This was the Thursday before Easter, and was known in the Hebrides as “_La Brochain Mhòir_,” the Day of the Big Porridge. It was now getting late in the spring, and if the winter had failed to cast a sufficient supply of seaweed on the shores, it was time to resort to extraordinary measures to secure the necessary manure for the land. A large pot of porridge was prepared, with butter and other good ingredients, and taken to the headlands near creeks where seaweed rested. A quantity was poured into the sea from each headland, with certain incantations or rhymes, and in consequence, it was believed, the harbours were full of sea-ware. The ceremony should only be performed in stormy weather. Its object no doubt was, by throwing the produce of the land into the sea, to make the sea throw its produce on the land. GOOD FRIDAY (_Di-haoine na Ceusa_). The Gaelic name means literally Crucifixion Friday. The day was the Friday before Easter, and was observed in memory of our Lord’s Passion. There was hardly any belief that had a stronger hold on the Highlander’s mind than that on no account whatever should iron be put in the ground on this day. So great was the aversion to doing so that the more superstitious extended the prohibition to every Friday. As a matter of course no ploughing was done, and if a burial was to take place, the grave was opened on the previous day, and the earth was settled over the coffin with a wooden shovel. The origin of the observance perhaps was that our Saviour’s sepulchre had been previously prepared, being a new tomb hewn out in the rock. It was said that if the day be cold, it is colder than any other, in fact the coldest day of the whole year. EASTER (_Càsg_).