Brand[1] gives the verses somewhat differently:
March said to Aperill,
I see thi-ee hogs upon a hill;
But lend your first three days to me,
And I’ll be bound to gar them dee.
The first it sail be wind an’ weet,
The next it sail be snaw an’ sleet,
The third it sail be sic a freeze,
Sail gar the birds stick to the trees.
But when the borrowed days were gane,
The three silly hogs came hirplin’ hame.
A third variation, common in my native county, runs thus:
March borrowed of April
Three days, and they were ill:
The first was sleet, the second was snow,
The third was the worst day that ever did blow.
It is curious that in the country parts of Devonshire the same three days are called “blind days,” and considered unlucky for sowing any kind of seed. And it is yet more remarkable that the Highlanders have their borrowed or borrowing days, but with them February borrows from January, and bribes him with three young sheep. These first three days of February, or Faiolteach, by Highland reckoning (that is, old style), occur between February 11 and 15. And it is accounted a most favourable prognostic for the ensuing year that they should be stormy and cold.[2]
Of the next month we have the following rhyme in Durham:
Aperill,
With his hack and his bill,
Sets a flower on every hill;
or, as it runs in Yorkshire,
April comes in with his hack and his bill,
And sets a flower on every hill.
