140 THE SWALLOW. 



took good care to keep my arms close to my body, in 

 accordance with the advice in the following quatrain, — 



Quick, quick, the Swallow comes, 



Keep your arms close, 

 For if she touch them wi' her wings, 



You their power will lose. 



Mr. Hardy notes that, in some parts of the county, this 

 bird is said "to drink a drap o' the deil's blood every 

 morning." A curious superstition is mentioned by Mr. 

 Lockie, Spottiswoode, who says : — " There is a belief in our 

 district with reference to the killing of a Swallow, or the 

 robbing of its nest, that the hair of a person who does so 

 will not grow until the return of the Swallows in the follow- 

 ing year, and that he will have frequent headaches in the 

 interval." It is a common saying in the county that " one 

 Swallow does not make a summer." ^ This appears to have 

 had its origin in the changeable nature of the weather 

 about the time of its arrival ; a few mild days, which may 

 have induced some of the first comers to visit a locality, 

 being followed by a spell of cold ungenial weather, such as 

 we often experience about the end of April and beginning 

 of May, so aptly described by Dunbar, — 



For yistirday, I did declair 

 How that the sasoun fast and fair 

 Come in als fresche as pacock feddir, 

 This day it stangis lyk ane eddir. 



1 Mr. A. H. Evans, Cambridge, remarks: — "This is an old saying of the 

 Greeks, though they said 'spring' instead of summer." 



