32 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
nues for a few hours ; sometimes it lasts through the night. 
It is generally accompanied with heavy thunder, and much 
lightning; and in some seasons, the thunder and lightning 
continue during the whole of the Fahavaratra. The season 
is generally introduced by the lightning playing in an 
evening, perhaps a month before the rains actually com¬ 
mence. It has been remarked also, that a few showers of 
heavy rain fall about three or four weeks before this season 
commences; the weather again clears off, and in about a 
month, or less, the regular diurnal rains set in. The rain 
is occasionally mingled with hail; and showers of hail¬ 
stones, at times as large as walnuts, or pigeons’ eggs, have 
proved, at this season of the year, extremely injurious to 
vegetation: snow is never mixed with the hail, or seen 
alone, even among the summits of the loftiest mountains, 
where the fogs are dense and cold, and the sleet often 
heavy and continued. A charm called the ody-varatra , 
“ thunderbolt charm,” is generally used at such seasons 
by the natives, but, as may be supposed, with far less 
effect than their fears induce them to desire. 
The trade-winds prevail during the greater part of the 
year, and blow from the east, or south-east; but the rains are 
often accompanied by high winds from the west, occasion¬ 
ally north-west, and not unfrequently from the south-west. 
The Rambondanitra , u tail of heaven,” i. e. waterspout, 
and Tadio , “ twist,” i. e. whirlwind, are not uncommon in 
Madagascar, and often exceedingly destructive both to 
houses and plantations, even in the interior of the island. 
Houses are also at times struck by the electric fluid ; and 
scarcely a season passes without the loss of several lives 
from the same cause: this is from the forked lightning; 
that which is seen almost constantly of an evening in warm 
weather, playing in the horizon, is not forked; and 
