WEATHER PROPHECIES
Sm,—Sir William Beach Thomas alludes in his column to some weather prophecies, so perhaps the following may be of interest to your readers. A peasant living iu the province of Malaga in Southern Spain foretold about two months ago that the very serious drought would not be broken until the night of March 9th-10th, when torrential rain would be followed by thunder and hail. (This prophecy was published at the time in the local Press, so there can be no suggestion of being wise-after-the-event.) I happened to be staying that night in a fishing village a few miles from Malaga. First the rain came down as in the first act of Pygmalion, then the thunder rolled about the hills, out-rivalling all the tin trays of the B.B.C., and finally the hailstones bounced high upon the pebbles of the courtyard below. Everything had turned out exactly right: the date, and the order and violence of the occurrences.
This seemed to me sufficiently remarkable, but luncheoning the next day with some Malaguenian friends, I found that they were not unduly impressed. Yes, they said, our peasants specialise in weather prophecy. During a certain fortnight in August they take to the fields, sleeping a la belle etoile, and from their observations made during that period they are enabled to forecast the weather with such surprising accuracy and detail for the ensuing twelve months that the local husbandry is entirely guided by their findings. Ploughing, seed-sowing, and so on, are regulated with entire confidence on this long-term calendar which seldom goes wrong.
One wonders whether a handful of Malaguenian peasants imported into England could, given enough time and experience of our climate, achieve an equally useful result for our farmers?—Yours, &c., V. SACKVILLE-WEST.
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