182 



of some kind are to follow ; tempests, blasts, and mildews, injury 

 to corn, &c. , fine weather on those daj'S being attended by just the 

 opposite results; while the whole character of the ensuing winter is 

 to be j udged of according to what the weather happens to be on either 

 St. Swithin's Day, or St. Bartholomew's Day, or Michaelmas Day.* 



And there is yet another notion said to prevail in some places, 

 ■viz., that the weather of the twelve days between Christmas and 

 Epiphany prefigures the weather of the whole year, each day being 

 a representation of the corresponding month. This belief possesses 

 the greater interest from the circumstance of its extreme antiquity. 

 Mr. Earle has been kind enough to furnish me with an extract from 

 "Kelly's Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore," 

 ■where it is stated that, — " It appears certain, from some passages in 

 the Vedas, that twelve nights about the winter solstice were regarded 

 as prefiguring the character of the weather for the whole year." A 

 Sanscrit text is noticed by Weber, which says expressly, — " The 

 Twelve Nights are an image of the year." A more remarkable 

 instance could scarcely be adduced to show how widely prevalent 

 such beliefs are in some cases, and over what extended periods of 

 time we find the same ideas to have been entertained in the form 

 of weather prognostications. 



From the consideration of the different festivals and other days 

 above alluded to, thought to be so full of promise or otherwise 

 according to the circumstances of the weather on each occasion, we 

 might pass to the consideration of lucky or unlucky days in general, 

 corresponding to the Dies-fasti or Nefasti of the Romans. To dwell 

 long on these would be departing from the subject more properly 

 before us; but the following amusing extract from an old MS., 

 as given in " Notes and Queries," will serve to shew the extreme 

 length to which some of these superstitious ideas were formerly 

 carried, as well as the affinity they bore to the heathen superstitions 

 of old :— 



" The first Monday in April, the day on which Cain was bom, and Abel 

 was slain. 



The second Monday in August, on which day Sodom and Gomorrah were 

 destroyed. 



The 31st of December, on which day Judas was born, who betrayed Christ. 



* "Notes and Queries," vol. is.., pp. 307, 308. 



