The four seasons are known as _earrach_, spring, _samhradh_, summer, _fogharadh_, harvest, and _geamhradh_, winter. The final syllable in each of these names is _ràidh_, a quarter or season of the year, a space of three months; and the student of Gaelic will note that the long and heavy vowel, of which it consists, is, contrary to the common rule affecting long vowels, shortened and made an apparently indifferent terminal syllable. It is still deemed, in many parts of the Highlands, unlucky to be proclaimed in one quarter of the year and married in the next, and the circumstance is called being “astride on the seasons” (_gobhlach mu’n ràidh_). It is an old saying, that the appearance of a season comes a month before its actual arrival; _mìos roi gach ràidh choltas_, _i.e._ a month before each season, is seen its appearance. The character of the seasons is described in an old riddle, “Four came over, Without boat or ship, One yellow and white, One brown, abounding in twigs, One to handle the flail And one to strip the trees.”[50] There can be no doubt the origin of the names given to them belongs to a period anterior to Christianity. _Earrach_, spring, is derived from _ear_, the head, the front, the east. In naming the four quarters of the heavens, the face, as in the case of the Hebrew names, is supposed to be toward the east. The right hand (_deas_) is the name given to the south, and the adjective _tuaitheal_, from _tuath_, the north, means “wrong, to the left, against the sun.” Hence also, _toirt fo’n ear_, lit. to take a thing from the east, means to observe; _earalas_, foresight, _i.e._ the having a thing in view; _earar_, the day after to-morrow, _i.e._ the day in front of it. The Latin _bos_, and the Greek ἔας or ἦς would indicate that the ancient Celtic name of the season was _fearrach_, and if so it may be connected with _fear_, vir, a man, the first _par excellence_, _for_, before, _furasda_, easy, etc. _Eàrr_ means the tail, and the long syllable shows it to be only another form of _iar_, west, behind, after, the opposite of _ear_. Frequently these names for east and west are known as _sear_ and _siar_, as _e.g._ _cha-n fhearr an gille shiar na’n gille shear_, “the lad from the west is no better than the lad from the east,” that is, it is but six of the one and half a dozen of the other.