SPRING.
The Faoilleach introduces a series of names, peculiarly Celtic, and (so far as the writer is aware), having no equivalents in any other language. The divisions of time denoted by them extend to the beginning of summer, each name, in accordance with the genius of the Gaelic language, as shown in names of places, nicknames, etc., is descriptive. Almanacs have long superseded the ancient notations, and it is not now an easy matter to arrange them in their proper order, or to reconcile the accounts retained by tradition with Almanac notation. The length of time ascribed to each seems to have varied in different districts.
Feadag, THE WHISTLE,
succeeds immediately to the Wolf-month (Faoilleach), though some place it before Cailleach, and about St. Patrick’s day. In M’Leod and Dewar’s Dictionary it is said to be the third week in February, which reckoned by O.S. is from 1st to 8th March, N.S. It is thus made to succeed the Faoilleach, and the same seems the opinion of Hugh M’Lachlan, of Aberdeen, a most learned and accomplished man. In a poem on spring, he says:
“Season in which comes the flaying Wolf-month,
Cold hail-stones, a storm of bullets,
Feadag, Sguabag, the Gearran’s gloom
And shrivelling Cailleach, sharp bristled.”
It extends to three days, and its boisterous character is shewn in the rhyme:
“Feadag, Feadag, mother of the cold Faoilleach,
It kills sheep and lambs,
It kills the big kine one by one,
And horses at the same time.”[59]
Gobag, THE SHARP-BILLED ONE,
lasts for a week, others say three, four, and nine days.
Sguabag, THE SWEEPER,
seems the same as the three days called “The Eddy winds of the Storm Month” (Ioma-sguaba na Faoilleach). The appearance of spring is now to be seen, but the bad weather is not yet past. The worst weather comes back occasionally, and there are fewer gusts of wind, uncertain in their coming and duration, that well deserve the name of “Eddy winds from February.”
Gearran, A GELDING, OR PERHAPS Gearan, COMPLAINT.
It is quite possible the latter may have been the original name, as there is always associated with it a period called Caoile, Leanness. It extends over a month, and in Skye is made to succeed to the Faoilleach. There was a rule known to old men, that “the first Tuesday of March (O.S.) is the last Tuesday of Gearran” (a chiad Di-mairt de’n mhàrt an Di-mairt mu dheire de ’n Ghearran). In Tiree, from which the lofty hills of Rum form a conspicuous sight, and to the green appearance of which in frosty weather, their snow-covered summits form a striking contrast, it is said, that at the season “the big mare of Rum turns three times to her colt,” i.e. from cold and hunger. The expression refers to times when a little hardy breed of horses was found in the Western Islands, like Shetland ponies, and left to shift for themselves during winter. It was also said:
“Then said Gearran to Faoilleach,
Where left you the poor stirk?
I left it with Him who made the elements,
Staring at a stack of fodder.
If I catch it, said the May month,
With the breath in the points of his ears,
I will send it racing to the hill
With its tail upon its shoulders.”[60]
The beast will pull through if it can “lift its ear higher than its horn,” which at that age (one year), it ought to do.
The high winds coming at this time, and well known in the south as the winds of March, were said in their violence to “send seven bolls of driving snow through one augur hole” (Chuireadh an Gearran seachd bola catha, stigh air aon toll tora, leis co gailbheach’s a bha ’n t-sìd).
The Gearran is deemed the best time for sowing seeds. The high winds dry the ground, and all agricultural seeds are the better of being put in “a dry bed” (leaba thioram do’ n t-sìol). It is a disputed point what precise date.
The Perthshire rhyme also testifies to the still stormy character of the weather. The calling the Gearran short supports the opinion of many, that it was properly only seven days:
“Then, said the short Gearran,
I will play you a trick that is no better,
I will put the big cow in the mud,
Till the wave comes over its head.”[61]
Some say the Gearran is the month before St. Patrick’s day O.S., others fourteen days before it and fourteen days after, i.e. before and after 29th March.
A Chailleach, the old wife.
This old wife is the same as the hag of whom people were afraid in harvest, the last done with the shearing had to feed her till next harvest, and to whom boys bid defiance in their New-Year day rhyme, viz.: “The Famine, or Scarcity of the Farm.” In spring she was engaged with a hammer in keeping the grass under.
“She strikes here, she strikes there,
She strikes between her legs,”
but the grass grows too fast for her, and in despair she throws the hammer from her, and where it lighted no grass grows.
“She threw it beneath the hard, holly tree,
Where grass or hair has never grown.”[62]
Trì làithean nan ōisgean, THREE HOG DAYS.
In the rural lore of the south of Scotland, the three hog days are held to be the last three days of March, and to have been borrowed by that month from April (Brand, ii. 42). Dr. Jamieson (Etym. Dict. of Scot. Lang.) says, “Some of the vulgar imagine, that these days receive their designation from the conduct of the Israelites in borrowing the property of the Egyptians.”
There is a Highland explanation also connecting them with the departure from Egypt. They were days borrowed by the Israelites for the killing of the Paschal lamb. “Some went on this side of the hillock, some on that” (Chàidh cuid an taobh so ’n Chnoc, etc.).
They are perhaps the days called in Tiree “trì latha na bo ruaidhe” i.e. “the red cow’s three days.”
Mhàrt, SEED-TIME.
This name is doubtlessly derived from the Latin Mars, in which case it ought to correspond to the month of March, O.S. It does not commence till the 24th of that month. The word has come to signify a busy time of the year, whether seed-time or harvest, usually, however, the former. Saothair a Mhàrt is the “busiest time of spring”; a ghaoth luath luimeineach Mhàrt means “the bare swift March wind,” frequently mentioned in Winter Evening Tales to denote great speed, and a Mhàrt tioram blath means “dry genial March.” It is a favourable sign of the season when the ground is saturated with wet at its beginning. Old men wished,
“The full pool awaiting March,
And house-thatch in the furrows of the plough land;”[63]
and deemed it a good sign if the violence of the wind stripped three layers of thatch (trì breathan de thugha) from the houses. The advice for sowing seed now is:
“Let past the first March (i.e. Tuesday),
And second March if need be,
But be the weather good or bad,
Sow thy seed in the true March.”[64]
Others say, “though you cannot send a pebble against the north wind” (ged nach cuireadh tu dòirneag an aghaidh na gaoth tuath) you are to sow.
“A night in March is swifter than two in harvest” (Is luaithe oidhche sa Mhàrt na dhà san fhogharadh).
Inid, SHROVETIDE.
The Gaelic name is from Lat. Initium, this being the beginning of Lent. It was always reckoned as “The first Tuesday of the Spring Light” (chiad Di-màirt de’n t-solus Earraich), i.e. of the new moon in spring. It is a moveable feast, and this is a simple way of calculating it. The plan adopted by the English Church is more complicated—Shrovetide is always the seventh Tuesday before Easter, and Easter is “the first Sunday after the first full moon, which happens on or after the 21st March; but if the full moon is on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday following.”
Shrovetide was called “an Inid bheadaidh” (shameless Shrovetide), because the day of the festival was held to precede the night, while, in the case of all the other festivals, the night or vigil was held to precede the day. A good reason for this will be found in a natural aversion to begin the austerities of Lent.
It has been already told[65] (art. Diabolus) how Michael Scott, or, according to Skye tradition, Parson Sir Andro of Rigg, near Storr in that island, went to Rome, riding on the devil, and first ascertained from the Pope the rule for calculating the day.
In schools it was the day for cock-fighting, and giving gratuities to the schoolmaster. The latter custom was observed with more correctness on the first Monday of the year, being the day allotted for presents. The practice of cock-fighting is extinct in the Highlands, but presents to the schoolmaster are universally practised. The boy and girl who give the largest donation (and it seldom exceeds a shilling) are declared King and Queen of the school, and have the privilege of asking “a play” (i.e. a holiday) for the school.
The names connected with cock-fighting, still to be found in the Highlands, being Latin, shew the practice is not of native growth. Each boy came to the school with a dunghill cock under his arm. The head of the bird was covered and its tail taken out, to make it more ready to fight, and fight better when let loose opposite another bird.
Runaway cocks were called fuge, and the name is still given to boys who shirk fighting. Shouts followed the defeated bird of “run, run, cock with one eye” (fuge, fuge, coileach cam), and its owner had to pay a penalty of some pence.
Shrovetide was one of the great days for saining cattle, juniper being burned before them, and other superstitious precautions were taken to keep them free from harm.
Those curious or anxious about their future husbands or wives made a cake of soot (Bonnach sùith, B. Inid), of which they partook, putting the rest below their pillows to dream over.
It was believed that if there was fair weather at Inid it would be foul weather at Easter, and vice versâ, as the rhyme has it:
“Shrovetide said to Easter,
Where will I get a place to play myself?
Give to me a winter palace,
And I will build a summer house for you.”[66]
Carghas, LENT,
is the period from Shrovetide to Easter. It extends to 40 days, and refers to the miraculous fasts of Moses, Elias, and our Lord. The Gaelic mode of calculation was, “Seven short weeks from Shrovetide till Easter” (seachd seachdainean gearr goirid Eadar Inid is Càisg). The name Carghas is a corruption Quadragesima, Ital. Quaresimo, 40, just as Inid is from Initium. Inid a charghuis is just “the beginning of the forty days.”[67]
ST. KESSOCK’S DAY (Féill mo Cheasaig)
was March 10/22. It is said, “On the Feast of St. Kessock every eel is pregnant” (Latha Feill mo Cheasaig bithidh gach easgann torrach).
The Saint was Bishop in Scotland in 560, and has given a name to Kessock Ferry (Port a Cheasaig), near Inverness, and to a market held at Callander, Perthshire, for hiring, on the 22nd March, or 10th old style. The fair is known as “Tenth-day,” but among the Gaelic-speaking population as “Féill mo Cheasaig.” A rock at the west end of the village is known as “Tom a Cheasaig.”
ST. PATRICK’S DAY (Feill Pàruig)
is the middle day of spring and that on which the night and day are of equal length, March 17/29. A certain sign of the day is held in the Hebrides to be a south wind in the morning and a north wind at night.
The saint comes from Ireland to see his parishioners in Barra and other places on the west of Scotland, and has a favourable wind coming and returning. He is in Highland lore described as “Patrick who blessed Ireland” (Pàdruig a bheannaich Eirinn), and is said to have been married to the daughter of Ossian, bard, and last, of the Feinne. He was born A.D. 373, but it is disputed whether his native place was Scotland, or Wales, or England, or France. There can be no question that in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland the more lively and kindly recollections of him have been retained. Numerous places called after him are found scattered over Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
After this day (seach gun leum an Fhéill Pàruig) (lit. once Patrick’s Festival has jumped) the limpet is better than the whelk, and is said in consequence to treat it with great indignity.
Latha Feill Pàruig
Muinidh bhairneach air an fhaochaig.
Another piece of shore information connected with this season is that with the advance of spring “as horses grow lean, crabs grow fat” (mar is caoile ’n t-each, ’s ann is reamhrad am partan). Others have it, “When the horse is lean, the whelk is fat” (Nuair bhios an t-each caol bi ’n fhaochag reamhar.)
The reviving influences of the spring are now making themselves visible, according to the saying, “There is not an herb in the ground, but the length of a mouse’s ear of it is out on St. Patrick’s Day” (Chaneil luibh san talamh, nach’ eil fad cluas luch dhi mach, latha Féil Pàruig).
Old men liked the days immediately preceding it to be stormy, and to see, as they said, “the furrows full of snow, of rain, and the thatch of houses” (a chlaisich làn sneachda, làn uisge, ’s tugha nan tighean).
There are particularly high tides on St. Patrick’s Day, and the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, according to the saying,
“The spring tides of Lady Day
And the mad tides of St. Patrick’s Day.”[68]
Marbhladh na Feill Pàruig, the deadening of St. Patrick’s Day, means the quiet calm waters that sometimes occur at this season; others say Bogmharbhlainn, and say it means the swelling (tòcadh) observable at the time in the sea (from the increasing heat).
LADY DAY (Féill Moire).
This was known as Féill Moire an t-sanais (St. Mary’s Vigil of annunciation) to distinguish it from Féill Moire Mòr (the Big St. Mary’s-day), the assumption of the Virgin, which was the middle day of autumn. It is March 25/April 6.