An etymological dictionary of the Scottish language, Volume 1

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Gardner, 1879 - English language - 328 pages

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Page 31 - But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
Page 291 - MY JO. JOHN Anderson my jo, John, When we were first acquent ; Your locks were like the raven, Your bonnie brow was brent ; But now your brow is beld, John Your locks are like the snaw ; But blessings on your frosty pow, John Anderson my jo.
Page 18 - The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy. Still thou art blest compared wi' me ! The present only toucheth thee : But, och ! I backward cast my e'e On prospects drear, An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an
Page 157 - They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide...
Page 152 - Belyve*, the elder bairns come drapping in, At service out, amang the farmers roun' * ; Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie' rin A cannie errand to a neebor town : Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu...
Page 271 - O wha is this has don this deid, This ill deid don to me, To send me out this time o' the yeir, To sail upon the se!
Page 114 - The performance of this pastime requires two parties of equal number, each of them having a base or home, as it is usually called, to themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty yards. The players then on either side taking hold of hands, extend themselves in length, and opposite to each other, as far as they conveniently can, always remembering that one of them must touch the base ; when any one of them quits the hand of his fellow and runs into the field, which is called giving the chase,...
Page 157 - The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that, every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my...
Page 157 - ... against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another, in size and shape as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal until it be perfectly black ; they put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet ; every one blindfold draws out a portion.
Page 323 - To present a bull's head before a person at a feast, was, in the ancient turbulent times of Scotland, a common signal for his assassination. Thus, Lindsay of Pitscottie relates in his History, p. 17, that, ' efter the dinner was endit, once alle the delicate courses taken away, the Chancellor (Sir William Crichton) presentit the bullis head befoir the Earle of Douglas, in signe and toaken of condemnation to the death.

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