Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/524

 WEATHER FOLK-LORE OF THE SEA.

HE following folk-lore on the weather has been collected for the most part from the fisher-folks along the north-east of Scotland, The village or villages in which the observation has been met with are recorded. Reference has been made to two works on folk weatherlore—viz., Signal Service Notes, No. ix; Weather Proverbs—prepared under the direction of Brigadier and Brevet Major-General W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer of the Army, by H. H. C. Dunwoody, First Lieutenant, 4th Artillery, A. S. O. and Asst., quoted as D., and On the Popular Weather Prognostics of Scotland, by Arthur Mitchell, A.M., M.D., member of Council of the Meteorological Society, etc., quoted as M.

I.—

A "low dawn"—i.e., when the rays of the sun, before the sun comes above the horizon, illuminate the clouds only a little above the horizon—indicates foul weather (Pittulie). On the other hand, "a high dawn" indicates a fair day.

Daybreak is called "sky-casting" or "sky-making". If the "sky cast" pretty far towards the south, the day is not to be depended on (Pittulie); if well to the east, it is to be depended on.

When the sun rises "fiery" it is a sign of drought, when "white", "sick", or "sickly", of rain (Pittulie, Macduff, Rose-hearty).

When it rises "white and sick", both wind and wet