Matheson Collection > Gaelic proverbs and proverbial sayings, with English translations

38 GAELIC PROVERBS.
102 Cha do bhris deagh urram ceann duine rianili,
Agus is mòr-am-beud a bhi uair 's am bitli
as aonais.
Due civility never broke a man's head,
And great the pity to he at any time without it.
103 Cha chuirear gad air gealladh.
A promise can never he tied [or tethered.)
104 Cha'n eil fealladh ann cho mòr ris an
gealladh gun choimhlionadh.
There is no deceit so great as a promise u 11 f til-
filled.
105 Cluinnidh am bodhar fuaim an airgead.
The deaf will hear the clink of money.
106 Cha dean cridh misgeach breug.
The inebriated heart will not lie.
107 Cha robh na sgeulaiche nach robh breugach.
There ne'er was a tale-bearer hut z&as un-
truthful.
108 Cha'n uaisle duine na cheird. <^- *^(?'f ^f3.
No man is above his trade.
The tradition. associated with the above is that, when
Alastair MacColla (Alexander MacDonald), the Great
Montrose's principal lieutenant, foutid himself pent up with
a handful of followers, surrounded by the Covenanters, a
tinker of the name of Stewart, from Athol, made his appear-
ance among MacDonald's men, and with his claymore
hewed down the Covenanters till but few were left. Mac-
Donald, astonished at the timely succour and the successful
onslaught of the unknown warrior, bade him be called to
his presence after the fray, and asked him who and what he
was. The tinker modestly replied that he was but a tinker,
and hardly deserved to be named among men, far less