There is an excellent Scottish version of the common proverb, "He that's born to be hanged will never be drowned."--The water will never warr[133], the widdie, i.e. never cheat the gallows. This saying received a very naive practical application during the anxiety and alarm of a storm. One of the passengers, a good simple-minded minister, was sharing the alarm that was felt around him, until spying one of his parishioners, of whose ignominious end he had long felt persuaded, he exclaimed to himself, "Oh, we are all safe now," and accordingly accosted the poor man with strong assurances of the great pleasure he had in seeing him on board.
It's ill getting the breeks aff the Highlandman is a proverb that savours very strong of a Lowland Scotch origin. Having suffered loss at the hands of their neighbours from the hills, this was a mode of expressing the painful truth that there was little hope of obtaining redress from those who had no means at their disposal.
Proverbs connected with the bagpipes I set down as legitimate Scotch, as thus--Ye are as lang in tuning your pipes as anither wad play a spring[134]. You are as long of setting about a thing as another would be in doing it.
There is a set of Scottish proverbs which we may group together as containing one quality in common, and that in reference to the Evil Spirit, and to his agency in the world. This is a reference often, I fear, too lightly made; but I am not conscious of anything deliberately profane or irreverent in the following:--
The deil's nae sae ill as he's caa'd. The most of people may be found to have some redeeming good point: applied in Guy Mannering by the Deacon to Gilbert Glossin, upon his intimating his intention to come to his shop soon for the purpose of laying in his winter stock of groceries.
To the same effect, It's a sin to lee on the deil. Even of the worst people, truth at least should be spoken.
He should hae a lang-shafted spune that sups kail wi' the deil. He should be well guarded and well protected that has to do with cunning and unprincipled men.
Lang ere the deil dee by the dyke-side. Spoken when the improbable death of some powerful and ill-disposed person is talked of.
Let ae deil ding anither. Spoken when too bad persons are at variance over some evil work.
The deil's bairns hae deil's luck. Spoken enviously when ill people prosper.