86 RAINFALL 



rushing torrents and a series of cascades ; from every compound 

 spouted out a jet of water to join the main stream, and it used 

 to be no easy matter to get about at all in the rush and the roar. 

 It was no wonder that most of the highways of the capital got 

 deeper and deeper every year. Even where there was an 

 attempt at a rough paving, a single storm would often tear it up 

 and pile the stones together in a big hole, with no more order 

 than obtains in the bed of a cataract. After the rains were over, 

 the red soil was dug away from the sides to fill up the channel 

 cut by the torrent, and so the road gradually sank below the 

 walls of the compounds on either side of it. 1 



The annual rainfall of Antananarivo is about fifty inches, 

 December and January being the wettest months, with an 

 average fall of ten to twelve inches each. It is very unusual 

 for thunderstorms to occur in the morning, they mostly come 

 on in the afternoon ; and after the first heavy downpour a 

 steady rain will often continue for three or four hours, and 

 occasionally far into the night. It is generally bright and fine 

 in the early morning ; all vegetation is refreshed by the plentiful 

 moisture ; and the people are busy in their plantations on the 

 sloping hillsides, digging up the softened earth for planting 

 manioc, sweet potatoes, the edible arum, and many other 

 vegetables. 



Hail also very frequently falls during these thunderstorms ; 

 and should it be late in the season, when the rice is in ear, great 

 damage is often done to the growing crop. A large extent of 

 rice-field will sometimes be stripped of every grain, the stalks 

 standing up like bare sticks. Charms against hail had therefore 

 in the old heathen times a prominent place in the popular 

 beliefs and, there can be little doubt, are still trusted in and 

 used by many of the more ignorant people. Occasionally 

 the hailstones are of very large size and kill sheep and small 

 animals, if they are left unsheltered. I remember a storm of 

 this kind, when the hailstones were as large as good-sized nuts, 

 while some were cushion-shaped and hexagonal, with a 

 hollow in the centre, and nearly one and a half inches in 

 diameter. In other cases they have been seen as jagged 

 lumps of ice ; and it may be easily imagined that it is very 

 unpleasant and somewhat dangerous to be exposed to such a 

 fusillade. 



