VI Nature-Songs
The Rainbow
Rhymes upon natural objects and rural sayings are perhaps more generally interesting than any other relics of the popular anthology. They not unfrequently contain scientific truths, and have been considered worthy of examination by the philosopher; while the unlearned are often contented to use them as substitutes for the barometer or Nautical Almanac. We all recollect the story of Dr. Johnson, and the boy who prophesied a shower when not a speck was to be seen in the sky. The doctor, drenched with rain, hastened back to the lad, and offered him a shilling if he would divulge the data of his prediction. “Why, you zee, zur, when that black ram holds its tail up, it be sure to rain!” The story loses none of its force when we find it in the Hundred Merry Tales, printed nearly two centuries before Dr. Johnson was born.
The Rainbow
Rainbow i’ th’ morning
Shipper’s warning;
Rainbow at night
Shipper’s delight.
This, in one form or other, is a most common weather proverb. The present version was heard in Essex.
If there be a rainbow in the eve,
It will rain and leave;
But if there be a rainbow in the morrow,
It will neither lend nor borrow.