COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAINS 71 



rain descended. The rain did not fall, as with us, in 

 a succession of drops, but in a vast multitude of con- 

 tinuous, uninterrupted streams. It continued thus to 

 fall for over the period of two hours. When it ceased 

 the face of nature was changed. 



The sky that before was thick with dust was now an 

 azure blue, clear as crystal, while the trees and shrubs, 

 all wet with the raindrops, glistened with the freshest 

 green. The rain, moreover, had so cooled the air that 

 long before sunset I could walk about the garden with- 

 out inconvenience. 



The effect of this first fall of the rains on animated 

 nature is all but magical. The frogs, the thousands 

 of insects that during the intense heat have been lying 

 torpid and concealed, now awake to life and activity. 

 By sound and movement they seem to be making 

 amends for their long period of silence and repose. 

 The frogs croak, the crickets chirp, and everywhere 

 the burrowing insects and small animals throw up their 

 tiny hillocks. 



But of all the effects of this first shower of the rains 

 none is so striking as the sudden appearance in count- 

 less myriads of that beautiful little insect termed by the 

 natives the " beerbhootee." Its scientific appellation 

 I do not know. It is a small insect, seldom exceeding 

 in size the dimensions of an ordinary pea. Seen 

 through a magnifying-glass, its form is something that 

 of a short, thick-legged spider. As it moves over the 

 surface of the ground it resembles nothing so much 

 as a morsel of animated velvet, and velvet of the richest 

 and softest crimson. 



