Wheatly tells us, that in the East, the Church thought fit to indulge the humour of the Judaizing Christians so far as to observe the Saturday as a Festival Day of Devotion, and thereon to meet for the exercise of reli gious duties, as is plain from several passages of the ancients. Illustr. of the Common Prayer, 8vo. Lond. 1741, p. 191.

(5) I find the following homely Rhymes upon the several days of the week in "Divers Crab-tree Lectures," 12mo. Lond. 1639, p. 126:

"You know that Munday is Sundayes brother;

Tuesday is such another;

Wednesday you must go to Church and pray;

Thursday is half-holiday;

On Friday it is too late to begin to spin; The Saturday is half-holiday agen."

Hooker says: "Holy-days were set apart to be the Land-marks to distinguish times."

(6) A striking instance of this is recorded by Dr. Moresin: "Et videre contigit Anno 1582. Lugduni in vigiliis natalium Domini, depræhensos in stupro duos post missanti saltare hora inter duodecimam et primam noctis, cum præter unum aut aliud altaris lumen, nullum esset in Templo reliquum," &c. Papatus, p. 177.

THERE is a singular old proverb preserved in Ray's Collection: "April borrows three days of March, and they are ill."

April is pronounced with an emphasis on the last syllable, so as to make a kind of jingling rhyme with "ill," the last word in the line.

I have taken notice of this, because I find in the ancient Calendar of the Church of Rome, to which I have so often referred, the following observations on the 31st of March: "The rustic fable concerning the nature of the month.

"The rustic names of six days which shall follow in April, or may be the last in March." () There is no doubt but that these observations in the ancient Calendar, and our proverb, are derived from one common origin; but for want of more lights I am unable at present to trace them any further.

These had not escaped the observation of the learned author of the Vulgar Errors. He, too, seems to have been in the dark concerning them; for he barely tells us, p. 247, "It is usual to ascribe unto March certain Borrowed Daies from April."

Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, says: "These

days being generally stormy, our forefathers have endeavoured to account for this circumstance by pretending that March borrowed them from April, that he might extend his power so much longer." "Those," he adds,

who are much addicted to superstition will neither borrow nor lend on any of these days. If any one should propose to borrow of them, they would consider it as an evidence that the person wished to employ the article borrowed for the purposes of witchcraft against the lenders.

"Some of the vulgar imagine that these days received their designation from the conduct of the Israelites in borrowing the property of the Egyptians. This extravagant idea must have originated partly from the name, and partly from the circumstances of these days nearly corresponding to the time when the Israelites left Egypt, which was on the fourteenth day of the month Abib, or Nisan, including part of our March and April. Í know not whether our Western Magi suppose that the inclemency of the Borrowing Days has any relation to the storm which proved so fatal to the Egyptians."

In the Highlands, the same idea is commonly received; with this difference, that the

days are considerably antedated, as the loan is also reversed. Mrs. Grant, in her Superstitions of the Highlanders, vol. ii. p. 217, says: "The Favilteach, or three first days of February, serve many poetical purposes in the Highlands. They are said to have been borrowed for some purpose by February from January, who was bribed by February with three young sheep. These three days, by

Highland reckoning, occur between the 11th and 15th of February; and it is accounted a most favourable prognostic for the ensuing year that they should be as stormy as possible. If they should be fair, then there is no more good weather to be expected through the Spring. Hence the Favilteach is used to signify the very ultimation of bad weather."

(1)"Rustica fabula de natura Mensis. Nomina rustica 6 Dierum, qui sequentur in Aprili, seu ultimi sint Martii."

The Borrowing Days, as they are called, occur in "The Complaynt of Scotland," p.

58. "There eftir i entrit in ane grene forest, to contempil the tender zong frutes of grene treis, because the borial blastis of the thre borouing dais of Marche hed chaissit the fragrant flureise of evyrie frut-tree far athourt the feildis." The Glossary (in verbo) explains

66

Borrouing days, the three last days of March:" and adds, "concerning the origin of the term, the following popular rhyme is often repeated:

"March borrowit fra Averill
Three days, and they were ill.
Also the following-
"March said to Aperill,

I see three hogs upon a hill;
But lend your three first days to me,
And I'll be bound to gar them die.
The first, it sall be wind and weet;
The next, it sall be snaw and sleet;
The third, it sall be sic a freeze
Sall the birds stick to the trees.
gar
But when the Borrowed Days were gane
The three silly hogs came hirplin hame."

Compl. of Scotl. 8vo. Edinb. 1801.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, 8vo. Edinb. 1791, vol. i. p. 57, Parish of Kirkmichael, the minister, mentioning an old man of the age of 103 years, says: "His account of himself is, that he was born in the Borrowing Days of the year that King William

came in." A note adds, "that is on one of the three last days of March 1688."

In "The Country Almanack" for 1676, among "the remarques upon April" are the following:

"No blust'ring blasts from March needs April borrow:

His own oft proves enow to breed us sorrow.
Yet if he weep (with us to sympathize),
His trickling tears will make us wipe our
eyes."

In the British Apollo, vol. iii. No. 18, the meaning is asked of the old poetical saying—

"March borrows of April

Three days, and they are ill;
April returns them back again,
Three days, and they are rain."

A. Proverbs relating to the weather cannot be founded on any certainty. The meaning of this is, that it is more seasonable for the end of March and the beginning of April to be fair, but often

"March does from April gain

Three days, and they 're in rain;
Return'd by April in 's bad kind,
Three days, and they 're in wind."

A clergyman in Devonshire informed me that the old farmers in his parish call the three first days of March "Blind Days," which were anciently considered as unlucky ones, and upon which no farmer would sow any seed. This superstition, however, is now wearing out apace.

THE following curious passage on this subject is taken from Melton's Astrologaster, p. 56 et seq.: "Those observers of time are to be laught at that will not goe out of their house before they have had counsell of their Almanacke, and will rather have the house fall on their heads than stirre if they note some natural effect about the motion of the aire, which they suppose will varie the lucky blasts of the Starres, that will not marry, or traffique, or doe the like, but under some constellation. These, sure, are no Christians: because faithfull men ought not to doubt that the Divine Providence from any part of the world, or from any time whatsoever, is absent. Therefore we should not impute any secular businesse to the power of the Starres, but to know that all things are disposed by the arbitrement of the King of Kings. The Christian faith is violated when, so like a pagan and apostate, any man doth observe those days which are called Ægyptiaci, or the calends of Januarie, or any moneth, or day, or time, or yeere, eyther to travell, marry, or to doe any thing in." In the Book of Knowledge, b. l. p. 19, I find the following "Account of the perillous Dayes of every Month:"

"In the change of every moon be two Dayes, in the which what thing soever is begun, late or never, it shall come to no good end, and the dayes be full perillous for many things. In January, when the moon is three or four days old. In February, 5 or 7. In March, 6 or 7. In April, 5 or 8. May, 8 or 9. June, 5 or 15. July, 3 or 13. August, 8 or 13. September, 8 or 13. October, 5 or 12. November, 5 or 9. In December, 3 or 13.

"Astronomers say, that six Dayes of the year are perillous of death; and therefore they forbid men to let blood on them, or take any drink that is to say, January the 3rd, July the 1st, October the 2nd, the last of April, August the 1st, the last day going out of December. These six Dayes with great diligence ought to be kept, but namely the latter three, for all the veins are then full.

For

then, whether man or beast be knit in them within seven days, or certainly within fourteen days, he shall die. And if they take any drinks within fifteene dayes, they shall die; and, if they eat any goose in these three Dayes, within forty days they shall die; and, if any child be born in these three latter Dayes, they shall die a wicked death.

"Astronomers and Astrologers say, that in the beginning of March, the seventh Night, or the fourteenth day, let thee bloud of the right arm; and in the beginning of April, the eleventh Day, of the left arm; and in the end of May, third or fifth Day, on whether arm thou wilt; and thus, of all that year, thou shalt orderly be kept from the fever, the falling gout, the sister gout, and losse of thy sight."

Grose tells that many persons have certain Days of the week and month on which they are particularly fortunate, and others in which they are as generally unlucky. These Days are different to different persons. Mr. Aubrey has given several instances of both in divers persons. Some Days, however, are commonly deemed unlucky: (2) among others, Friday labours under that opprobrium; and it is pretty generally held that no new work or enterprise should commence on that day. Likewise, respecting the weather there is this proverb:

Friday's moon,

Come when it will, it comes too soon."

A respectable merchant of the city of London informed me, that no person there will begin any business, i. e. open his shop for the first time, on a Friday.

Thursday was noted as a fatal day to King Henry VIII. and his posterity. See Stow's Annals, edit. 1631, p. 812.

In the Calendar prefixed to Grafton's "Manuel," or Abridgment of his Chronicle, 1565, the unlucky Days according to the opinion of the Astronomers are noted, which I have extracted as follows: "January 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 15, 17, 29, very unlucky. February 26,

27, 28, unlucky; 8, 10, 17, very unlucky. March 16, 17, 20, very unlucky. April 7, 8, 10, 20, unlucky; 16, 21, very unlucky. May 3, 6, unlucky; 7, 15, 20, very unlucky. June 10, 22, unlucky; 4, 8, very unlucky. July 15, 21, very unlucky. August 1, 29, 30, unlucky; 19, 20, very unlucky. September 3, 4, 21, 23, unlucky; 6, 7, very unlucky. October 4, 16, 24, unlucky; 6, very unlucky. November 5, 6, 29, 30, unlucky; 15, 20, very unlucky. December 15, 22, unlucky; 6, 7, 9, very unlucky."(3)

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. v. p. 82, 8vo. Lond. 1793, the Minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, mentioning the superstitious opinions and practices in the parish, says: "In this parish, and in the neighbourhood, a variety of superstitious practices still prevail among the vulgar, which may be in part the remains of ancient idolatry, or of the corrupted Christianity of the Romish Church, and partly, perhaps, the result of the natural hopes and fears of the human mind in a state of simplicity and ignorance. Lucky and unlucky Days are by many anxiously observed. That Day of the week upon which the 14th of May happens to fall, for instance, is esteemed unlucky through all the remainder of the year; none marry or begin any business upon it. None chuse to marry in January or May; or to have their banns proclaimed in the end of one quarter of the year and to marry in the beginning of the next. Some things are to be done before the full moon; others after. In fevers the illness is expected to be more severe on Sunday than on the other days of the week;

if easier on Sunday, a relapse is feared." In the same work, vol. vii. p. 560, Parishes of Kirkwall and St. Ola, County of Orkney, we read: "In many days of the year they will neither go to sea in search of fish nor perform any sort of work at home."

Ibid. vol. viii. p. 156, Parish of Canisbay, County of Caithness, we are told, under the head of Dress, Customs, &c., "There are few superstitious usages among them. No

gentleman, however, of the name of Sinclair, either in Canisbay or throughout Caithness, will put on green apparel, or think of crossing the Ord, upon a Monday. They were dressed in green and they crossed the Ord upon a Monday, in their way to the Battle of Flodden, where they fought and fell in the service of their country, almost without leaving a representative of their name behind them. The Day and the Dress are accordingly regarded as inauspicious. If the Ord must be got beyond on Monday, the Journey is performed by sea." (4)

The Spaniards hold Friday to be a very unlucky Day, and never undertake anything of consequence upon it. (a)

Among the Finns whoever undertakes any business on a Monday or Friday must expect very little success. (5)

And yet from the following extract from Eradut Khan's Memoirs of the Mogul Empire, p. 10, it should seem to appear that Friday is there considered in a different light:

jesty (Aurengzebe) performed his morning "On Friday the 28th of Zekand, his Madevotions in company with his attendants; after which, as was frequently his custom, he exclaimed, O that my death may happen on a Friday, for blessed is he who dieth on that day!'" (b)

Fynes Moryson, in his Itinerary, part i. p. 61, speaking of the King of Poland at the port of Dantzic in 1593, says: "The next day the King had a good wind, but before this (as those of the Romish religion are very superstitious), the King and the Queen (being of the House of Austria), while sometimes they thought Monday sometimes Friday to be unlucky days, had lost many fair winds."

(a) Voyage en Espagne, par le Marquis de Langle, tom. ii. p. 36.

(b) Eradut Khan's Memoirs of the Mogul Empire, p. 10.

(1) Bourne, chap. xviii. speaking of that superstitious custom among the Heathens of observing one Day as good and another as bad, observes, "that among these were lucky and unlucky days: some were Dies atri, and some Dies albi. The Atri were pointed out in their Calendar with a black character, the Albi with a white. The former to denote it a Day of bad success, the latter a Day of good. Thus have the Monks, in the dark and unlearned ages of Popery, copy'd after the Heathens, and dream'd themselves into the like Superstitions, esteeming one Day more successful than another." He tells us, also, that St. Austin, upon the passage of St. Paul to the Galatians against observing days, and months, and times, and years, explains it to have this meaning: "The persons the Apostle blames are those who say, I will not set forward on my journey because it is the next day after such a time, or because the moon is so; or I'll set forward that I may have luck, because such is just now the position of the stars. I will not traffick this month, because such a star presides, or I will because it does. I shall plant no vines this year, because it is Leap Year," &c.

Barnabe Googe thus translates the remarks of Naogeorgus on this subject:

"And first, betwixt the Dayes they make no little difference,

For all be not of vertue like, nor like preheminence.

But some of them Egyptian are, and full of ieopardee,

And some againe, beside the rest, both
good and luckie bee.

Like diffrence of the Nights they make,
as if th' Almightie King,
That made them all, not gracious were
to them in every thing."

Popish Kingdome, fol. 44.

Thomas Lodge, in his "Incarnate Devils," 4to. 1596, p. 12, glances as follows at the superstitious observer of lucky and unlucky times: "He will not eat his dinner before he hath lookt in his Almanacke."

Mason, in "The Anatomie of Sorcerie,"

4to. Lond. 1612, p. 85, enumerates among the superstitious of that age "Regarders of times, as they are which will have one time more lucky than another: to be borne at one hower more unfortunate than at another: to take a journey or any other enterprize in hand, to be more dangerous or prosperous at one time than at another: as likewise if such a festivall day fall upon such a day of the weeke, or such like, we shall have such a yeare following: and many other such like vaine speculations, set downe by our Astrologians, having neither footing in God's Word, nor yet natural reason to support them; but being grounded onely upon the superstitious imagination of man's braine."

In "The Tryall of a Man's own Selfe," by Thomas Newton, 12mo. Lond. 1602, p. 44, he inquires, under "Sinnes Externall and Outward" against the first Commandment, "whether, for the procuring of any thing either good or bad, thou hast used any unlawfull meanes, or superstitious and damnable helps. Of which sort bee the observation and choise of DAYES, of planetarie houres, of motions and courses of starres, mumbling of prophane praiers, consisting of words both strange and senselesse, adjurations, sacrifices, consecrations, and hallowings of divers thinges, rytes and ceremonies unknowne to the Church of God, toyish characters aud figures, demanding of questions and aunsweares of the dead, dealing with damned spirits, or with any instruments of phanaticall divination, as basons, rings, cristalls, glasses, roddes, prickes, numbers, dreames, lots, fortune-tellings, oracles, soothsayings, horoscoping, or marking the houres of nativities, witchcraftes, enchauntments, and all such superstitious trumperie:the enclosing or binding of spirits to certaine instruments, and such like devises of Sathan the Devill."

Under the same head, p. 50, he asks, "Whether the apothecarie have superstitiously observed or fondly stayed for CHOISE DAYES or houres, or any other ceremonious rites, in gathering his herbs and other simples for the making of drougs and receipts."

At thee nd of an ancient MS. mentioned in