The Proverbs of Scotland Part 35

Had I fish was never gude to eat mustard.

"An answer to them that say, Had I such a thing, I would do so or so."--_Kelly._

"Had I wist," quo' the fool.

Had you sic a shoe on ilka foot, you would shochel.

Or, had you my sorrows to bear, you would look equally miserable.

Hae! gars a deaf man hear.

Hae G.o.d, hae a'.

Hae, lad,--rin, lad; that maks an olite lad.

Hae you gear or hae you nane, tine heart and a' is gane.

Hain'd gear helps weel.

"Hain'd gear"--saved money--is of great a.s.sistance.

Hair by hair maks the carl's head bare.

Hale sale is gude sale.

Hale claith's afore clout.i.t.

Half acres bear aye gude corn.

Meaning that when people have but little property, they take good care of it.

Half a tale is enough for a wise man.

Hallowe'en bairns see far.

"And touching the bairn, it's weel kent she was born on Hallowe'en was nine years gane, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair than ither folk."--_The Monastery._

Hame's a hamely word.

"Hame's hamely," quo' the deil when he found himsel in the Court o'

Session.

Hand in gear helps weel.

Hand in use is father o' lear.

The constant practice of our profession is the surest road to "lear"

or affluence.

Handle your tools without mittens.

Hand ower head, as men took the covenant.

"Alluding to the manner in which the covenant, so famous in Scottish history, was violently taken by above sixty thousand persons about Edinburgh, in 1638; a novel circ.u.mstance at that time, though afterwards paralleled by the French, in voting by _acclamation_."--_Fielding._

Handsome is that handsome does.

Hang a thief when he's young, and he'll no steal when he's auld.

Hang him that has nae s.h.i.+ft, and hang him that has ower mony.

Hang hunger and drown drouth.

Hanging gaes by hap.

Hanging's nae better than it's ca'd.

Hanging's sair on the eesight.

Hankering an' hinging-on is a poor trade.

Hands aff is fair play.

Hap an' a ha'penny is world's gear enough.

Happiness and moderate means in this world are enough.

Happy for the son when the dad gaes to the deil.

"For commonly they who first raise great estates, do it either by usury and extortion, by fraud and cozening, or by flattery, and by ministering to other men's vices."--_Ray._

"Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven!"--_Portuguese._

Happy is the bride that the sun s.h.i.+nes on; happy is the corpse that the rain rains on.

Happy is the wooing that's no lang o' doing.

Happy man be his dool.

A good wish,--that happiness may be the greatest affliction sent him.

Happy man, happy kavel.

Happy the man that belongs to nae party, but sits in his ain house, and looks at Benarty.

"Sir Michael Malcolm, of Loch Ore, an eccentric baronet, p.r.o.nounced this oracular couplet in his old age, when troubled with the talk of the French Revolution. As a picture of meditative serenity and neutrality, it seems worthy of preservation."--_Robert Chambers._

Happy's the maid that's married to a mitherless son.