THE MONTHLY PACKET OF EVENING READINGS For Members of the English Church. JULY, 1875. ODDS AND ENDS OF WEATHER WISDOM AND FRAGMENTS OF FOLK LORE. THE merry month of May is by far the most popular in the whole year, at least if the traditions of our forefathers, the customs that still linger among us, and last, but not least, the writings of the poets, are any guide for us to go by. These last are never tired of singing the praises of what the Spectator calls the So much so, indeed, that it would be useless to attempt to quote all that has been said in her favour, or all the complimentary epithets that have been lavished upon her by Lydgate, Chaucer, Jonson, and Herrick, to say nothing of more modern writers. The name May itself seems rather a vexed question, for almost every writer that I have seen either gives or suggests a different origin for it. Richardson says, that Marlinius derives it from 'a majoribus,' from the growth of vegetable nature at this season, while Brâchet is of opinion that it comes from the Latin Madius,' a form for 'Maius' found in the medieval Latin.* And Brady thinks that 'Romulus continued to this month the name of Mauis out of respect to the councillors or senate appointed to assist him when he was elected king, who were distinguished by the epithet of majores '-though he further adds that, 'some authors assert that it is derived from Maduis, 'eo quod tunc terra madeat '—while others affirm that the name came from 'Maia,' the mother of Mercury, to "Tunc etiam mensis madius florebat in herbis," says a twelfth-century poem VOL. 20. * 1 PART 115. |