In Yorkshire, when it begins to snow, the boys exclaim,—

Snow, snow faster,

The cow's in the pasture.

When the storm is concluding, or when they wish it to give over, they sing,—

Snow, snow, give over,

The cow's in the clover!

White is the rural generic term for snow, and black for rain. Thus, in the well-known proverb,—

February fill the dyke,

Be it black or be it white;

But if it be white,

It's the better to like.

The Anglo-Saxon and Northern literatures are full of similar poetical synonymes. A common nursery riddle conceals the term snow by the image of a white glove, and another in the same manner designates rain as a black glove:

Round the house, and round the house,

And there lies a white glove in the window. [38]

Round the house, and round the house,

And there lies a black glove in the window.