of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according
as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the
following German "saw," which is nearly identical with our well-known
English Proverb:

Regenbogen am Morgen
Macht dem Schäfer sorgen;
Regenbogen am Abend
Ist dem Schäfer labend.

In Mr. Akerman's recently published volume called _Spring Tide_, a
pleasant intermixture of fly-fishing and philology, we have a Wiltshire
version of this proverb, curious for its old Saxon language and its
comparatively modern allusion to a "great coat" in the third and sixth
lines, which must be interpolations.

"The Rainbow in th' marnin'
Gies the Shepherd warning'
To car' his girt cwoat on his back
The Rainbow at night
Is the Shepherd's delight,
For then no girt cwoat he lack."

No one, we believe, has yet remarked the philosophy of this saying;
namely that in the morning the rainbow is seen in the clouds in the
west, the quarter from which we get most rain, and of course, in the
evening, in the opposite quarter of the heavens.

William J. Thoms.