It is very interesting for the people who lead a sedentary life that Mongolians put horse pellets which are on a string of horse-tail hair and then hang this on the spoke of ger as a tool to predict the weather. Judging by its shrinkage and expansion we can say whether it will be rainy or dry. It means that Mongolians understood the weather and how to predict it. Mongolian livestock breeders say that the sky shall be clear if yaks climb up to the mountain top, or if there is more glow in a rainbow as seen at sunset. If it is humid, if salt is damp, or if there is bluer colour in the spectrum, then the weather shall be unpleasant. If a stag bellows late, the autumnal withered grass will grow fresh and the winter in that year will be very pleasant. If marmots hibernate early, antelopes appear in the highland, the crests of grass turn brown, or there is an accumulation of suet of rabbits and roe kidneys, then the winter shall be very severe. If the trees are in a leaf age before the ground is green, if plants are in bloom before their adult age, or if Argali (ovis ammon) of Mongolia and roe deer are grazing on the steppes, then these are symptoms of natural calamity or drought. Our livestock breeders observe natural phenomena, the change of the seasons, the appearance of severe climate, the appearance and movement of animals, and plants, planets and other objects as a basis for predictions about the weather. This became a long century tradition. That is why there are many maxims in our vocabulary, such as:
- The more graupel, the more probability of heavy blizzard The more cross-eye, the more probability of blindness
- If the sun is surrounded with a halo
There will be rain
If the moon is surrounded with a halo There will be a chill
- There is a dust-devil before raining There is a crow before a wolf kill
- Thundering clouds have no rain
- Notorious women have no weddings
- The cheeks of a damsel is rose-red
- The horizon of a frosty sky is rose red