when the bewildering rush is over, and there are 

 impressions which it is not possible to forget. 



There were the sounds and the smells and the 

 sights ! The sounds that began with the sudden 

 crash of thunder ; the dead silence that followed it ; 

 the first great drops that fell with such pats on the 

 dust ; then more and faster yet still so big and 

 separate as to make one look round to see where they 

 fell ; the sound on the waggon-sail at first as of 

 bouncing marbles, then the l devil's tattoo,' and then 

 the roar ! 



And outside there was the muffled puff and patter 

 in the dust ; the rustle as the drops struck dead leaves 

 and grass and sticks ; the blend of many notes that 

 made one great sound, always growing, changing and 

 moving on full of weird significance until there 

 came the steady swish and hiss of water upon water, 

 when the earth had ceased to stand up against the rain 

 and was swamped. But even that did not last ; for 

 then the fallen rain raised its voice against the rest, 

 and little sounds of trickling scurrying waters came 

 to tone the ceaseless hiss, and grew and grew until 

 from every side the chorus of rushing tumbling waters 

 filled the air with the steady roar of the flood. 



And the smells ! The smell of the baked drought- 

 bound earth ; the faint clearing and purifying by 

 the first few drops ; the mingled dust and damp ; 

 the rinsed air ; the clean sense of water, water every- 

 where ; and in the end the bracing sensation in 

 nostrils and head, of, not wind exactly, but of swirling 

 air thrust out to make room for the falling rain ; and, 



424 



