Chapter 12

The frog has changed his yellow vest,And in a russet coat is dressed.

The frog has changed his yellow vest,

And in a russet coat is dressed.

Air.

Though June, the air is cold and still,

Blackbird.

The mellow blackbird’s voice is shrill;

Dog.

My dog, so altered in his taste,Quits mutton-bones on grass to feast;

My dog, so altered in his taste,

Quits mutton-bones on grass to feast;

Rooks.

And see yon rooks, how odd their flight,They imitate the gliding kite,And seem precipitate to fallAs if they felt the piercing ball.’Twill surely rain; I see, with sorrow,Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.(Dr. Janner.)

And see yon rooks, how odd their flight,

They imitate the gliding kite,

And seem precipitate to fall

As if they felt the piercing ball.

’Twill surely rain; I see, with sorrow,

Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.

(Dr. Janner.)

Wind.

Ere the rising winds begin to roar,

Sea.

The working seas advance to wash the shore;

Trees.

Soft whispers run along the leafy woods,

Mountains.

And mountains whistle to the murmuring floods.

Waves.

E’en then the doubtful billows scarce abstainFrom the tossed vessel on the troubled main

E’en then the doubtful billows scarce abstain

From the tossed vessel on the troubled main

Cormorants.

When crying cormorants forsake the seaAnd, stretching, to the covert wing their way;

When crying cormorants forsake the sea

And, stretching, to the covert wing their way;

Coots.

When sportful coots run skimming o’er the strand;

Herons.

When watchful herons leave their watery strand,And mounting upwards, with erected flight,Gain on the skies and soar above the sight;

When watchful herons leave their watery strand,

And mounting upwards, with erected flight,

Gain on the skies and soar above the sight;

Meteors.

And oft before tempestuous winds ariseThe seeming stars fall headlong from the skies,And, shooting through the darkness, gild the nightWith sweeping glories and long trains of light;

And oft before tempestuous winds arise

The seeming stars fall headlong from the skies,

And, shooting through the darkness, gild the night

With sweeping glories and long trains of light;

Chaff.

And chaff with eddy winds is whirled around,

Leaves.

And dancing leaves are lifted from the ground,

Feathers.

And floating feathers on the waters play;

Thunder.

But when the winged thunder takes his wayFrom the cold north, and east and west engage,And at their frontiers meet with equal rage,The clouds are crushed; a glut of gathered rainThe hollow ditches fills and floats the plain,And sailors furl their dripping sheets amain.

But when the winged thunder takes his way

From the cold north, and east and west engage,

And at their frontiers meet with equal rage,

The clouds are crushed; a glut of gathered rain

The hollow ditches fills and floats the plain,

And sailors furl their dripping sheets amain.

Rain.

Wet weather seldom hurts the most unwise—So plain the signs, such prophets are the skies;

Wet weather seldom hurts the most unwise—

So plain the signs, such prophets are the skies;

Crane.

The wary crane foresees it first, and sailsAbove the storm and leaves the lowly vales;

The wary crane foresees it first, and sails

Above the storm and leaves the lowly vales;

Cow.

The cow looks up, and from afar can findThe change of heaven, and snuffs it in the wind;

The cow looks up, and from afar can find

The change of heaven, and snuffs it in the wind;

Swallow.

The swallow skims the river’s watery face;

Frogs.

The frogs renew the croaks of their loquacious race;

Ant.

The careful ant her secret cell forsakes,And drags her eggs along the narrow tracks.

The careful ant her secret cell forsakes,

And drags her eggs along the narrow tracks.

Rainbow.

At either horn the rainbow drinks the flood.

Rooks.

Huge flocks of rising rooks forsake their food,And, crying, seek the shelter of the wood.

Huge flocks of rising rooks forsake their food,

And, crying, seek the shelter of the wood.

Water-fowl.

Besides the several sorts of watery fowlsThat swim the seas or haunt the standing pools,

Besides the several sorts of watery fowls

That swim the seas or haunt the standing pools,

Swans.

The swans that sail along the silvery floods,And dive with stretching necks to search their food,Then lave their backs with sprinkling dews in vain,And stem the stream to meet the promised rain;

The swans that sail along the silvery floods,

And dive with stretching necks to search their food,

Then lave their backs with sprinkling dews in vain,

And stem the stream to meet the promised rain;

Crow.

The crow, with clamorous cries, the shower demands,And single stalks along the desert sands;

The crow, with clamorous cries, the shower demands,

And single stalks along the desert sands;

Stars.

The stars shine smarter, and the moon adorns

Moon.

As with inborrowed beams her sharpened horns;

Gossamer.

The filmy gossamer now flits no more,

Halcyons.

Nor halcyons bask on the short sunny shore;

Swine.

Their litter is not tossed by sows unclean,

Mist.

But a blue, droughty mist descends upon the plain,

Owls.

And owls that mark the setting sun declareA starlight evening and a morning fair.

And owls that mark the setting sun declare

A starlight evening and a morning fair.

Hawk and Lark.

Towering aloft, avenging Nisus flies,While dared below the guilty Scylla lies;Wherever frightened Scylla flies awaySwift Nisus follows and pursues his prey;Where injured Nisus takes his airy course,Then trembling Scylla flies and shuns his course.This punishment pursues the unhappy maid,And thus the purple hair is dearly paid.

Towering aloft, avenging Nisus flies,

While dared below the guilty Scylla lies;

Wherever frightened Scylla flies away

Swift Nisus follows and pursues his prey;

Where injured Nisus takes his airy course,

Then trembling Scylla flies and shuns his course.

This punishment pursues the unhappy maid,

And thus the purple hair is dearly paid.

Ravens.

Then thrice the ravens rend the liquid air,And croaking notes proclaim the settled fair;Then ’round their airy palaces they flyTo greet the sun; and, seized with secret joy,When storms are overblown, with food repairTo their forsaken nests and callow care.Not that I think their breasts with heavenly soulsInspired, as man who destiny controls;But, with the changeful temper of the skies,As rains condense and sunshine rarefies,So turn the species in their altered minds,Composed by calms and discomposed by winds.

Then thrice the ravens rend the liquid air,

And croaking notes proclaim the settled fair;

Then ’round their airy palaces they fly

To greet the sun; and, seized with secret joy,

When storms are overblown, with food repair

To their forsaken nests and callow care.

Not that I think their breasts with heavenly souls

Inspired, as man who destiny controls;

But, with the changeful temper of the skies,

As rains condense and sunshine rarefies,

So turn the species in their altered minds,

Composed by calms and discomposed by winds.

Birds.

From hence proceeds the bird’s harmonious voice,

Cows and Lambs.

From hence the cows exult and frisking lambs rejoice.

(Virgil.)

Goose-bone.

When the goose-bone exposed to air turns blue, it indicates rain.

When the goose-bone exposed to air retains its color, expect clear weather.

Gossamer.

In crossing the channel from Calais to Dover, I have observed that captains of vessels have sometimes foreboded fine settled weather from the settling on the masts and rigging of a certain sort of web which we take to be the woof of some spider, though we have observed it to alight on the ships when some way out at sea. (Forster.)

Guitar Strings.

Guitar strings shorten before rain.

Headaches.

Headaches often indicate a change of weather in persons subject to such complaints. Indeed, most periodical disorders seem to be connected with some atmospheric changes. And it is very remarkable that they should so often have their worst paroxysms and the crisis of their terms about the time of the conjunction and theopposition of the moon. (Forster.)

Hills.

Distant hills appear to be near just before rain.

Horses.

Horses sweating in the stable is a sign of rain.

Human Hair.

Human hair (red) curls and kinks at the approach of a storm and restraightens after the storm.

Indications of Clouds.

After fine weather the first signs in the sky of a coming change are usually light streaks, curls, wisps, or mottled patches of white distant clouds, which increase and are followed by an overcasting or murky vapor that grows into cloudiness.

Lamp Wicks.

Lamp wicks crackle, candles burn dim, soot falls down, smoke descends, walls and pavements are damp, and disagreeable odors arise from ditches and gutters before rain.

Excrescence forming about wicks of lamps and candles, which consume their fuel slowly, indicate rain.

The nightly virgin while her wheel she pliesForesees the storm impending in the skiesWhen sparkling lamps their sputtering lights advance,And in their sockets oily bubbles dance.

The nightly virgin while her wheel she plies

Foresees the storm impending in the skies

When sparkling lamps their sputtering lights advance,

And in their sockets oily bubbles dance.

Lamps, from the manner in which they burn, forebode weather. Before rain they burn less bright, the flame snaps and crackles, and a sort of fungous excrescence grows from the wicks, which Virgil was mindful to put among his prognostics of rain and wind. From this indicatorial property of the burning lights arose many superstitions relating to them, as the blue color of the flame being a sign of ghost and death, and so on, of which the following explanation is already offered in the Perennial Calendar:

“Numerous were the omens attached by credulous persons in former days to the manner in which candles burnt, and particularly to their flames. When they burned blue, it was accounted ill luck, or else that some ghostly apparition was announced. Now when the brain and nervous system are in a certain state peculiarly favorable to spectral illusions, the imagination may easily color the flame of a candle, without its really changing its tint; just as, in fevers, people see spots of color on the wall, or imagine insects on the bedclothes. For the same morbid condition of the animal system which may cause persons to see the spectral prognostic, would in this case cause them to behold the subsequent phantom, and thus the omen and its awful consequence would be viewed together to the support of superstition. Besides this, the particular mode of burning observed in the wicks of lamps and candles is really found to be caused by atmospherical peculiarities, and is a sure sign of rain.” (Forster’s Encyclopædia of Natural Phenomena.)

Light.

Refractions of light of any remarkable kind frequently forebode rain, sometimes storms; at sea the knowledge of this is very useful. Circles around the sun and moon, mock suns, and other phenomena of this kind, together with the unusual elevation of distant coasts, masts of ships, &c., particularly when the refracted images are inverted, are known to be frequent foreboders of stormy weather.

Long Island.

When Long Island comes up the harbor, expect a storm. (Connecticut.)

Lumen Lambens.

Lumen Lambens is an electric light seen about plants of a summer evening, of which the particular indications as to the coming weather have not been yet accurately discovered.

Matting.

The matting on the floor is shrinking, dry weather may be expected. When matting expands, expect wet weather.

Marigold.

When the marigold remains closed after 7 p. m., expect rain.

Night Clearing.

After a wet day the whole sky often clears at night. This is not a certain sign of fair weather. The clouds may, and often do, form just as heavily after sunrise next morning.

Oak Trees.

When oak trees bend in January, good crops may be expected.

Ocean.

There are various prognostics deducible from the appearance of the ocean. When the surface of the sea is rough without any wind blowing at the time, expect a gale before long; for the wind already blowing in some distant part of the ocean is the cause of the swell imparted to the sea.

Pavements.

If pavements appear rusty or if stoves or iron or steel rust during the night, rain may be expected soon.

Pipes.

Pipes for smoking tobacco become indicative of the state of the air. When the scent is longer retained than usual, and seems denser and more powerful, it often forebodes rain and wind.

Rain.

The greater distinctness of distant objects indicates rain. The air grows clear and distant objects are seen more clearly just before rain.

Rigging Rope.

The rigging rope on vessels and clothes lines grows slack before rain.

Rheumatic.

Rheumatic pains indicate bad weather.

Rocks.

Rocks sweat before rain.

Ropes.

Ropes difficult to untwist indicate bad weather.

Salt.

Saline impregnations deliquesce before rain. Salts become damp before rain.

Shifts of Wind.

The most dangerous shifts of wind or the heaviest northerly gales happen soon after the barometer first rises from a very low point, or, if the wind veers gradually, at some time afterwards.

Smoke.

Smoke frequently indicates the state of the air. A person being accustomed to take his pipe early in the morning will have occasion to observe that when the smoke hangs a long while in the air, and scents the place around where he has been smoking, a good hunting day always follows. (Forster.)

Smoke falling to the ground indicates rain.

Smoke ascending indicates clear weather.

When smoke rises from the bottom lands and goes to the mountain, expect an early winter. (Apache Indians.)

When the sun presses the smoke out of chimneys, foul weather follows.

When the smoke in clear weather rises vertically from the chimney, the weather will remain clear.

Snow.

If snow falls in flakes which increase in size, expect a thaw.

Soap.

Soap covered with moisture indicates bad weather.

Soot.

When in cold weather the soot falls from the chimney, the weather will change.

Falling soot indicates bad weather.

Soot burning on back of chimney indicates storms.

When the soot on pots over the fire sparkles, rain follows.

Sound.

Sound travelling far and wideA stormy day will betide.

Sound travelling far and wide

A stormy day will betide.

When on calm days the sound is carried far, rain follows.

Sounds.

Distant sounds heard with distinctness during the day indicate rain.

Stones.

Quarries of stone and slate indicate rain by a moist exudation from the stones. This seems analogous to the dampness on stones, stone steps, and ornaments, both of stone and of metal, before rain and in damp weather.

Stones sweating in the afternoon, the springs running flusher (commonly called earth sweat), such are atmospheric indications of rain.

Stringed Instruments.

Stringed instruments giving forth clear, ringing sounds indicate fair weather.

Storm.

It moderates to storm.

Stomach.

This organ in persons of weak and irritable constitutions is often deranged at the change of the weather, and its digestive powers are more under atmospherical influence than people are commonly aware of. Before storms it is particularly liable to uneasy sensations.

Sweating Stones.

A sweating stone indicates rain.

Sweating Wall.

A sweating wall indicates rain.

Tables and Chairs.

The cracking of tables and chairs indicates rain or frost.

Thunder.

Abundance depends upon sour milk; meaning that thunder-storms aid crops.

Thunder-storms almost always occur when the weather is hot for the season; they are generally caused by a cold wind coming over a place where the air is much heated. They do not cool the air; it is the wind that brings them which makes the weather cooler. If a thunder-storm comes up from the east, the weather will not be cooler after it. This will not happen till another storm comes up from the west. Thunder-storms are more violent the greater the difference of temperature between the two currents of wind which produce them.

Toothache.

Toothache is often a forerunner of some change of weather, like other pains, and particularly that species which depends on inflammation of a diseased socket or gum. In certain kinds of weather, and particularly before rain or showers, decayed teeth and diseased gums are very uneasy, and the pain often ceases when the rain begins to fall. The periods of that sort of toothache which depends on the exposure of the nerve in the cavity of the tooth seem to exist independently of any particular weather, and occur most frequently during the night, when the patient first gets warm in bed. The progress of this sort of toothache is often as follows: The pain after awhile becomes continuous instead of being periodical, and by degrees subsides, but the socket then and ultimately the gum become diseased, and are thence liable to be affected by the state of the weather above described. (Forster’s Encyclopædia of Natural Phenomena.)

Tortoises.

Tortoises creep deep into the ground so as to completely conceal themselves from view when a severe winter is to follow. When a mild winter is to follow they go down just far enough to protect the opening of their shells.

Trees.

Trees snapping and cracking in the fall indicates cold weather.

Vernal Equinox.

If the wind is northeast at vernal equinox, it will be a good seasonfor wheat and a poor one for corn; but if south or southwest, it will be good for corn and bad for wheat.

Walls.

When in cold weather the walls begin to show dampness, the weather changes.

Water Bubbles.

When water bubbles from the ground, expect rain on the following day.

Wells.

Water rising in wells and springs indicates approaching rain.

Wet and Dry.

Dust in the wheat and dab in the oats—that is, sow wheat in dry weather and sow oats at any time, even in wind.

Wheat and Corn.

If the spring is dry, sow wheat; if it is wet, plant corn.

Wind.

The whirling wind the dust obeys,And in the rapid eddy plays.

The whirling wind the dust obeys,

And in the rapid eddy plays.

Winter Storms.

In winter, after the prevalence of easterly winds, if the barometer begins to fall and the thermometer to rise, a gale which commences to blow from the southeast will veer to southwest, while the barometer falls constantly. As soon as the wind passes the southwest point the barometer begins to rise, a heavy shower of rain falls, and a strong west-northwest or northwest wind may follow, after which the sky clears and the weather becomes colder.

Winter Storm.

If in winter the barometer rises very high, and a thick fog sets in, it is a sure sign that the southwest and northeast winds are “fighting each other.” Neither of them can make head against the other, and there is a calm, but there is a great danger of such a state or things being followed by a bad gale.

Winter.

Six weeks from the time snow is seen on Mount Mansfield, winter comes to stay.

Wood Fire.

Wood-fire coals frequently snuffing during the winter months foretell snow.

269 West Eleventh Street,New York City, October 16, 1882.SergeantNewlin,U. S. S. Office,Cleveland, Ohio:

269 West Eleventh Street,New York City, October 16, 1882.

269 West Eleventh Street,

New York City, October 16, 1882.

SergeantNewlin,U. S. S. Office,Cleveland, Ohio:

SergeantNewlin,U. S. S. Office,

Cleveland, Ohio:

Dear Sir: I send with this two selections, taken as stated. Although, perhaps, not quite what you seek, there may be enough in them to warrant your perusing. As to their fitness for the purposes you demand I leave to you.

Trusting they may not be unacceptable, I am, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,CHAS. WARD RAYMOND.

Your obedient servant,

CHAS. WARD RAYMOND.

The following poems are, perhaps, more curious than interesting. They afford, however, some idea of the superstitious dread with which the advent of Christmas day must have been regarded in these early times, not merely by the vulgar, but by all classes of our forefathers, for the Francis Moores and Raphaels of the fifteenth century found even kings willing believers in their extravagant predictions. From the allusions in each verse of the first poem to the risks that those who steal subject themselves to, one would almost suppose thieving to have been the fashionable vice of the age, practiced alike by both rich and poor, and that there was great need of such injunctions against it.

Both of these poems are from the same Harleian MS. in the British Museum (No. 2252, fols. 153–4). Christmas with the poets. London. David Bogue, 86 Fleet street. 1855.

Lordlings, all of you I warn:If the day that Christ was bornFall upon a Sunday,The winter shall be good I say,But great winds aloft shall be;The summer shall be fair and dry.By kind skill and without loss,Through all lands there shall be peace,Good time for all things to be done,But he that stealeth shall be found soon;What child that day born may be,A great lord he shall live to be.If Christmas day on Monday be,A great winter that year you’ll see.And full of winds, both loud and shrill,But in the summer, truth to tell,Stern winds shall there 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 mean,They shall be strong each one and keen.He shall be found that stealeth ought,Though thou be sick thou dieth not.If Christmas day on Tuesday be,That year shall many women die,And that winter grow great marvels;Ships shall be in great perils.That year shall kings and lords be slain,And many other people near them;A dry summer that year shall be,As all that are born therein may see;They shall be strong and covetous.If thou steal aught, thou losest thy life,For thou shalt die through sword or knifeBut if thou fall sick ’tis certainThou shalt turn to life again.If Christmas day, the truth to say,Fall upon a Wednesday,There shall be a hard winter and strong,With many hideous winds among.The summer merry and good shall be,And that year wheat in great plenty;Young folks shall die that year, also,And ships at sea shall have great woe.Whatever child that day born is,He shall be doughty and gay, I wis,And wise and crafty also of deed,And find many in clothes and bread.If Christmas day on Thursday beA windy winter you shall see;Windy weather in each week,And hard tempests strong and thick.The summer shall be good and dry,Corn and beasts shall multiply;That year is good lands for to till;Kings and princes shall die by skill.If a child that day born should be,It shall happen right well for thee;Of deeds he shall be good and stable,Wise of speech and reasonable.Whoso that day goes thieving about,He shall be punished without doubt;And if sickness that day betideIt shall quickly from thee glide.If Christmas day on Friday be,The first of winter hard shall be;With frost and snow, and with great flood,But the end thereof it shall be good.Again, the summer shall be good also;Folk in their eyes shall have great woe;Women with child, beasts, and corn,Shall multiply and be lost none.The child that is born on that day,Shall live long and lecherous be alway.Who stealeth ought shall be found out;If thou be sick it lasteth not.If Christmas day on Saturday fall,That winter’s to be dreaded by all;It shall be so full of great tempest,That it shall slay both man and beast;Great store shall fail of fruit and corn,And old folk die many a one.What woman that day of child doth travail,She shall give birth in great peril;And children born that day by faith,In half a year shall meet with death.The summer shall be wet and ill;Thou shalt suffer if aught thou steal;Thou diest of sickness do thee take.

Lordlings, all of you I warn:

If the day that Christ was born

Fall upon a Sunday,

The winter shall be good I say,

But great winds aloft shall be;

The summer shall be fair and dry.

By kind skill and without loss,

Through all lands there shall be peace,

Good time for all things to be done,

But he that stealeth shall be found soon;

What child that day born may be,

A great lord he shall live to be.

If Christmas day on Monday be,A great winter that year you’ll see.And full of winds, both loud and shrill,But in the summer, truth to tell,Stern winds shall there 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 mean,They shall be strong each one and keen.He shall be found that stealeth ought,Though thou be sick thou dieth not.

If Christmas day on Monday be,

A great winter that year you’ll see.

And full of winds, both loud and shrill,

But in the summer, truth to tell,

Stern winds shall there 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 mean,

They shall be strong each one and keen.

He shall be found that stealeth ought,

Though thou be sick thou dieth not.

If Christmas day on Tuesday be,That year shall many women die,And that winter grow great marvels;Ships shall be in great perils.That year shall kings and lords be slain,And many other people near them;A dry summer that year shall be,As all that are born therein may see;They shall be strong and covetous.If thou steal aught, thou losest thy life,For thou shalt die through sword or knifeBut if thou fall sick ’tis certainThou shalt turn to life again.

If Christmas day on Tuesday be,

That year shall many women die,

And that winter grow great marvels;

Ships shall be in great perils.

That year shall kings and lords be slain,

And many other people near them;

A dry summer that year shall be,

As all that are born therein may see;

They shall be strong and covetous.

If thou steal aught, thou losest thy life,

For thou shalt die through sword or knife

But if thou fall sick ’tis certain

Thou shalt turn to life again.

If Christmas day, the truth to say,Fall upon a Wednesday,There shall be a hard winter and strong,With many hideous winds among.The summer merry and good shall be,And that year wheat in great plenty;Young folks shall die that year, also,And ships at sea shall have great woe.Whatever child that day born is,He shall be doughty and gay, I wis,And wise and crafty also of deed,And find many in clothes and bread.

If Christmas day, the truth to say,

Fall upon a Wednesday,

There shall be a hard winter and strong,

With many hideous winds among.

The summer merry and good shall be,

And that year wheat in great plenty;

Young folks shall die that year, also,

And ships at sea shall have great woe.

Whatever child that day born is,

He shall be doughty and gay, I wis,

And wise and crafty also of deed,

And find many in clothes and bread.

If Christmas day on Thursday beA windy winter you shall see;Windy weather in each week,And hard tempests strong and thick.The summer shall be good and dry,Corn and beasts shall multiply;That year is good lands for to till;Kings and princes shall die by skill.If a child that day born should be,It shall happen right well for thee;Of deeds he shall be good and stable,Wise of speech and reasonable.Whoso that day goes thieving about,He shall be punished without doubt;And if sickness that day betideIt shall quickly from thee glide.

If Christmas day on Thursday be

A windy winter you shall see;

Windy weather in each week,

And hard tempests strong and thick.

The summer shall be good and dry,

Corn and beasts shall multiply;

That year is good lands for to till;

Kings and princes shall die by skill.

If a child that day born should be,

It shall happen right well for thee;

Of deeds he shall be good and stable,

Wise of speech and reasonable.

Whoso that day goes thieving about,

He shall be punished without doubt;

And if sickness that day betide

It shall quickly from thee glide.

If Christmas day on Friday be,The first of winter hard shall be;With frost and snow, and with great flood,But the end thereof it shall be good.Again, the summer shall be good also;Folk in their eyes shall have great woe;Women with child, beasts, and corn,Shall multiply and be lost none.The child that is born on that day,Shall live long and lecherous be alway.Who stealeth ought shall be found out;If thou be sick it lasteth not.

If Christmas day on Friday be,

The first of winter hard shall be;

With frost and snow, and with great flood,

But the end thereof it shall be good.

Again, the summer shall be good also;

Folk in their eyes shall have great woe;

Women with child, beasts, and corn,

Shall multiply and be lost none.

The child that is born on that day,

Shall live long and lecherous be alway.

Who stealeth ought shall be found out;

If thou be sick it lasteth not.

If Christmas day on Saturday fall,That winter’s to be dreaded by all;It shall be so full of great tempest,That it shall slay both man and beast;Great store shall fail of fruit and corn,And old folk die many a one.What woman that day of child doth travail,She shall give birth in great peril;And children born that day by faith,In half a year shall meet with death.The summer shall be wet and ill;Thou shalt suffer if aught thou steal;Thou diest of sickness do thee take.

If Christmas day on Saturday fall,

That winter’s to be dreaded by all;

It shall be so full of great tempest,

That it shall slay both man and beast;

Great store shall fail of fruit and corn,

And old folk die many a one.

What woman that day of child doth travail,

She shall give birth in great peril;

And children born that day by faith,

In half a year shall meet with death.

The summer shall be wet and ill;

Thou shalt suffer if aught thou steal;

Thou diest of sickness do thee take.

II.

If Christmas day on the Sunday be,A troublous winter ye shall see,Mingled with waters strong;Good there shall be without fable,For the summer shall be reasonable,With storms at times among.Wines that year shall all be good,The harvest shall be wet with flood,Pestilence shall fall on many a country;Ere that sickness shall have past,And while great tempests last,Many young people dead shall be.Princes that year with iron shall die,There shall be changing of many lords high,Amongst knights great debate,Many tidings shall come to men,Many wives shall be weeping then,Both of poor and great estate.The faith shall then be hurt truly,For divers points of heresyThat shall then appear,Through the tempting of the fiend;And divers matters unkind,Shall bring great danger near.Cattle shall thrive one and the other,Save oxen, they shall kill each other;And some beasts they shall die;Both fruit and corn will not be good,Apples will be scarce for food,And ships shall suffer on the sea.That year on Monday, without fearingAll things well thou mayst begin,They shall be profitable;Children that on this day are born,I’ faith shall mighty be and strong,Of wit full reasonable.

If Christmas day on the Sunday be,A troublous winter ye shall see,Mingled with waters strong;Good there shall be without fable,For the summer shall be reasonable,With storms at times among.

If Christmas day on the Sunday be,

A troublous winter ye shall see,

Mingled with waters strong;

Good there shall be without fable,

For the summer shall be reasonable,

With storms at times among.

Wines that year shall all be good,The harvest shall be wet with flood,Pestilence shall fall on many a country;Ere that sickness shall have past,And while great tempests last,Many young people dead shall be.

Wines that year shall all be good,

The harvest shall be wet with flood,

Pestilence shall fall on many a country;

Ere that sickness shall have past,

And while great tempests last,

Many young people dead shall be.

Princes that year with iron shall die,There shall be changing of many lords high,Amongst knights great debate,Many tidings shall come to men,Many wives shall be weeping then,Both of poor and great estate.

Princes that year with iron shall die,

There shall be changing of many lords high,

Amongst knights great debate,

Many tidings shall come to men,

Many wives shall be weeping then,

Both of poor and great estate.

The faith shall then be hurt truly,For divers points of heresyThat shall then appear,Through the tempting of the fiend;And divers matters unkind,Shall bring great danger near.

The faith shall then be hurt truly,

For divers points of heresy

That shall then appear,

Through the tempting of the fiend;

And divers matters unkind,

Shall bring great danger near.

Cattle shall thrive one and the other,Save oxen, they shall kill each other;And some beasts they shall die;Both fruit and corn will not be good,Apples will be scarce for food,And ships shall suffer on the sea.

Cattle shall thrive one and the other,

Save oxen, they shall kill each other;

And some beasts they shall die;

Both fruit and corn will not be good,

Apples will be scarce for food,

And ships shall suffer on the sea.

That year on Monday, without fearingAll things well thou mayst begin,They shall be profitable;Children that on this day are born,I’ faith shall mighty be and strong,Of wit full reasonable.

That year on Monday, without fearing

All things well thou mayst begin,

They shall be profitable;

Children that on this day are born,

I’ faith shall mighty be and strong,

Of wit full reasonable.

East Wind.

A change of wind, particularly a change from any other quarter to east, makes most people feel uncomfortable, and produces headaches in persons who are subject to them. Similar changes have the most violent effects when they happen about the new or full moon. It is difficult to ascertain in what degree the directions and changes of wind are under the influence of electricity, but there are many circumstances which would incline one to believe that these changes are dependent on some similar principle to that which causes atmospheric diseases in the human body, for certain winds, as well as certain changes of wind, are known to produce epidemics in many countries where violent atmospherical complaints prevail;and in every country of the world I believe the east wind is almost proverbially unhealthy. Casual changes to east produce headache and nervous complaints, and a long-continued wind from that quarter produces an unwholesome season. Another curious thing is, that with east winds good astronomical observations cannot be made, the luminous objects seeming to dance or wave about in the field of the telescope. (Atmospheric Phenomena—Forster.)

Shooting Stars a Prognostic of Bad Weather.

The connection between shooting stars and bad weather, mentioned by many ancient writers, will appear probable if we consider certain facts established in the domain of modern science. Of all the various theories advanced to explain this startling phenomenon (termed meteor, fire-ball, shooting-star, moon-stone, sun-stone), that seems to be the most probable which considers them planetary bodies of very small size, circulating in an orbit round the sun, as our earth, and getting into that of the latter, entangled by her attraction, which occasionally brings down some of them upon her surface. Numerous planetary bodies, called Ceres, Pallas, &c., exist between Mars and Jupiter, and similar bodies of smaller dimensions may exist between the earth and its neighbors in the solar system.

Periodicy is a great fact in cosmical arrangements, and this phenomenon of shooting stars, &c., is strikingly periodical. Induced, apparently, by certain popular weather maxims among the French, M. C. St. Claire Deville has investigated the subject, and his conclusions are positive as to the “perturbations of the earth’s temperature,” coincident with the phenomenon as noticed from time immemorial in about the first fortnight of February, May, August, and November. M. Deville even ventures upon general conclusions from the fact. He says: “Do not all these considerations almost necessarily lead us to infer the influence of these critical periods, by their sudden variations of temperature, not only on the health of the vegetable creation, but that of the human race? Should we not examine the registers of hospitals, to see if certain diseases are not more frequent on certain days of certain years? Can we not even go back to the past and see, in the history and chronicles of past ages, if there are some traces of periodicy in certain great perturbations in the health of nations like the two invasions of cholera, which perhaps by chance occurred in 1832 and in 1849, about the center of the two critical periods, and which came from the north like the aurora borealis, since it seems, also, that it is these great atmospheric waves that propagate the perturbations of temperature?” In confirmation of this view we may notice the cattle plague, and the cholera still hovering over us and likely to recommence its ravages.

Professor Erman, of Berlin, writing to Arago, in 1840, said that “the two swarms or currents of asteroids (planetary bodies) which the earth meets on the ecliptic, respectively, about the 10th of August and the 13th of November, annually intervene between the earth and the sun, the first in the days between the 5th and 11th of February, the second from the 10th to 15th of May. Each of these conjunctions annually causes at those dates a very remarkable extinction of the heating ray of the sun, and thereby lowers the temperature at all points of the surface of the globe.”

With respect to the November display of the phenomenon, it appears that its maximum was in 1799 and in 1833. Since then it has almost entirely ceased, but according to the prediction of Olbers it will resume the ascendant in 1867. Humboldt and others have reported on these displays, but that of the night of the 12th and 13th of November, 1833, in the United States, as described by Olmstead, needs only to be mentioned for our present purpose. No less than 300,000 masses, forming parts of the solar system, passed through that part of our terrestrial atmosphere which was visible at Boston, Mass.

“It was supposed that they were only stopped in the atmosphere and prevented from reaching the earth by transferring their motion to columns of air, large volumes of which they would suddenly and violently displace.

“It was remarked that the state of the weather and the condition of the seasons following this meteoric shower were just such as might have been anticipated from these disturbing circumstances of the atmospheric equilibrium.”

M. C. Gravier believes that meteors show the direction of the coming wind; that their slow motion foretells a calm to ensue, or to continue if it exists; in fact, he says they are our weather-cocks and anemometers in the upper regions of the sky. He predicts that the rest of the present year (1866) will be more dry than wet, and the temperature above the average.

Our object in this article is merely to draw attention to the critical periods. It is obvious that if the passage of these meteors take place by day we cannot see them, so that their non-appearance is no reason why we should not be on our guard. From a list of storms obligingly given us by the meteorologic office as having in past years occurred at or about some of the periods we have named, and from our own investigations, we believe that the subject is worthy of attention, suggestive of caution at those critical periods, and altogether deserving a more lengthy consideration than we can give it in our limited space on this occasion.

During the great Barbadoes hurricane, August 10, 1831, fiery meteors fell perpendicularly from a vast height. The correspondence of the date, August 10th, is striking, and all are familiar with the great “November Atmospheric Wave,” and its storms, especially the great Crimean hurricane of disastrous memory (November 14, 1855). (Manual of Weathercasts, by Andrew Steinmetz.)

The following interesting report relative to weather prognostics of the Zuñi Indians was furnished by Mr. G. H. Cushing, assistant ethnologist of the Smithsonian Institution:

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