J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

BHYMES CONNECTED WITH SUPERSTITIONS. 123
To this day, in the north of Scotland, no young woman
would wear such attire on her wedding- day. A corres-
pondent states as follows : — 'An old lady of my acquaint-
ance used seriously to warn young- females against being
married in g-reen, for she attributed her own misfortunes
solely to having approached the altar of Hymen in a g-own
of that colour, which she had worn against the advice of
her seniors, all of whom recommended blue as the lucky
colour.' Probably the saying respecting a lady married
before her elder sisters, ' that she has given them green
stockings,' is connected with this notion.
In Scotland, as in England, there are prepossessions with
regard to the weather at bridals and funerals —
If the day he foul
That the bride gangs hanie,
Alack and alace
But she'd lived her lane !
If the day be fair
That the bride gangs hame,
Baith pleasure and peace
Afore her are gane !
Happy the bride that the sun shines on,
And happy the corpse that the rain rains on.
Moral qualities are connected with the colour of the
eyes —
Gray-eyed, greedy ;
^ Brown-eyed, needy ;
Black-eyed, never blin',
Till it shame a' its kin.
May, as is well known, is held an unlucky month for
marriages, and this superstition likewise existed among the
Romans. The Scottish peasant says —
Of the marriages in May,
The bairns die o' decay.
(The editor happens to be a living proof of the contrary.)
With this is connected a proverb, ' May birds are aye
cheeping.'
The young women in Galloway, when they fii-st see the
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