The corrections of the observations which it embodies is confirmed by White (Nat. Hist. of Selborne), who gives Feb. 14-17 as the period at which the raven builds.
In Tiree this was the day on which cock-fighting was practised, and gratuities were given to the schoolmaster. In the evening it was customary to have a ball.
The period from Nollaig to Feill Brìde, was reckoned at one month and three days.
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 Almanacs have long superseded the ancient notations, and it is not now an easy matter to arrange them in their proper order, or to reconcile the accounts retained by tradition with Almanac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,