the floating models on the lake at 

 the Earl's Court Exhibition would be to a fleet of ironclads in 

 action. A friend once informed me that he was actually driven 

 out of a certain district in East Africa by the frequency and 

 fearful violence of the thunderstorms, which so affected his nerves 

 that he could neither shoot nor sleep ; and personal experience 

 proves to me that they can be bad further to the south. A gentle- 

 man whom I know told me that once he was riding along a road 

 in Natal, at a little distance behind a waggon full of people. A 

 thunderstorm came on, and after a vivid flash the waggon stopped. 

 He rode up to it, and found that of its occupants, who had huddled 

 together beneath the tilt to escape the rain, no less than seven 

 were dead. I am glad to say that I have never seen anything so 

 dreadful as this, although I have had some experiences of 

 lightning. Once, accompanied by my wife and a woman servant, 

 I drove a 'spider' at full gallop before an advancing storm. 

 Reaching the inn we handed over the horses to some Kaffirs, and 

 ran for shelter. As we entered the door the lightning struck in 

 the courtyard, not more than a dozen yards behind us. The 

 conduct of the maid a middle-aged and determined woman on 

 this occasion was amusing. In her terror she lost her head and 

 informed her mistress that she was 'no lady' because she 

 remained calm; under these circumstances a 'lady,' it appears, 

 ought to have screamed and gone into hysterics. 



On another occasion I was on duty in court at Pretoria, when 

 there came such a fearful, flash that everybody there, including the 

 judge and myself, sprang to his feet. It transpired that the 

 lightning had struck the next house and actually cut or shook a 



