Proverbs and Sayings
light on the social life of our ancestors. They show that the Shetlanders were a contented people:
“Better half an egg than a töm doop.”
“Better a cauld bite than nae bread.”
“Better a moose i' the kale than nae kitchen.”
These all breathe of contentment. It was indeed hard for a mother to set her bairns round a “kitchenless” pot, hence the least seasoning was matter for thankfulness.
“It's a guid day that pits aff the night.”
Here again the same spirit of content is manifest. The old fisherman had toiled all day without success. Night had come and he returns just “with the supper”—nothing for to-morrow; but he comforts himself that the wants of to-night have been met by the toils of to-day.
Perhaps he has been in grips with the baldin (halibut), and fainly hoped to feast on its barr cuts, but just as it came within sight of the boat its last desperate struggle
“made up the skoag,” and the fisherman
205
