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,