Blair Collection > Collection of Gaelic proverbs and familiar phrases

example in his Adagia, has been followed in this
volume to an extent which to some may seem excessive,
to others inadequate. It has added seriously to the
labour and time spent on the work, but the labour has
been a pleasant one, and the time has not been wasted,
if the result be found to have increased the value of the
collection, from the point of view of what may be called
' Comparative Parce.miography '. Lest the array of
languages sometimes cited might suggest an ostentation
of learning, it is right to mention that my acquaint-
ance with some of them is of a very slender kind, but
that I have used all available means, and got help from
more competent persons, to give the words in these
languages correctly.^ A few errors wall be found, but
none of them, I believe, of importance.
^ The principal works that have been used in citing these
parallel proverbs are, Erasmi Adagia, 1646 ; Corpus Parcemio-
grci'phorum Grcecoriim, Ed. Leutsch et Schneideivin, 1839-51 ; Ray's
English Proverbs, Ed. 1813 ; Fuller's Gnomologia, 1817 ; HazliU's
English Prov., 1869 ; Kelly's Scottish Prov., 1721 ; Ramsay's Scot.
Prov. (Works, Oliver & Co., n.d., Vol. III.) ; Henderson's Scot.
Prov. (Ed. Donald), 1876 ; Hislop's Scot. Prov., 1862 ; Cregcen's
Manls Diet., 1835 ; Kelly's Manx Diet, 1866 ; Bourhe's Irish
Grammar, 1867 ; R. Me Adam's Irish Prov. in Ulster Arch. Journ.,
Vols. VI. and VII.; PH^/ie's Welsh Dict.,{Ed.Pryse),l866; Myvirian
Archaiology, Vol. III., 1807 ; Prov. et Dictons de la Basse-Bretagne,
par L. F. Sauv^, Revue Celtique, Vols. I., II., III. ; Pineda's
Spanish Diet, 1740 ; Burke's Spanish Salt, 1877 ; Roux de Lincys
Prov. Frangais, 1859 ; Mery's Hist. Generate des Prov. 1829 ;
Giusti's Prov. Toscani, 1871 ; Castagna's Prov. Italiani, 1869 ;
Bonifacio's Prov. Lombardi, 1860 ; Diet, of Danish Proverbs (Dan-
ish and French), 1759 ; Sandvoss's So Spricht das Volk, 1860 ;
Sprichworter und Spruchreden von Deutschen, Leipzig, N.D. ; Bohn's
Polyglot of Prov., 1857 ; Bohn's Handbook of Prov., 1855 ; Kelly's