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

^5
19. You were in health when your coat was made, {a)
20. Well did the cock petition for com to the hens.
21. Be silent and at ypur ease, (b)
22. Your egg was too dear of so much cackling, {c)
23. That were sending butter to the cow-keeper's.
24. The hooded-crow has her maid-servant in har-
vest.
25. The spot of a: man's birth, and of his death, he is
necessarily impelled to.
26. A black ewe ma}^ have a white lamb.
27. You would be a good messenger to send for death.
28. Mischief would possess a bad wife, longer than I
w^ould be a-doing it.
29. The behaviour [moral virtue] of the tenantry a
man lives amongst, that should he adopt.
SO. Blessing to thyself, but to thy tutor malediction.
31. To-day feed me, and to-morrow I'll feed thee.
32. Conan's life among the demons — " if bad they
give, they get no better.^'
S3. A lord's tyke, and conceited knave, are two that
ought not to be spared.
34. Strike the knave upon the neck, and knock the
tyke upon the nose.
35. That will be a good fire when it kindles.
36. 'Tis a pity thy tuneful mouth should ever be put
under ground.
(a) Said to one whose coat seems too wide for him.
{b) " Keep your mouth shut, and your eyes open." — An
easy and dignified silence is reckoned very becoming and man-
ly among the Gael, as it is considered a mark of stayedness
and wisdom ; — but, " Silence may hide folly, as a vizard does an
ill visage ; but then, 'tis but for a time.' says an old pithy apoph-
thegm. — Vide Laconics: Lond printed in anno 1702.
(c) " If you will have the hen's egg, you must bear her cack-
ling." — Kell/s Scottish Prov.
n