Part 74

(i) So many days old the moon on Michaelmas Day (Sept. 29th), so many floods after.

(j) Michaelmas chickens and parsons' daughters never come to good.

OCTOBER

October is so called from being the eighth month in the old Latin calendar.

ALL HALLOW E'EN.--Hallow E'en, the vigil of All Saints' Day, was wont to be a season of merry gathering and quaint observances, especially where lovers were concerned. It is still kept up with great success in Scotland. Propitious omens were sought. Nuts, for instance, were burnt in pairs. If they lay still and burned together, it meant a happy marriage, but if they flew apart, the lovers would not live in harmony. All sorts of charms were practised. Girls pared apples and sought to discern an initial in the shape the peel assumed. The apple had to be peeled in one strip without any break, and the whole strip was then thrown over the left shoulder. Also, they stuck an apple pip on each cheek, and that which fell off first indicated that the love of him whose name it bore was unsound.

The customs varied with the locality, but many of them were not unlike the rites of St. Valentine's Day. Burns's poem enshrined most of the Scottish practices, such as throwing a ball of blue yarn into a kiln, winding it in a new one off the old, and, as the end was approached, the maiden enquired, "Who holds?" and a voice from the kiln-pot gave her the name of her future spouse.

Some girls took a candle into a dark room and peered into a looking glass while they ate an apple or combed their hair, and saw the face of their true love looking over their shoulder. Others went out into the garden in couples, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pulled the first kail-runt or plant they came to. According to its being big or little, straight or crooked, it was regarded as prophetic of the kind of man they would marry. If the heart of the stem was soft or hard, so would be the man's nature, and, if any earth adhered to the root, it signified "tocher" or fortune.

October prophecies:--

(a) If October brings much frost and wind, Then are January and February mild.

(b) Dry your barley in October and you will always be sober.

(c) In October manure your field, And your land its wealth shall yield.

(d) October never has more than fifteen fine days.

NOVEMBER

November was the ninth month according to the old Latin calendar. It was known as Wint Monat, or wind month, by the Saxons, as the stormy weather then experienced prevented the Vikings putting to sea and attacking their shores. It was sometimes called Blot Monat, or blood month, as it was then customary to kill large numbers of cattle and salt them for winter use.

November prophecies:

(a) If ducks do slide at Hollantide (Nov. 11th), At Christmas they will swim. If ducks do swim at Hollantide, At Christmas they will slide.

(b) At St. Martin's Day (Nov. 11th), Winter is on the way.

(c) Set trees at Allhallo'n-tide (Nov. 1st), and command them to grow. Set them at Candlemas (Feb. 2nd) and beg them to prosper.

(d) Where the wind is on Martinmas Eve, (Nov. 10th), there it will be for the rest of the winter.

(e) If there be ice that will bear a duck before Martinmas (Nov. 11th), there will be none that will bear a goose all the winter.

(f) Wind north-west at Martinmas (Nov. 11th), severe winter to come.

(g) As at Catherine (Nov. 25th), foul or fair, so will be the next February.

DECEMBER

Decem means ten and December was the tenth month of the early Roman calendar. Probably it has had more names conferred upon it than any other of the twelve months. Among the Saxons, it was originally Winter Monat, but after their conversion to Christianity, it was Heligh Monat, or holy month, in honor of the birth of Christ.

December proverbs:

(a) December frost and January flood, Never boded the husbandman good.

(b) Frost on the shortest day (Dec. 22nd) indicates a severe winter.

(c) The day of St. Thomas, the blessed divine Is good for brewing, baking and killing fat swine. (St. Thomas's Day is Dec. 21st.)