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Shetland Folk-Lore
is doomed to disappointment; but he comforts himself by saying:
“There's as guid a fish i' the sea as ever wis ta'en.”
“The sea bids come again.”
Further:
“Better that ae heart breaks than a' the world winders”—
Better patiently to bear one's own troubles alone, than to publish them abroad as material for gossip.
“When my hat is on, my family is covered.”
“Better loose than ill tethered.”
“It's a silly hen that canna scrape for hersel'.”
These are expressions of a disappointed lover, or the spinster doomed to single bliss.
“Du'll sole dy socks wi' lesser claith.”
This saying is given as a rebuke to one who aspires beyond her position.
Several of these old sayings show that the Shetlanders were a people accustomed
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