Indian Summer

We're having one at the moment and very pleasant it is too, but why do we call it that?  No definitive answer, but what is pretty certain is that the name does not refer to the country of India (as I always thought it did), but to the "Red Indians" of North America.  The best guess seems to be that early settlers there could relax once the snows came because the danger from Indian raiding parties would be more or less over until the Spring.  But an unseasonal spell of warm weather - an Indian summer - would mean they would have to be back on their guard.  Anyway - long may it continue!