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rsurfaces of which the clouds explode, the oxygen falling 

 to the earth in lightning sparks, and the vapour of the 

 clouds falling in showers on the earth, moistening and 

 refreshing vegetation and supplying it with the means for 

 .renewing its vital functions. 



The spark of combusted oxygen called lightning is a 

 phenomenal product of the animal warmth of our earth 

 and is called electricity. Sometimes this spark is dis- 

 pelled in the atmosphere, at other times moving with the 

 current of the air towards the earth it reaches the earth's 

 surface where it produces those destructive effects known 

 .as strokes of lightning. The force of lightning is so great 

 that coming in contact with solid bodies it either melts 

 them on the spot or powerfully expands the parts it 

 touches, splitting up trees and rending asunder stone 



There exists in Russia a superstition that when thun- 

 der and lightning occur Ilya (Elijah) the prophet is run- 

 ning after the devil and driving him into the Bottomless 

 Pit. The peasants confirm this tradition by pointing to 

 the discovery of the devil's fingers found and religiously 

 preserved by the country-folk in many villages. The 

 peasants watch the flashes of the lightning, and when 

 they remark the electric stroke enter the earth at any 

 place they dig the ground up and sometimes light upon 

 some fragment of silica fused by the current. This frag- 

 ment is recognized as the devil's finger, and traditionally 

 considered in the light of a valuable medicine for the cure 

 of various diseases. Water is poured over it from above 

 .and afterwards given to the patient. 



In the year 1870, a lightning flash struck the tele- 

 graph poles between the village of Mikhmanna and the 

 town Kargopolie, and ran along the wires for nearly two 

 versts. From the stroke the first two poles were torn to 

 splinters and the others were all deeply split, though 

 with diminishing force ; the last one being marked with a 

 .crack about the width of a double-bass string right down 

 to the ground. 



