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CHAPTER XXI - METEOROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ETC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

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Summary

Great reliance is placed by the natives on certain signs, as indicating a change in the weather; and, even when a white person might not observe symptoms of an approaching storm, the natives are made aware of it by signs well known to them. They notice the appearance of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds, the cries and movements of animals, &c. A bright sunrise prognosticates fine weather; a red sunrise, rain; a red sunset, heat next day; a halo round the sun, fine weather; a bright moon, fine weather; the old moon in the arms of the new, rain; the new moon lying on its back, dry weather; a halo round the moon, rain; a rainbow in the morning, fine weather; a rainbow in the evening, bad weather; a rainbow during rain, clearing up; when mosquitoes and gnats are very troublesome, rain is expected; when the cicada sings at night, there will be a hot wind next day. The arrival of the swift, which is a migratory bird, indicates bad weather. The whistle of the black jay, the chirp of the little green frog, the creak of the cricket, and the cry of the magpie lark indicate bad weather; wet weather is more likely to come after full moon. It is a sign of heat and fine weather when the eagle amuses itself by towering to an immense height, turning its head suddenly down, and descending vertically, with great force and with closed wings, till near the earth, then opening them and sweeping upwards with half-closed wings to the same height.

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Australian Aborigines
The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia
, pp. 98 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1881

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