Blair Collection > Collection of Gaelic proverbs, and familiar phrases

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I wifli you good of the reft.
The new year's bull fell upon them, (k)
Eve-ry thing will wear out in the ufe,
Efpecially when ufed often,
Although not ufed,
It will wear ouf,
Since every thing then wears out unufed,
A while before the end of for ever,
It is therefore proper to put every thing to its ufe,
Before it wears out of itfelf unufed.
A man will die to avoid fhame.
75 Let every man take birds from the rock for him-
feif. (/)
Hail often begins and ends a fhower.
Straiten your girdle till you can find meat, (m)
I wi(h you were all tinkers to day. (»)
in his wars ; at one of their battles Macdonald was fur-
rounded by the enemy in a fmall fold, when one Stewart,
a tinker from Athole, came very feafonably to his relief,
and, with his broad fword, in an inftant cleared the fold of
the Covenanters ; Macdonald, ftruck with his bravery,
took occafion to afk him what he was ? Stewart anfwer-
ed, that he was no man at all, and did not deferve to be
named among, men; Macdonald replied, that his valour
intitled him to fome regard, whatever was his fituation, ; an<l
whatever either he or his had done, he had fumcient-
ly atoned for it, and had gained much honour by fuch a
gallant action ; Stewart at laft told him that he was only a
tinker, at which Macdonald replied in the words of the
above faying.
The Athole men were Montrofe's principal fupport ; he
often pafTes the higheft encomiums upon them, calling them
hh brave Athole men.