POPULAR WEATHER-LORE.
JUDGED by results, the whole body of popular wisdom on the subject of weather would not have availed to predic the gale which recently filled a closely printed column of the Times with the list of wrecks upon the British coasts. But the storm-warnings issued by the Meteorological Office were duly hoisted at every station on Thursday, the 16th of November, and though too late to warn vessels already at sea, the signal was in time to deter outward-bound ships from leaving our
ports. Old-fashioned weather-lore will soon be disregarded by practical people, and reckoned among the forgotten lumber of ancient error. But it has played a large part in the practice and preoept of the past ; and the collection of proverbs, sayings, and rules concerning the weather, which Mr. Richard Inwards has just published, possesses something more than a literary and antiquarian interest.
Rainbows have been associated with weather forecast since
the ebb of the Deluge ; and in this case, at least, popular
wisdom is justified :—
" A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd's warning; A rainbow at night Is the shepherd's delight," is the commonest form of the adage ; but it appears in many shapes. The sailor's version has " dog " for rainbow, as the small rainbow near the horizon is, in nautical metaphor, the sun's dog, which runs in front of him. Sir Hum- phrey Davy explains the reason of the bad portent con- veyed by the morning rainbow. "The bow is only made when the rain-clouds are opposite to the sun." In the evening, the rainbow is in the east, in the morning, in the west ; and as our heavy rains are usually brought by a south-westerly wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the had weather is on the road, whereas the rainbow in the east shows that the rain in these clouds is passing away from us. But correct prophecy when rain is actually in sight will scarcely strengthen the cause of popular weather-lore.
Sailors have long enjoyed a reputation for weather- wisdom. But it may be doubted whether it is based on anything more than a sense of the natural fitness of things, borne out by the suggestions of a breezy costume, and an
inbred perception of the exact point of the compass from which the wind is blowing. Like the infallible almanac- makers, they are ready to prophesy, but slow to give their reasons. "The Lord alone knows, ma'am, and I couldn't tell you his wishes under a pint," the standing formula of elderly coastguards in answer to feminine inquiries as to the chances of weather for a row or a sail, is a fair specimen of nautical prescience in such matters. Seamen, with all their advantages over average landsmen, cannot see the coming storm much beyond the horizon, and though they are quick to detect the difference between a distant fog-bank and a rain- cloud, and can readily distinguish land from either, the barometer in the captain's cabin is worth the whole collection of nautical weather-wisdom. If anything, they incline to believe that weather can be made. Whistling for a wind is still a pious observance, and dead bodies, or eggs, are supposed to be equally capable of raising an opposing gale. An eccentric acquaintance of the writer, who chose to bring home from Australia a stuffed kangaroo in a long box, was the object of all kinds of hostility from the crew, who succeeded in leaving the obnoxious case behind at one of the ports of call under the hollow pretext that it was mistaken for part of another pas- senger's luggage. In the tropics, where the land and sea breezes alternate regularly, and the changes of weather are constant, or only disturbed by great commotions like hurri- canes and typhoons, the sailor shares the common knowledge of the country, with some additional acumen due to his calling. But Chaucer, the shrewdest observer of the proper excellences of common callings, does not reckon weather- . prophecy among the " shipman's " virtues. He knows,— . Of his craft to reckon well the tides, His streames, and his dangers him besyclos, His harbour, and his moon, his lode-menage; There was none such from Halle to Cartage ;
He knew well all the havens, as they were, From Gothland to the Cape of Finisterre,
And every creek in Britain and in Spain,"—
but be cauld not foretell a storm.
Some animals, especially when wild or only partially
domesticated, are aoeurate weather prophets ; but the popular version of their warnings is either too elaborate, or mixed up with a mass of nonsense and pure assertion. "When dogs eat grass it will be rainy." Dogs eat grass for medicine, especially when much tied up. So do cats, and the lions at the Zoo have green grass given them two or three times a week in spring and summer. Mr. Theodore Bent quotes a Greek saying that if a cat licks herself with her face turned towards the north, the wind will soon blow from that quarter. This belief, which seems not .confined to Greece, is another instance of the over-elaborated popular forecast. The tradition that pigs can "see the wind," that is, that they can see it when on its way, is so old and well credited, that we are glad to give some reason for this belief in powers of foresight possessed by the most intelli- gent of our domesticated animals next to the dog. The fact is that the pig, a fat and hairless animal, is extremely sensi- tive to cold. A night's easterly gale often kills pigs in a draughty stye. When swine were kept at large more than they are now, they were equally sensitive to coming changes of weather, and had habits of precaution now almost forgotten. It seems a common tradition that they would carry straw or fern to the sheds in which they slept, and make a warm bed against cold weather, which they felt to be approaching. This accounts for the saying that they "saw the wind." The " gloss" added by too ingenious observers, who noticed that some of the straw was dropped or blown away, was that the pigs threw the straw into the air to see which way the wind blew ! Donkeys braying, peacocks screaming, and bulls bellowing before rain, are part of the correct observation of rustic weather prophets. The two first are very reliable. Balls are nowhere common objects of the country-side ; but the tradition survives, and Rain, rain pouring, Sets the bulls a-roaring," is a refrain which all the Suffolk children sing when sitting on a see-saw—why at that particular time the writer knows not. Birds were the Roman peasant's weather-glass ; and though the effects of coming changes of weather on their habits depend on that which has prevailed before, they are among the best of animal barometers. The hush before a storm, except for the incessant chirping of the sparrows, is generally due to the silence of all the birds. Their demeanour is the most certain guide to the break-up of a long frost : a partial thaw never deceives them into real excitement. The first beginning of the thaw after the great frost of 1891 was very gradual ; but the partridges, which had suffered extremely, showed at once the most extravagant delight, calling, crowing, and racing over the snow from field to field in a way never Previously observed. None of the previous partial thaws had .caused any change in their demeanour.
Two of the oldest and oddest forms of popular barometers are the leech in a bottle, and the frog on a ladder. Mr. Inwards has been so fortunate as to discover an old Spanish drawing giving nine positions of the leech, with verses describing its attitude and behaviour before different kinds of weather. The movements of fish in rivers follow very closely, and often precede, changes of weather, so there is nothing improbable in supposing that the leech ma'y be affected in the same way. Its flexibility and power of sticking to the glass render ingenious inter- pretation easy, if arbitrary. Dr. Merryweather, of Whitby, contrived an apparatus by which one of twelve leeches confined in bottles rang a bell when a " tempest " was expected. He showed this in the Great Exhibition of 1851, and advised the Government to establish leech-warning stations along the coast. When leeches were kept in every chemist's shop, and often in private houses, their behaviour was the subject of constant observation ; and it was generally noticed that in still weather, dry or wet, they remained at the bottom, but rose, often as much as twenty-four hours in advance, before a change ; and, in case of a thunderstorm, rose very quickly to the surface, descending when it was past. The frog baro- meter, used in Germany and Switzerland, is a very simple apparatus, which is also popular among German-descended Americans. It conaists of a jar of water, a frog, and a little wooden step-ladder. If the frog comes out and sits on the steps, rain is expected. But the weather-glass dearest to the old- fashioned cottager in the last generation was the "old man an,d old woman," wha came out of their rough-cast cottage in foul or fair weather respectively. This was almost the earliest of semi-scientific toys, and depended on the contracting of a piece of catgut fastened to a lever. The belief that bees will not fly before a shower is probably true, and is the rational origin of the banging of trays and iron pots with a door-key when bees are going to swarm. The insects are supposed to take this for thunder, and so settle close at hand, instead of swarming at a distance. Squirting water at them with a garden- syringe often makes them settle at once. But no such ingenious process of rationalising can be found for the belief that if the insect inside cuckoo-spit lies head upwards, the summer will be dry, though the increased worrying of horses by flies before rain, and the rise of the gossamer-web before flue weather, is abundantly confirmed by observation. Animal weather prophets will never be neglected by those who can read their warnings. But of the multitude of signs in the sky, modern meteorology takes account of little beyond the move- ments of the highest clouds, the" cirrus," or mare's-tails, which float above the rest. If during bright weather these appear, moving from the north-west, with a mass of similar cloud rising in the west, a southerly gale is almost certain. So, also, if these clouds appear moving from the north, a north- wester may be predicted. But even in these limited instances it is interesting to contrast the guarded language of modern weather prophets with the positive utterances of irresponsible tradition.
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