"
_Complaint of Scotland._
The Country Almanack for 1676, says of April--
"No blushing blasts from March needs April borrow,
His own oft proves enow to breed us sorrow,
Yet if he weyr with us to sympathize,
His trickling tears will make us wipe our eyes."
In the British Apollo, the meaning of the old poetical saying is asked--
"March borrows of April
Three days and they are ill,
April returns them back again
Three days, and they are rain."
In Devonshire the three first days of March are called "blind days,"
unlucky days, and upon them no farmer will sow his seed.
Dr. Jamison in his 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 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.
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