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18 bank, pursued by the splashing of the women. In these cases the colour of the animal is part of the charm; being black it will darken the sky with rain-clouds. So the Bechuanas burn the stomach of an ox at evening, because they say, “the black smoke will gather the clouds, and cause the rain to come.” The Timorese sacrifice a black pig for rain, a white or red one for sunshine. The Garos offer a black goat on the top of a very high mountain in time of drought.

Sometimes people try to coerce the rain-god into giving rain. In China a huge dragon made of paper or wood, representing the rain-god, is carried about in procession; but if no rain follows, it is cursed and torn in pieces. In the like circumstances the Feloupes of Senegambia throw down their fetishes and drag them about the fields, cursing them till rain falls. Some Indians of the Orinoco worshipped toads and kept them in vessels in order to obtain from them rain or sunshine as might be required; when their prayers were not answered they beat the toads. Killing a frog is a European rain-charm. When the spirits withhold rain or sunshine, the Comanches whip a slave; if the gods prove obstinate, the victim is almost flayed alive. Here the human being may represent the god, like the leaf-clad Dodola. When the rice-crop is endangered by long drought, the governor of