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.

_The deil's a busy bishop in his ain diocie_. Bad men are sure to be
active in promoting their own bad ends. A quaint proverb of this class I
have been told of as coming from the reminiscences of an old lady of
quality, to recommend a courteous manner to every one: _It's aye gude to
be ceevil, as the auld wife said when she beckit[135] to t