Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/98

76 lips of the English peasantry. What idea it conveys to their minds I will not inquire. There is an old rhyme yet current which avers:

Or, according to another version—

which corresponds with the Latin proverb—

The oak and ash, both sacred trees, and the ash in particular, the cloud-tree of the Norsemen, with sacred fountains springing from every root, still supply us with a weather prophecy. If the oak comes into leaf before the ash, expect a fine summer; if the ash is first, a wet one; or, as it runs in verse:

It is customary in Scotland for children to go to the neighbouring houses on New Year’s Eve, singing this verse:

Oat-cakes are given to them, on which they sing:

Now here we come upon a custom of great antiquity, and very widely spread, if, as Mr. Ingledew informs us in his Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire, Hagmena songs were formerly sung