GUERNSEY WEATHER LORE. 203 



The slieep on Lancresse Common used to be more 

 numerous than tliej are now, and it was observed that they 

 always sought shelter from a coming storm many hours before 

 a change in the weather took place. When the sun, after 

 being hidden by clouds in the afternoon, appears clear just 

 before dropping below the horizon, it means fine weather 

 next day. But if it has been a clear sky, and the sun 

 sets in a bank of cloud, there will be a change on the morrow. 

 A strong breeze is indicated by a bank of cloud high above 

 the horizon at sunrise, and this is expressed in the proverb : 

 f{aut jenr. basse raile (high dawn, low^ sail). The rough 

 white clouds seen rising above the horizon before a thun- 

 derstorm are called Ics tetes (T EvhyiLes (bishop's heads) and 

 when the sea is very calm and still, with hardly a ripple 

 to break its smoothness, people say : La mouque beuvrai 

 su Tlaue (a fly might drink on the water). 



It is very difficult to uproot popular beliefs, and there 

 are still a great many people who firmly believe that the 

 moon has a considerable influence on the weather. After 

 making observations they are quite ready to predict certain 

 changes, and if these happen to take place about that 

 time, they say they knew it would be so, but if nothing 

 happens we hear no more about it. This kind of prophesying 

 however is not confined to the weather. It is said of a 

 halo round the moon : Clierne de leniie jamais nahat cVmas 

 (Chcune (moon's halo never breaks a topmast). On the 

 contrary, of a sun's halo they say : Clierne de llieii^ tempete 

 de p}'es, cherne de pres, tempete de llien : the belief being 

 that the nearer the halo is to the sun, the further distant 

 (in point of time) will be the storm. 



Should there be rain on the day of full moon, or on 

 the following day or two, it is commonly believed that the 

 moon on rising will clear the sky : whereas if the weather 

 is threatening in the afternoon during the moon's first quarter, 

 it is said that when it sets the rain will begin to falL 

 There is an English proverb which runs : A Saturday's 

 moon, if it comes once in seven years, comes once too soon. 

 A literal translation of this was used ages ago by the old 

 people of (xuernsey : U/ie nouvelle leiuie du Samedi, line 

 fa.is en sept ans, est trap. 



If the spring happens to be cold and late, it is popularly 

 believed that there will not be much fish before vegetation 

 starts : La ma'ire fait conmme la. terre (the sea does like 

 the ground). It is considered that if the festival of Easter 

 happens to fall on a late date, everything will be late also. 



