Part 26

Auld use and wont hings about the fire.

Old manners and customs are difficult to be got rid of.

Auld wives and bairns mak fools o' physicians.

Auld wives were aye gude maidens.

A vaunter and a liar are near akin.

A wa' between best preserves friendship.

Meaning that friends are best separate.

A wad is a fule's argument.

"Fools, for argument, lay wagers."--Butler.

A waited pat's lang o' boiling.

A wamefu's a wamefu' wer't but o' bare cauf.

A bellyful is a bellyful, no matter what kind of meat is taken. A variation occurs in St Ronan's Well:--"A wamefu's a wamefu' whether it be o' barley meal or bran."

A wee bush is better than nae beild.

"Dame Elspeth is of good folk, a widow, and the mother of orphans,--she will give us house-room until something be thought upon. These evil showers make the low bush better than no beild."--The Monastery.

A wee house has a wide throat.

A wee house weel fill'd, a wee piece land weel till'd, a wee wife weel will'd, will mak a happy man.

A wee mouse will creep beneath a muckle corn stack.

A wee spark maks muckle wark.

A wee thing fleys cowards.

A wee thing puts your beard in a bleeze.

A wee thing ser's a cheerfu' mind.

A wet May and a winnie, brings a fu' stackyard and a finnie.

"Implying that rain in May and dry winds afterwards produce a plentiful crop, with that mark of excellence by which grain is generally judged of by connoisseurs--a good feeling in the hand."--Robert Chambers.

A whang off a cut kebbuck's never miss'd.

A wife is wise enough when she kens her gudeman's breeks frae her ain kirtle.

Kelly gives a very indifferent version of this proverb, and says, "This is old, and a good one if rightly understood: that is, she is a good wife who knows the true measure of her husband's authority and her obedience."

A wight man ne'er wanted a weapon.

A wild goose ne'er laid tame eggs.