Blair Collection > Collection of Gaelic proverbs, and familiar phrases

C 35 3
ao Wet fuel will burn, but (tones will not.
Though the raven be black, he thinks his birds fair.
Take the good day while it can be got.
The needy promifes what he cannot perform'}
And the greedy thinks what is promifed will be
found.
You will pick out at lad every ftory for nothing.
25 The liberal gets as he fpends, but mifery follows the
niggard.
Though drefs make not the man, yet he is fcarcely a
man that wants it.
Like the old woman's complaining in the fafe corner.
Though feparation be hard, there never were two
but have ibme time parted.
The worft is always referred to the laft.
30 Every man in his ftrength.
When modefty forbids the fair to fpeak, (lie fpeaks
with her eyes.
He is readier to give a taunt than a morfel.
The hold of an eel by the tail. (c)
Let them pelt my cattle with (tones from the chan-
nel ; when my plaid is over my moulder, my cow
fold is in it. (d)
ing to the chief of the Macgregors ; Breacach and Ri-breac,
in different places ; as alfo Brecknock in Wales. Let me
add, that Buchanan obferves, that Bvia, Brica, and Briga,
are frequent names of places in Spain, France, and Italy,
&c. which the Celts once poffeffed.
It is therefore, at leaft, probable, that the name of Bri-
tain and Britons comes from the word Breac, either from
the variegated colour of the ifland, or from their party co-
loured garments. I (hall only obferve, that many, if not
all, the ancient inhabitants of Britain were once called
Brigantes, as well as thofe of Galloway, and the north of
England, &c. Hence, from Breac, Biic, and Bricain, g. e .
fpotted or variegated, comes both Brigantes and Britain,
the land of the Brigantes ; agreeable to which is Mr.
Macpherfon's etymology of it— Breach IrtD, i g, the varie-
gated iiland,