aphis, for putting one on the back of the hand they cry, in Gaelic rhyme:
"Carlin of the whey,
Whey-pail, whey-pail,
Give me of your whey
Or I will take head and feet off you,"
and the creature leaves a drop of liquid on the hand.
The natives dread a caterpillar, said to be fatal to cows, and which they call "The clothed one," from its handsome appearance.
III.—The Weather and the Church Seasons.
In a land where there are few artificial methods of noting the progress of the year, where clocks,[1] almanacs, and newspapers are, in certain districts, practically unknown, the landmarks of time are, naturally enough, the weather and the Church seasons. The following are among the sayings most frequently heard.
"A short short month between St. Andrew's (November 30th) and Christmas." "Autumn lasts till Christmas, and Winter to St. Patrick's." "Christmas to-day, May-day to-morrow," i.e. if Christmas fall on a Monday, May-day will fall on a Tuesday.
"The calf-killer of Patrick feast," is the name given to the cold east wind, which prevails so often in the early
- ↑ When, as is not infrequent, fog and mist obscure the light, the cock, the usual time-keeper, is often much disconcerted and put out in his calculations, sometimes with curious and inconvenient results, such as the arrival of the congregation for mass at twelve instead of nine, or of failure to put out to meet some passing steamer prepared to drop passenger or cargo into a small boat in open sea. There are, however, certain of the initiated who, given a sufficiency of daylight, are wonderfully successful by the following method, which we saw practised by a fisherman. Take the sea horizon as a base, gaze fixedly at it, and place the closed fist perpendicularly on the base, then the other fist upon that, and so on alternately until a fist comes between you and the sun. The number of times you have placed the fist is the number of hours to sunset.
