60 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather Fallacies. 



There is a very curious old Wiltshire prejudice against a new 

 moon occurring 1 on a Saturday , which (if not common in the county 

 now) prevailed not many years since, but the origin of which, and 

 the meaning of which, I am at a loss to conjecture : it is handed 

 down in the following proverb 



" A Saturday's moon 

 If it comes once in seven years 

 Comes once too soon." 



Or, (as I have heard it) in another version : — - 



" A Saturday's moon 

 Come when it will, it comes too soon," 



Scarcely less obnoxious to our rustic prognosticates was a full 

 moon on Sunday, and they expressed their objection thus : — ■ 



" Saturday's change and Sunday's prime, 

 Once is enough in seven years' time." 



But for a choice morsel of our broadest vernacular, let me commend 

 the following to especial notice 



" Saturday's change and Sunday's full 

 Never brought good, and never wull I " 



Many other quaint superstitions did our Wiltshire " Moonrakers " 

 of former days cherish in regard to the moon, to which the following 

 proverbs testify :— - 



" Two full moons in a calendar month bring on a flood." 



" If th« moon change on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the month 

 is out." 



" Sow peasen and beans in the wane of the moone, 

 "Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone." 



" In the wane of the moon 

 A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon." 



" The Michaelmas moon 



Rises nine days alike soon." 



Let me add as an antidote to these fallacies, the thoroughly correct 

 proverb with regard to the burr round the moon ; — 



