FRENCH SEASON RHYMES AND WEATHER RHYMES.
(Vol. ix., p. 9.)
The following weather rules are taken from a work which is probably but little known to the generality of English readers. It is entitled:
"Contes populaires, Préjugés, Patois, Proverbes, Noms de Lieux, de l'Arrondissement de Bayeux, recueillis et publiés par Frédéric Pluquet, &c.: Rouen, 1834."
Where saints' days are mentioned, I have added the day of the month on which they fall, as far as I have been able to ascertain it; but as it sometimes happens that there is more than one saint of the same name, and that their feasts fall on different days, I may perhaps, in some cases, have fixed on the wrong one:
"Année venteuse,
Année pommeuse."
"Année hannetonneuse,
Année pommeuse."
"L'hiver est dans un bissac; s'il n'est dans un bout, il est dans l'autre."
"Pluie du matin
N'arrête pas le pélerin."
"À Noël au balcon,
À Pàques au tison."
"À Noël les moucherons,
À Pàques les glaçons."
"Pàques pluvieux,
An fromenteux."
"Le propre jour des Rameaux
Sème oignons et poreaux."
"Après Pàques et les Rogations,
Fi de prêtres et d'oignons."
"Fêves fleuries
Temps de folies."
"Rouge rosée au matin,
C'est beau temps pour le pélerin."
"Pluie de Février
Vaut jus de fumier."
"Février qui donne neige
Bel été nous plège."
"Février
L'anelier" [anneau].
This saying has probably originated in the number of marriages celebrated in this month; the season of Lent which follows being a time in which it is not usual, in Roman Catholic countries, to contract marriage.
"Février emplit les fosses;
Mars les sèche."
"Mars martelle,
Avril coutelle."
An allusion to the boisterous winds of March, and the sharp, cutting, easterly winds which frequently prevail in April.
"Nul Avril
Sans épi."
"Avril le doux,
Quand il se fàche, le pis de tout."
"Bonne ou mauvaise poirette,
Il faut que Mars a trouve faite."
Poirette, in the dialect of Bayeux, means a leek.
"Froid Mai et chaud Juin
Donnent pain et vin."
"En Juignet [Juillet],
La faucille au poignet."
"À la Saint-Vincent [Jan. 22],
Tout dégèle, ou tout fend."
"Saint-Julien brise glace [Jan. 27],
S'il ne la brise, il l'embrasse."
"À la Chandeleur [Feb. 2],
La grande douleur."
Meaning the greatest cold.
"À la Chandeleur,
Où toutes bêtes sont en horreur."
Probably alluding to the rough state of their coats at this season.
"À la Saint-George [April 23],
Sème ton orge."
"Quand il pleut le jour Saint-Marc [April 25],
Il ne faut ni pouque ni sac."
"À la Saint-Catherine [April 29],
Tout bois prend racine."
"À la Saint-Urbain [May 25],
Le froment porte grain."
"À la Saint-Loup [May 28?],
La lampe au clou."
"S'il pleut le jour Saint-Médard [June 8],
Il pleuvra quarante jours plus tard."
"À la Saint-Barnabé [June 11]
La faux au pré."
"À la Saint-Sacrement [this year, June 15]
L'épi est au froment."
"Quand il pleut à la Saint-Gervais [June 19],
Il pleut quarante jours après."
"À la Madeleine [July 22],
Les noix sont pleines."
"À la Saint-Laurent [Aug. 10],
La faucille au froment."
"Passé la Saint-Clément [Nov. 23?],
Ne sème plus le froment."
"Si le soleil rit le jour Sainte-Eulalie [Dec. 10],
Il y aura pommes et cidre à folie."
"À la Sainte-Luce [Dec. 13?],
Les jours croissent du saut d'une puce."
"À la Saint-Thomas [Dec. 21],
Les jours sont au plus bas."
Edgar MacCulloch.
Guernsey.
VAULT INTERMENTS (Vol. ii., p. 21.): BURIAL IN AN ERECT POSTURE (Vol. viii., pp. 329. 630.):
INTERMENT OF THE TROGLODITÆ (Vol. ii., p. 187.).
In the 4th book of Evelyn's Sylva there is much interesting matter on this subject, besides what has been quoted above; and, to those herein interested, the following extract from Burn's History of Parish Registers in England will doubtless be acceptable:
"Many great and good men have entertained scruples on the practice of interment in churches. The example of the virtuous and primitive confessor, Archbishop Sancroft, who ordered himself to be buried in the churchyard of Fresingfield in Suffolk, thinking it improper that the house of God should be made the repository of sinful man, ought to command the imitation of less deserving persons: perhaps it had an influence over the mind of his successor, Archbishop Secker, who ordered himself to be buried in the churchyard of Lambeth. The Bishops of London in succession, from Bishop Compton to Bishop Hayter, who died in 1762, inclusive, have been buried in Fulham Churchyard."[[1]]
Of the same opinion were Dr. Edward Rainbow, Bishop of Carlisle; Sir Matthew Hale, who used to say that churches were for the living and to churchyards for the dead[[2]]; Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, who "did not hold God's house a meet repository for the greatest saint;" and William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, who made a canon in his synod to the following effect:
"IX. Ut corpora defunctorum deinceps in Ecclesiis non humentur, sed nec intra quintum pedem a pariete extrorsum."
Sir Thomas Latymer, of Braibroke in Northamptonshire, by his will directed thus:
I, Thomas Latymer of Braybroke, a fals knyghte to God, &c., my wrecchyd body to be buried where that ever I die in the next chirche yerde, God vouchsafe, and naut in the chirche, but in the utterist corner, as he that is unworthy to lyn therein, save the merci of God."
Dr. Isaac Barrow, Bishop of St. Asaph, was buried in a churchyard, although, from his having generously repaired and endowed his cathedral, he might be considered to have a claim of interment within its walls; and Baldwin, the great civilian, severely censures this indecent liberty, and questions whether he shall call it a superstition or an impudent ambition. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first who made vaults under the chancel, and even under the altar, when he rebuilt the choir of Canterbury, about 1075.[[3]]
"The Irish long retained an attachment to their ancient customs and pagan superstitions; and the custom of burying in consecrated ground was not universal in Ireland in the twelfth century on the arrival of the English, as we find it enjoined in the Council of Cashel, held in 1172, mentioned by Cambrensis. A short time since some small earthen tumuli were opened on the Curragh of Kildare, under which skeletons were found standing upright on their feet, and in their hands, or near them, spears with iron heads. The custom of placing their dead erect was general among all the northern nations, and is still retained in Lapland and some parts of Norway; and the natives of North America bury their dead sitting in holes in the ground, and cover them with a mound of earth."—Transactions of the R. Irish Academy, vol. iii.
A Query I proposed (Vol. ii., p. 187.) in reference to the Trogloditæ never having been answered, I shall, perhaps, be allowed to use this opportunity myself to furnish an apposite and explanatory quotation, viz.—
"Troglodytæ mortui cervicem pedibus alligabant et raptim cum risu et jocis efferebant, nullaque loci habita cura mandabant terræ; ac ad caput cornu caprinum affigebant."—Cœlii Rhodigini, Lectiones Antiquæ, p. 792.
I shall conclude with the rationale of the erect posture, as illustrated by Staveley in his History of Churches in England:
"It is storied to be a custom among the people of Megara in Greece, to be buried with their faces downwards; Diogenes gave this reason why he should be buried after the same way, that seeing all things were (according to his opinion) to be turned upside down in succeeding times, he, by this posture, would at last be found with his face upwards, and looking towards heaven."
Bibliothecar. Chetham.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
Cole's MSS. vol. iv. p. 100.
The Assembly at Edinburgh, in 1588, prohibited the burying in kirks.
Cole's MSS., vol. iv.
In Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 2., Don Pedro says:
"She shall be buried with her face upwards."
Theobald, Johnson, and Steevens have left notes upon this line. The following passage is part of Steevens' note:
"Dr. Johnson's explanation may likewise be countenanced by a passage in an old black-letter book, without date, intitled, 'A merye Jest of a Man that was called Howleglas, &c.: How Howleglas was buryed:
"'Thus as Howleglas was deade, then they brought him to be buryed. And as they would have put the coffyn into the pytte with 2 cordes, the corde at the fete brake, so that the fote of the coffyn fell into the botome of the pyt, and the coffyn stood bolt upryght in the middes of the grave. Then desired ye people that stode about the grave that tyme, to let the coffyn to stande bolt upryght. For in his lyfe tyme he was a very marvelous man, &c., and shall be buryed as marvailously. And in this maner they left Howleglas,' &c.
"Were not the Claphams and Mauleverers buried marvailously, because they were marvelous men?"—Johnson and Steevens' Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 310.
J. W. Farrer.
"In Oliver Heywood's Register is the following entry [Oct. 28, 1684]:
'Capt. Taylor's wife of Brig House, buried in her garden with head upwards, standing upright, by her husband, daughter, &c. Quakers.'"—Watson's History of Halifax, p. 233.
Cervus.
"Some Christians [Russians?] decline the figure of rest, and make choice of an erect posture in burial."—Browne's Hydriotaphia, ch. iv. p. 246.
Query, With the desire of meeting the Judge, face to face, when He cometh?
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.