Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-01-03
WEATHER PROVERBS
iANY, BASED ON OBSERVATION,
ARE RELIABLE.
Not All the Familiar Verses DEALING
with meteorological Subjects Are
Absurdities-Some Notable
Exceptions.

The agriculturist and the husband
man, and indeed all those whose CON
utions of life force them to rely upon
he soil for the means of subsistence.
are so dependent upon the changes Of
emperature and the alterations of
oul and fair, wet and dry, that it is
not surprising that questions regard
ing the weather should from time i'm
memorial have been made a subject
) or particular attention. Long. there
/ ore. before there was any meteorOlog-
cal bureau to enlighten the world
! With its scientific predictions. people
mad begun to study the face of the
sky, the shifting of the wind. and the
changes of the moon. and to embody
the results of their observations i'm
rough and ready rhymes and proverbs
for the guidance of themselves and
those who should follow in their steps.
Z These opinions, as usual, found ex-
ipression in verse. For instance. there
was an old Latin stanza which was
very popular, and of which the follow
ing lines forms one of several English
versions:
1t doth betide a happy year:
II clustering winds do blow aloft
Then wars will trouble our realms full
/ oft:
And if il CHANGED to snow or rain.
Then will be dear all sorts Of grainr'
Even more important for the wealth
er-wise of the past was the 18th of
July, day which. as the feast of St.
Swithin, is even to-day by no means
'shorn of all its former reputation. In
England, at all events. it is not un-
usual to hear people of some pretense
to education, frequently in joke, per
haps, but sometimes partly in earn
est, remark that as st. Swithin's day
lis wet or dry (as the case may bel. so
for 40 days thereafter there would be
a continuance of the same kind of
weather. Thus the old rhyme ran:
st Swithin's Day. II thou dost rain
: For forty days IL will remain;
st. Swithin's Day. II thou be fair.
For forty days twill rain no more"
The commonly accepted explanation
of this ancient and widespread super
istition is too curious to be omitted.
though its value, even as tradition.
has been authoritatively impugned.
st. Swithin was a bishop of Winches-
ter, who, after his death in S62. was
canonized by the pope. 1t is said that
he had expressed wish to be buried
lin the open churchyard, and not, as
was usual in the case of bishops. in
the chancel of the cathedral. Some
time afterwards, however, the monks
of the establishment were seized with
a fit of pious indignation at the
thought that so great and good a man
should sleep his last sleep in so hum
bic, and, for a saint, so unseemly a
spot; and needless of his we'll remem-
bered desire, they determined to con
vey the body in great state into the
cathedral and renter It there But
just as they were on the point of
their operations a heavy rain burst
forth, which continued without inter
mission for 40 succeeding days. The
monks ever ready to regard any de-
parture from the ordinary course of
nature in a miraculous light, at once
interpreted the tempest as a special
warning from heaven, and relinquished
their ertaking-whence it is said
st. Swithin's day derived it's prophetic
character in relation to the condition
of the weather for the ensuing six
weeks.
But when our forefathers were con
tent to limit themselves to a less ex-
!tensive field OF prophetic vision-when,
instead of undertaking to settle the
weather for weeks or months before
hand, they simply attempted to pro-
vide against the changes immediately
approaching, they were ;. eat deal
more successful. Many of the wise
us upon which they placed such i'm
;plicit reliance are not to be laughed
AT or thrown aside with scorn, based
though they were, not upon scientific
data or reasoning, but on simple OBJ
lservation and experience. Everybody,
I suppose, is familiar with the curt
little verse which runs:
"A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherds warning;
A rainbow at night
Is the shepherds delight"
But not everybody who repeats it is
aware that a statement which it con
tains is capable of scientific vertical
ton. So. too. with such common
adages as
IF red the sun begins his race
Be sure the rain will fall apace."
And
Evening red and morning gray
Set the traveller on his way;
Evening gray and morning red
Bring down rain upon his head"
Are something more than old wives
fables, for they embody at least
rough approximation to establish
truth. Both of these latter proverbs
indeed, seem to be fashioned directly
upon words found in the gospel of st. !
Matthew, where we read (chapter
XVII; "In the morning, We say it will
be foul weather to-day, for the sky is