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]