Welsh Journals

ts EAST is East and West is West, and never the twain will meet," is, in general, JL-Ztrue. It is, indeed, remarkable that in so many manners and customs, so many ceremonies and practices, so many little tricks of living,' they turn away from each other in opposite directions. But we seem to be able to make one exception at least, that of weather study and weather prognostication. From the days of Cain and Abel, the most important human occupations have been those of the husbandman and the shepherd. And the tiller of the ground and the tender of sheep are so much dependent on weather conditions that watchful observation of the face of Dame Nature and intelligent de- duction therefrom, have been matters of prime importance from the earliest times. Man had to pit his wits against the uncontrollable forces of nature in order to live. He had to regulate his work and so utilise weather conditions that they might prosper, not hinder, his efforts. He had to mark the changing seasons, select the appro- priate times to plough, to sow, to reap. He had to learn to anticipate weather changes, to secure his flocks and herds from loss or harm. From his extended observations he acquired a weather experience that was handed on in an extensive weather lore preserved in a multitude of saws, often unpolished and crude, but, in general, pithy, apt, and racy of the soil. It is not surprising that many of the weather saws of East and West are similar. It would be more surprising if they were not. What passes through the dolichocephalous skull of small, dark- haired John Jones, shepherd on the Welsh up- lands, regarding the weather, probably differs little from that of the Mediterranean ancestor whose physical characteristics he still displays. Weather observations made in the dim past of man's upward struggle have become part of recorded wisdom, and have passed into current use and survived with later generations. Take as an instance the well known weather prog- nostic, "Red at night is the shepherd's (sailor's) delight, red in the morning is the shepherd's (sailor's) warning." It is found in practically all the countries of Europe and much of the nearer .East. Who is not familiar with our Lord's saying: "When it is evening ye say it will be fair weather; for the heaven is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather to-day for the heaven is red and lowring" (Matt. 16: 2, 3). To the western mind this is the saying of our Lord which strikes the most modern note. A weather saw that passed freely in the rural life of Palestine in the first century is still current coin in the agricultural world of our own land A TOUCH OF NATURE by Edward Robertson to-day! See how widespread it is It is known and used in North Africa and Malta. "When you see red in the sky in the evening bridle your ass for the journey: when you see red in the morning return your ass to the stable." Virgil knew of it when he speaks of the indications of weather to be drawn from the sun at both sunrise and sunset in the first Georgic* "Sol quoque, et exoriens, et cum se condet in undas, Signa dabit: soldi certissima signa sequntur, Et quae mane refert: et quae surgentibus astris. Then, too, he adds-the translation is somewhat free "Above the rest, the sun who never lies Foretells the change of weather in the skies; For if he rise unwilling to his race, Clouds on his brow and spots upon his face, Or if through mists he shoot his sullen beams, Frugal of light, in loose and straggling streams, Suspect a drizzling day and southern rain, Fatal to fruits, and flocks, and promised grain." And again- "But more than all the setting sun survey, When down the steep of heaven he drives the day: tor it with purple rays he brings the light, And a pure heaven resigns to quiet night, No rising winds or falling storms are nigh." The Bohemians, it is true maintain that a red sunset betokens rain and a red sunrise a fair day, and in this heresy they are aided and abetted by the inhabitants of Aleppo. "If it is red in the morning," say the Aleppans, "take your stick and fare forth; but if it is red in the evening seek a cosy corner" (for it will rain). "Thrawn chiels" are the Bohemians and Aleppans! Such simple weather prognostics as we have just considered belong to the raw material of weather lore. We would quite reasonably expect to find them springing up of their own accord in any age and in most localities. They are elemental in conception and form. But when the imagination is allowed scope and personification and tale- weaving supervene, the weather folk tale is born as the result. The folk tale has of necessity an individuality of its own, which is sufficiently dis- tinctive to eliminate all possibility of spontaneous generation in a number of widely separated re- gions. If it lives it has a history of its own. Its movements are capable of being traced as it passes from place to place. Its variations can be ap- praised, its place of origin inferred. As an illustration of what I mean, we will take the tale of the "Borrowed Days." I had heard