Blair Collection > Mackintosh's collection of Gaelic proverbs, and familar phrases

93
6. Though the stone is near to the ground, yet near-
er is Coivi's aid [to the helpless].
7. The scraping hen will find something ; but the
creeping hen will find nothing.
8. The kite's guard over the chickens.
9. Though the carpenter is bad, yet his chip is
good.
1 0. Difficulty excites invention, though it secure not
a fortune.
11. A wedge made of the self-same oak cleaves it.
12. Though you could husband a whole district, yet
you would waste all its produce.
1 3. Though you broke the bone, yet you sucked not
the marrow.
14. Though this be the house, yet they are not the
inmates.
1 5. The fox's w^atch over the sheep,
16. Though hunting be a good help, yet the chace is
not a good livelihood.
1 7. Whoever is the fox's servant, must bear up his
tail,
18. Though the carlin be the better of a warming,
yet she would not be the better of a buming.(A:)
1 9. Though the old-saw be gainsaid, yet it says not
falsehood.
20. Though the berry be black, 'tis sweet ; though
my lassie be black, she's bonnie !
cates a change in sentiment as well as habitude among our Gael,
whose ancestors had no other means of living but such as the
chace, fishing, and the foray, or creachy afforded.
{k) This alludes to the salutary practice of sacrificing human
beings to a grave statute^ not long since rescinded, against witch-
craft. Such was the wisdom of our forefathers !