Où est qu’ll y a un cardon (chardon) ch’est du pain; où est qu’ill y a du laitron, ch’est la faim.—Where thistles grow there will be bread, where the sow-thistle grows it is famine. The latter is mostly found in very poor land.
Il vaut mûx pour ùn houme d’aver un percheux (paresseux) dans son ménage qu’un frêne sur s’n hêritage.—It is better for a man to have a lazy fellow in his service than an ash-tree on his estate. The shade of the ash is believed to be destructive of all vegetation over which it extends; and it is this belief that has in all probability given rise to this saying. This proverb sometimes takes the following form:—
Bâtard dans sen lignage
Vaut mûx qu’un frène sur s’n héritage.
Piscatory and Maritime Sayings.
The following sayings may be termed piscatory and maritime.
A quànd le bœuf est las, le bar est gras.—When the ox is weary, that is, when ploughing has come to an end for the season, the bass is in good condition. This fish is decidedly best in summer.
A quànd l’orge épicotte, le vrac est bouan sous la roque.—When the barley comes into ear, the wrasse or rock-fish, is at its best.
L’âne de Balaam a pâlaï (parlé) j’airon du macré (maquereau).—Balaam’s ass has spoken, we shall soon have mackerel. The mackerel, it is almost needless to say, is a migratory fish, arriving on our coasts in the spring, and remaining with us till late in the summer. Formerly the reading of the First Lesson at Evensong on the first Sunday after Easter, in which the story of Balaam and his ass is told, was considered a sure indication that the welcome shoals would soon make their appearance. The Cornish fishermen have the same saying.
Old fishermen pay great attention to the direction of the wind at sunset on old Michaelmas Day (10th October), for they firmly believe that from whatever point it blows at that time, the prevailing winds for two-thirds of the ensuing twelve months will be from that quarter.