ir promises at the marriage-making, but few at the tocher-paying.

A man may "promise like a merchant and pay like a man-of-war's-man;"
that is, promise anything that may be asked, for the sake of
concluding a bargain, but which, once made, he is in no haste to
perform.

Mony gude-nights is laith away.

"He shakes hands often who is loath to go."--_French._

Mony hands maks light work.

Mony hawes, mony snawes.

"When there is a great exhibition of blossoms on the hedgerows, the
ensuing winter will be a remarkable one for snow storms."--_Robert
Chambers._

Mony hounds may soon worry ae hare.

Mony kinsfolk but few friends.

Mony 'll sup wi' little din, that wadna gree at moolin in.

Mony littles mak a muckle.

Mony purses haud friends lang thegither.

Mony rains, mony rowans; mony rowans, mony yewns.

"Yewns being light grain. The rowans are the fruit of the mountain
ash, which never are ripe till harvest. It is a common observation,
that an abundance of them generally follows a wet season."--_Robert
Chambers._

Mony sae "weel" when it ne'er was waur.

"Spoken to them that say 'well' by way of resentment."--_Kelly._

Mony time I hae got a wipe wi' a towel, but ne'er a daub wi' a dishclout
before.

Or reprimanded by a person who had authority to do so, but never
roughly handled by one who had no right to interfere. Kelly says
this is "spoken by saucy girls when one jeers them with an unworthy
sweetheart."

Mony ways to kill a dog though ye dinna hang him.

Mony words dinna fill the firlot.

A "firlot" is a fourth part of a boll, dry measure. Equivalent to
the proverb, "Many words go to a sackful."--_Dutch._

Mony words, muckle drouth.

Mony wyte their wife for their ain thriftless life.

That is, many persons blame others for what are the consequences of
their own faults. Kelly says, "I never saw a Scottish woman who had
not this at her finger's end."

Mouths are nae measure.

The Irish are not of this opinion, for it is recorded that one of
them said his mouth held exactly a glass of whisky--that is, if he
could have retained it; but there was a hole in the bottom of it
which continually prevented him from proving the fact.

Mows may come to earnest.

"To 'mow,' to speak in mockery."--_Jamieson._

Moyen does muckle, but money does mair.

Influence or interest does much, b