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| Winter winds at Torquay - February 2007 - MDS [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
"THE ancients observed with profound attention the natural phenomena of their time, the study of which helped them to make fairly accurate forecasts of the weather, and taught them to begin farm work and domestic affairs at the most favourable moment. They walked as it were hand in hand with nature, learning to interpret her subtle operations by marvellous intuition.
The flight of birds, the voices and actions of animals, the development of vegetation, all lent their aid to predict atmospheric changes.
Then the following traditions and proverbs were popular, and have been handed down from the earliest times.
If Christmas Day on Monday be,
A great winter that year you'll see.
And full of winds both loud and shrill ;
But in summer, truth to tell,
High winds there shall be, and strong,
Full of tempests lasting long ;
While battles they shall multiply,
And great plenty of beasts shall die.
They that be born that day, I ween,
They shall be strong each one, and keen
He shall be found that stealeth aught
Though thou be sick, thou diest not."
A great winter that year you'll see.
And full of winds both loud and shrill ;
But in summer, truth to tell,
High winds there shall be, and strong,
Full of tempests lasting long ;
While battles they shall multiply,
And great plenty of beasts shall die.
They that be born that day, I ween,
They shall be strong each one, and keen
He shall be found that stealeth aught
Though thou be sick, thou diest not."
Hewett 1900
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