Ye fand it whar the Highlandman fand the tangs (i.e. at the fireside). A hit at our mountain neighbours, who occasionally took from the Lowlands--as having found--something that was never lost.
His head will ne'er rive (i.e. tear) his father's bonnet. A picturesque way of expressing that the son will never equal the influence and ability of his sire.
His bark is waur nor his bite. A good-natured apology for one who is good-hearted and rough in speech.
Do as the cow of Forfar did, tak a standing drink. This proverb relates to an occurrence which gave rise to a lawsuit and a whimsical legal decision. A woman in Forfar, who was brewing, set out her tub of beer to cool. A cow came by and drank it up. The owner of the cow was sued for compensation, but the bailies of Forfar, who tried the case, acquitted the owner of the cow, on the ground that the farewell drink, called in the Highlands the dochan doris[142], or stirrup-cup, taken by the guest standing by the door, was never charged; and as the cow had taken but a standing drink outside, it could not, according to the Scottish usage, be chargeable. Sir Walter Scott has humorously alluded to this circumstance in the notes to Waverley, but has not mentioned it as the subject of an old Scotch proverb.
Bannocks are better nor nae kind o' bread. Evidently Scottish. Better have oatmeal cakes to eat than be in want of wheaten loaves.
Folly is a bonny dog. Meaning, I suppose, that many are imposed upon by the false appearances and attractions of vicious pleasures.
The e'ening brings a' hame is an interesting saying, meaning, that the evening of life, or the approach of death, softens many of our political and religious differences. I do not find this proverb in the older collections, but Sir William Maxwell justly calls it "a beautiful proverb, which, lending itself to various uses, may be taken as an expression of faith in the gradual growth and spread of large-hearted Christian charity, the noblest result of our happy freedom of thought and discussion." The literal idea of the "e'ening bringing a' hame," has a high and illustrious antiquity, as in the fragment of Sappho, [Greek: 'Espere, panta phereis--phereis oin (or oinon) phereis aiga, phereis maeteri paida]--which is thus paraphrased by Lord Byron in Don Juan, iii. 107:--
"O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things--
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer;
To the young birds the parent's brooding wings,