BAKWAIN THEORY OF RAIN. 557 



Maravi, and all the tribes on that side of the country, are 

 at enmity with the Portuguese, and, as they practise 

 night attacks in their warfare, it is dangerous to travel 

 among them. 



2Qth. — I was most sincerely thankful to find myself on 

 the south bank of the Zambesi, and, having nothirg else, 

 I sent back one of my two spoons and a shirt as a tnank- 

 offering to Mpende. The different head-men along this 

 river act very much in concert, and if one refuses passage 

 they all do, uttering the sage remark, "If so-and-so did 

 not lend his canoes, he must have had some good reason." 

 The next island we came to, was that of a man named 

 Mozinkwa. Here we were detained some days by con- 

 tinuous rains, and thought we observed the confirmation 

 of the Bakwain theory of rains. A double tier of clouds 

 floated quickly away to the west, and as soon as they 

 began to come in an opposite direction the rains poured 

 down. The inhabitants who live in a dry region like that 

 of Kolobeng are nearly all as weather-wise as the rain- 

 makers, and any one living amongst them for any length 

 of time, becomes as much interested in the motions of the 

 clouds at they are themselves. Mr. Moffat, who was as 

 sorely tried by droughts as we were, and had his attention 

 directed in the same way, has noted the curious pheno- 

 menon of thunder without clouds. Mrs. Iy. heard it once, 

 but I never had that good fortune. It is worth the 

 attention of the observant. Humboldt has seen rain 

 without clouds, a phenomenon quite as singular. I have 

 been in the vicinity of the fall of three aerolites, none of 

 which I could afterwards discover. One fell into the lake 

 Kumadau with a report somewhat like a sharp peal of 

 thunder. The women of the Bakurutse villages there, 

 all uttered a scream on hearing it. This happened at mid- 

 day, and so did another at what is called the Great Chuai, 

 which was visible in its descent, and was also accompanied 

 with a thundering noise. The third fell near Kuruman 

 and at night, and was seen as a falling star by people at 

 Motito and at Daniel's Kuil, places distant forty miles on 

 opposite sides of the spot. It sounded to me like the 

 report of a great gun, and a few seconds after, a lesser 

 sound as if striking the earth after a rebound. Does the 

 passage of a few such aerolites through the atmosphere 

 to the earth by day cause thunder without clouds ? 



We were detained here so long that my tent became 



