By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



66 



A proverb which has thus found its way into English : — 



M If Candlemas day be fair and bright, 

 Winter will have another flight ; 

 But if Candlemas day be clouds and rain, 

 Winter is gone and will not come again." * 



I must also call attention to the remarkable prejudice against 

 Leap-year, a prejudice as common and as widely spread as it 

 is unfounded. It is popularly supposed that neither children nor 

 domestic animals born in that year will thrive, and that neither 



• There are other well-known proverbs founded on the state of the weather at this festival, as :— 



" If Candlemas day be fair and clear, 

 There'll be two winters in the year." 



" When the wind's in the East on Candlemas day 

 There it will stick till the second of May." 



And of the prevalence of cold at this period of the year :— 



"At Candlemas 

 Cold comes to us." 



As in Germany, with equally feeble rhyme :— 



" Lichtmess 

 Winter gewis." 



Other popular notions with regard to certain days might be mentioned, though not rife in this 

 county, e.g. : — 



" A good deal of rain on Easter day 



Gives a crop of good corn, but little good hay." 



"When Easter falls in our Lady's lap (March 25th), 

 Then let England beware of a rap." 



If it thunders on All Fools day (April 1st), 

 It brings good crops of corn and hay." 



Very curious too is the fancy with regard to the weather on the moveable feasts of Ascension, 

 Trinity, Pentecost, &c. : — 



" If it rain on Ascension Day ever so little, it foretells scarcity and murrain, but if it be fair, 

 then the contrary, aud fine weather to Michaelmas." 



" Ascensionis vel modicse pluvise pabuli inopiam, serenitas copiam signant." 



" S 'il pleut le jour de 1' Ascension 

 C 'est comme du poison." 



" Penticostis pluviae nil boni signant." . 



" S 'il pleut le jour de la Trinity, 

 II pleut tous les dimanches de l'annee." 



" 1st es Corporis Christi Klar 

 Bringt es uns ein gutes Jahr," 



"Corporis Chiisti serenitas laudatur." 



VOL. XV. — NO. XLIII. K 



