Part 123

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 butter in the black dog's hause.

That is, a dangerous position, as butter 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 circumstances, 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 Berwickshire, 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 assemble 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 fashion.

Like Orkney butter, neither gude to eat nor creesh woo.