J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

64 POPULAR RHYMES OF SCOTLAND.
not allow a woman or a cow to remain on his own island.
The reason said to have been assig-ned by him for this
imgracious command, is characteristic of his well-known
sanctity; and, as is generally the case with remarkable
sayings preserved by tradition, it is couched in a distich —
Far am bi bo bidh bean
'S far am bi bean bidh mallacha/dh.
Literally signifying —
Where there is a cow,
There will be a woman ;
And where there is a woman,
There will be mischief.
The saying has settled into a proverb, and is generally
repeated as a good-humoured satire on the fair sex.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PLACES AND THEIR
INHABITANTS.
THE COUNTRY AT LARGE.
The Land o' Cakes.
From an affectionate remembrance of the oaten fare of
the bulk of the people, Scotland is often toasted at public
and private meetings, at home and abroad, as The Land qf
Cakes. There is reason, from the following passage in a
book written a century ago, to believe that the appellation
is not of ancient date. ' It [the province of Buchan] so
abounds with oats at this day, though not of the richest
kind, that it is sometimes called proverbially Tlie Granary
of Scotland, and at other times 27ic Land of CaliesJ — Yieio
of the Diocese of Aberdeen.
MERSE — {Berwickshire).
Perhaps owing in part to alliteration, and partly to a con-
sideration of their robust and warlike character, the grown
male population of Southern Berwickshire are characterised
from old time as —
The Men o' the Merse.