Janvier a daeux bouniaux (deux bonnets), Février en a treis (trois).—January wears two caps, February wears three. As a rule February is the coldest month in the year. In a curious old MS. of the sixteenth century, containing memoranda of household accounts, copies of wills, and various entries of more or less interest, written between the years 1505 and 1569 by various members of a family of the name of Girard, landed proprietors in the parish of Ste. Marie-du-Castel in Guernsey, we find the following weather prognostications for St. Vincent’s Day (January 22nd), and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, (January 25th).
“Prens garde au jour St. Vincent
Car sy se jour tu vois et sent
Que le soleil soiet cler et biau
Nous érons du vin plus que d’eau.”
“Sy le jour St. Paul le convers
Se trouve byaucob descouvert,
L’on aura pour celle sayson
Du bled et du foyn à foyson;
Et sy se jour fait vant sur terre;