Do as the cow of Forfar did, tak a standing drink.  This proverb relates to an occurrence which gave rise to a lawsuit and a whimsical legal decision.  A woman in Forfar, who was brewing, set out her tub of beer to cool.  A cow came by and drank it up.  The owner of the cow was sued for compensation, but the bailies of Forfar, who tried the case, acquitted the owner of the cow, on the ground that the farewell drink, called in the Highlands the dochan doris[142], or stirrup-cup, taken by the guest standing by the door, was never charged; and as the cow had taken but a standing drink outside, it could not, according to the Scottish usage, be chargeable.  Sir Walter Scott has humorously alluded to this circumstance in the notes to Waverley, but has not mentioned it as the subject of an old Scotch proverb.

Bannocks are better nor nae kind o’ bread. Evidently Scottish.  Better have oatmeal cakes to eat than be in want of wheaten loaves.

Folly is a bonny dog. Meaning, I suppose, that many are imposed upon by the false appearances and attractions of vicious pleasures.

The e’ening brings a’ hame is an interesting saying, meaning, that the evening of life, or the approach of death, softens many of our political and religious differences.  I do not find this proverb in the older collections, but Sir William Maxwell justly calls it “a beautiful proverb, which, lending itself to various uses, may be taken as an expression of faith in the gradual growth and spread of large-hearted Christian charity, the noblest result of our happy freedom of thought and discussion.”  The literal idea of the “e’ening bringing a’ hame,” has a high and illustrious antiquity, as in the fragment of Sappho, [Greek:  ’Espere, panta phereis—­phereis oin (or oinon) phereis aiga, phereis maeteri paida]—­which is thus paraphrased by Lord Byron in Don Juan, iii. 107:—­

     “O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things—­
       Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer;
     To the young birds the parent’s brooding wings,
       The welcome stall to the o’erlaboured steer, etc. 
     Thou bring’st the child, too, to the mother’s breast.”

A similar graceful and moral saying inculcates an acknowledgment of gratitude for the past favours which we have enjoyed when we come to the close of the day or the close of life—­

     Ruse[143] the fair day at e’en.

But a very learned and esteemed friend has suggested another reading of this proverb, in accordance with the celebrated saying of Solon (Arist.  Eth.  N.I. 10):  [Greek:  Kata Solona chreon telos hozan]—­Do not praise the fairness of the day till evening; do not call the life happy till you have seen the close; or, in other matters, do not boast that all is well till you have conducted your undertaking to a prosperous end.

Let him tak a spring on his ain fiddle. Spoken of a foolish and unreasonable person; as if to say, “We will for the present allow him to have his own way.”  Bailie Nicol Jarvie quotes the proverb with great bitterness, when he warns his opponent that his time for triumph will come ere long,—­“Aweel, aweel, sir, you’re welcome to a tune on your ain fiddle; but see if I dinna gar ye dance till’t afore it’s dune.”