The Proverbs of Scotland Part 69

Let the tow gang wi' the bucket.

Let your meat dit your mouth.

Liars should hae gude memories.

Lick and lay down.

A proverbial form of expression of a man's being able to pay his way.

"And what for suld I no have a _corpus delicti_, or a _habeas corpus_, or ony other _corpus_ that I like, sae lang as I am willing to lick and lay down the ready siller?"--_St Ronan's Well._

Lick your loof and lay't in mine, dry leather jigs aye.

"This signifies no more but kiss your hand and give it. Spoken facetiously upon some good fortune unexpected."--_Kelly._

Lie in your bed and lippen to that.

Life's life ony gate.

"'And now we're settled ance mair,' said Cuddie to his mother, 'and if we're no sae bein and comfortable as we were up yonder, yet life's life ony gate, and we're wi' decent kirk-ganging folk o' your ain persuasion, mither; there will be nae quarrelling about that.'"--_Old Mortality._

Light burdens break nae banes.

Light lades mak willing horses.

Lightly come, lightly gang.

Light maidens mak langing lads.

"Light's heartsome," quo' the thief to the Lammas mune.

Lightsome sangs mak merry gate.

"Ratcliffe, speaking apart to Madge, asked her 'whether she did not remember ony o' her auld sangs?' 'Mony a dainty ane,' said Madge; 'and blithely can I sing them, for lightsome sangs make merry gate.'"--_Heart of Midlothian._

Light suppers mak lang days.

Like a sow playing on a trump.

"Trump," a Jew's harp. Typical of extreme awkwardness.

Like Bauldy's wedding, there's nae meat but muckle mirth.

Like blood, like gude, like age, mak the happy marriage.

Like b.u.t.ter in the black dog's hause.

That is, a dangerous position, as b.u.t.ter in the embrace of a dog certainly is.

Like Cranshaws kirk--there's as mony dogs as folk, and neither room for reel nor rock.

"In a remote pastoral region, like that of Cranshaws, lying in the midst of the Lammermoor hills, it is or was usual for shepherds'

dogs to accompany their masters to the church; and in times of severe stormy weather, few people except the shepherds, who are accustomed to be out in all weathers, could attend divine service; and in such circ.u.mstances, it may have occurred that the dogs may have equalled in number the rational hearers of the Word. We have heard the saying applied by bustling servant girls to a scene where three or four dogs were lounging about a kitchen hearth, and impeding the work."--_G. Henderson._

Liked gear is half-bought.

"When wares please, a bargain is soon made."--_English._

Like draws aye to like, like an auld horse to a fell dike.

Persons of similar tastes draw towards and sympathize with each other. "Like will to like--a scabbed horse and a sandy dike."--_Danish._ "Like will to like, as the devil said to the coal-burner."--_German._

Like hens, ye rin aye to the heap.

Spoken jocularly to those who help themselves to what there is most of on the table.

Like Hilton kirk, baith narrow and mirk, and can only haud its ain parish folk.

"Hilton kirk was a very small edifice in Berwicks.h.i.+re, and it would seem from the saying not very well lighted. When any number of strangers came as hearers, the accommodation was deficient; the saying is used when many persons a.s.semble in a small house, and there is little room to stir about."--_G. Henderson._

Like Lamington's mare, ye break brawly aff, but sune set up.

Likely lies i' the mire, and unlikely gets ower.

Meaning that many undertakings which promise favourably at first often fail; while those of which no great hopes are entertained are successfully carried through.

Like maister, like man; like priest, like offering.

Like Moses' breeks, neither shape, form, nor fas.h.i.+on.

Like Orkney b.u.t.ter, neither gude to eat nor creesh woo.

"A minister having in these words compared the covenant, made it a proverb. Applied to a thing that is useful no way."--_Kelly._

Like paddy's ghost, twa steps ahint.

Like's an ill mark amang ither folk's sheep.

Like the bairns o' Falkirk, they'll end ere they mend.

"This is a proverbial saying of ill-doing persons, as expressive of there being no hope of them. How the children of Falkirk came to be so characterized, it would be difficult now to ascertain. The adage has had the effect of causing the men of Falkirk jocularly to style themselves 'the bairns;' and when one of them speaks of another as 'a bairn,' he only means that that other person is a native of Falkirk."--_Robert Chambers._

Like the cat, fain fish wad ye eat, but ye are laith to weet your feet.

"The cat is fain the fish to eat, but hath no will to wet her feet."--_English._

"Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' like the poor cat i' the adage."--_Macbeth._