Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/382

 350 Collectanea.

It is unlucky to write a prescription on black-edged notepaper.

It is unlucky to shake hands twice when saying good-bye.

If shingles meet round the body, the illness will be fatal.

If your left ear burns, your lover is thinking of you ; if your right ear, your mother is thinking of you.

If the wind changes when you are " making a face," your face will permanently keep the expression : said as a warning to children.

Proverbs and Sayings.

" There's great stots in Ireland, but they canna win oure for their horns"; said contemptuously to a boaster.

" We maun just mak' o' the warl' as the warl' wuU mak' wi's."

" The crab fills wi' the corn."

" Foul saut's gueed eneuch for hairy butter."'

"There's but an ill year betwixt a rich man an' a peer (poor); said of farmers."

"Ye never see them gaen fae Auchtermair to Auchterless"; said of ministers.

"I dinna bile my cabbages twice"; said when asked to repeat a remark.

"The fire's the bonniest flower in the garden"; said in cold weather.

" A len' should aye gae lauchin bame " ; i.e. should be returned with some small addition.

" He's feared o' the death he'll never dee"'; said of a nervous man. " There is a toon ayont the sea, They ca't the toon o' Ayr, An' them that winna dae weel here, Winna dae weel there."

{Aberdee?i Evenitig Express, Ap. 1 1, 1907.) Cf. Horace, '■'•Ccelum non afiitnutn" etc.

Local Proverbs.

Fyvie. — " The parish o' Fyvie's sap, tends to run into the cap." Torniiiiotil. — It is said that the Deil when flying over Tomintoul says, " Bonny Tomintoul ! ye're a' my ain bairns ! " Probably of Protestant origin, as there are many Catholics there.