Chap. VI. 
HOT WIND—ELECTKICITY. 
123 
Dutch, that being the language spoken by tliis people. His 
sufferings must have been far more severe than any we endured. 
The result of the exertions of both Shelley and Macabe is to 
prove that the general view of the Desert always given by the 
natives has been substantially correct. 
Occasionally, during the very dry seasons which succeed our 
muter and precede our rains, a hot wind blows over the Desert 
from north to south. It feels somewhat as if it came from an oven, 
and seldom blows longer at a time than three days. It resembles 
in its effects the harmattan of the north of Africa, and at the 
time the missionaries first settled in the country, thirty-five years 
ago, it came loaded with fine reddish-coloured sand. Though no 
longer accompanied by sand, it is so devoid of moisture as to 
cause the wood of the best seasoned English boxes and furniture 
to slnlnk so that every wooden article not made in the country 
is warped. The verls of ramrods made in England are loosened, 
and on returnuig to Europe fasten again. This wind is in such 
an electric state that a bunch of ostrich-feathers held a few 
seconds against it becomes as strongly charged as if attached to 
a powerful electrical machine, and clasps the advancing hand 
with a sharp craclding sound. 
\ITien tliis hot ’v\und is blowing, and even at other times, the 
peculiarly strong electrical state of the atmosphere causes the 
movement of a native in his kaross to produce therein a stream 
of small sparks. The first time I noticed this appearance was 
while a chief was travelhng with me in my waggon. Seeing part 
of the fur of his mantle, which was exposed to shght friction by 
the movement of the waggon, assume quite a luminous appear¬ 
ance, I rubbed it smartly with the hand, and found it readily 
gave out bright sparks, accompanied with distinct cracks. Don’t 
you see this ? ” said I. ‘‘ The white men did not show us this,” 
he rephed; we had it long before white men came into the 
country, we and our forefathers of old.” Unfortunately I never 
inquired the name which they gave to this appearance, but I 
have no doubt there is one for it in the language. Otto von 
Guerrike is said, by Baron Humboldt, to have been the first that 
ever observed this effect in Europe, but the phenomenon had been 
familiar to the Bechuanas for ages. Nothing came of that how¬ 
ever, for they viewed the sight as if with the eyes of an ox. The 
