spring. As the year goes on, and the temperature of the water becomes less chill, there is a saying:
"Brigid put a foot in it,
Mary put a hand in it,
Patrick put a stone in it."
St. Brigid's Day is on February 1st, Candlemas (February 2nd) is more temperate, and St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, takes away all the venom. St. Patrick's stone is probably a hail-stone.
The hail-stone is also called "stone of Mary." This association with the Blessed Virgin has always an endearing quality: the lark is called "the bird of Mary;" a Molucca bean, valued as a charm, the "nut of Mary;" the sea, upon whose gifts all depend more or less, is the treasury of Mary, and so on; from which one concludes that the appearance of hail has in it something not wholly unwelcome.
There is a rhyme said about the time of St. Patrick's feast-day which is sometimes quoted as a charm against serpents:
"Patrick's feast-day—half of spring,
Ivar's daughter will come out of the hole.
I will not 'be at' (hurt) Ivar's daughter,
No more will she 'be at' me."
However, as there are no serpents in the islands, an explanation suggested by Father Allan strikes one as far more probable. As is well known, the common nettle always tends to spring up around the places occupied, or which have been occupied, by man, and however carefully extirpated it is one of the most common of the many weeds which grow in the crevices of the houses and byres both indoors and out, and the appearance of its first tender leaves is hailed as one of the first signs of spring. What the phrase "Ivar's daughter" may mean it is interesting to inquire, but the hint that she does no harm if let alone might well point to the conduct of the common nettle.
One of the feasts most regarded, especially in earlier
