The Proverbs of Scotland Part 79

Next to nae wife, a gude ane's best.

Nineteen naesays o' a maiden is half a grant.

"Her laugh will lead you to the place, Where lies the happiness ye want; And plainly tell you to your face, Nineteen nae-says are half a grant."--_Tea-Table Miscellany._

Nipping and scarting's Scotch folk's wooing.

"It may be Scotch folk's wooing; but if that's the gait Betty Bodle means to use you, Watty, my dear, I would see her, and a' the Kilmarkeckles that ever were cleckit, doon the water, or strung in a wuddy, before I would hae onything to say to ane come o' their seed or breed. To lift her hands to her bridegroom!"--_The Entail._

Now-a-days truth's news.

Now's now, and Yule's in winter.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

O' ae ill come mony.

O' a' fish i' the sea, herring is king.

O' a' ills, nane's best.

O' a' little tak a little; when there's nought tak a'.

O' a' meat i' the warld the drink gaes best down.

O' a' sorrow, a fu' sorrow's the best.

"Spoken when friends die and leave good legacies."--_Kelly._

O' a' the months o' the year curse a fair Februar.

O' bairns' gifts ne'er be fain; nae sooner they gie than they tak it again.

O' gude advis.e.m.e.nt comes nae ill.

O' ill debtors men get aiths.

"Aith," or oath, is here used in the sense of promise, signifying that from "ill debtors" men get not money but promises, which, of course, are never performed.

Oh for a drap o' gentle blude, that I may wear black abune my brow.

"In Scotland no woman is suffered to wear a silk hood unless she be a gentlewoman; that is, a gentleman's daughter, or married to a gentleman. A rich maid having the offer of a wealthy yeoman, or a bare gentleman, wished for the last, to qualify her to wear a black hood. It is since spoken to such wealthy maidens upon the like occasion."--_Kelly._

O' little meddling comes muckle care.

On painting and fighting look abeigh.

On the sea sail, on the land settle.

Onything for ye about an honest man's house but a day's wark.

"Onything sets a gude face," quo' the monkey wi' the mutch on.

Open confession is gude for the soul.

Oppression will mak a wise man wud.

O' the marriages in May, the bairns die o' decay.

O' twa ills choose the least.

Our ain reek's better than ither folk's fire.

Our sins and debts are aften mair than we think.

Our sowens are ill sour'd, ill seil'd, ill sauted, ill sodden, thin, an'

little o' them. Ye may stay a' night, but ye may gang hame if ye like.

It's weel kenn'd your faither's son was ne'er a scambler.

This proverb is, we think, fairly ent.i.tled to rank as the second longest on record, the first being, as recorded by Trench, the German one, "Folk say there is a lack of four people on earth," &c.

Kelly says that "this was a speech of a countrywoman of mine to a guest that she would gladly have shaken off, and being so oddly expressed it became a proverb, which we repeat when we think our friend does not entertain us heartily."

Out o' debt, out o' danger.

Out o' G.o.d's blessing into the warm sun.

Out o' Davy Lindsay into Wallace.

"Davy Lindsay and Wallace" were two books formerly used in schools; and the proverb is used when a person changes, or, more properly, advances from one thing to another.

Out on the highgate is aye fair play.

Out o' sight, out o' languor.

"Long absent, soon forgotten."--_English._

Out o' the peat pot into the gutter.

"Out of the frying pan into the fire."--_English._

"Out of the mire into the brook."--_Spanish._

Out o' the warld and into Kippen.