V 

 LIGHTNING 87 



Besides the thunderstorms like those just described, which 

 come so close and are often so awful in their results, there is 

 another kind of storm we frequently see in the rainy season 

 which is an unmixed source of delight. This is when, for two 

 or three hours together in the evening, a large portion of the 

 sky is lighted up by an almost incessant shimmer of lightning, 

 now revealing glimpses of a glory as if heaven itself were 

 opening, and anon showing many different tiers and strata of 

 clouds lying one behind the other, and alternately lighted up, 

 making clear the outlines of the nearer masses of cumulus upon 

 the brilliant background. How wonderful are the different 

 colours of this lightning ! intense white, like glowing metal, 

 now red, and now violet ; and not less wonderful are its forms ! 

 now it is a zigzag, which plunges downwards, now it branches 

 out horizontally, and again it darts upwards into the clouds ; 

 and then, for a few moments, there is nothing but an incessant 

 quiver and shimmer, which lights up first one quarter of the 

 heavens, and then another, and then the whole. All the time 

 no thunder is heard from this celestial display, but it is most 

 fascinating to watch the infinitely varied effects of light and 

 darkness, till we sometimes feel as if a " door was opened in 

 heaven," and we could catch a glimpse of " the excellent 

 glory " within. 



Something may be said here about the native division of 

 time. Although the European months and year have become 

 generally known and used, the old style of months are still 

 recognised to some extent by the Malagasy. Their months 

 were lunar ones, and therefore their year was eleven days shorter 

 than ours, their New Year's Day coming consequently at 

 different times, from the first to the twelfth month, until the 

 cycle was complete after thirty-three years. When I first 

 came to Madagascar the Malagasy New Year began in the 

 month of March ; and this style of reckoning time was kept up 

 until the accession of the last native sovereign, Queen Rana- 

 valona III., in 1883. The Malagasy appear never to have 

 made any attempt, by the insertion of intercalary days or any 

 other contrivance, to fill up their shorter year to the true time 

 occupied in the earth's annual revolution round the sun ; for 

 of course they must have noticed that their New Year came at 

 quite different periods after a few years. The names of the 



