Friend Mac Donald Part 21

Certain dwellers in the Highlands look on it as the eighth deadly sin; the Shakers, on the contrary, consider it as the most edifying of religious exercises.

Between the two, the margin is wide.

Socrates, the wisest of men in the eyes of Apollo, admired this exercise and learned dancing in his old age. Homer speaks of Merion as a good dancer, and adds that the grace and agility he had acquired in dancing rendered him superior to all the Greek and Trojan warriors.

Dancing was among the religious acts of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians. The early Fathers of the Church led the dance of the children at solemn festivals.

The holy king David danced in front of the Ark, as we know by the Scriptures.

Real virtue is amiable, and tolerance and gaiety are its distinguis.h.i.+ng marks.

For my part, I know no more charming sight than those village dances, becoming, alas! more and more rare. Boys and girls gave themselves up to mirthful pleasure without thought of harm, and these pastoral fetes kept alive joy and innocence in the hearts of our villagers. We are growing too serious, the railways and telegraph have upset us and enervated us, we are getting languid and dull.

If I am to believe the Scotch, with whom I have talked on the subject, it is not dancing that they object to, it is the fas.h.i.+on in which people dance nowadays. They admire the contre-dance and minuet, but consider it improper that a man should whirl round a room with a half-dressed lady in his arms.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Wisdom of Scotland. -- Proverbs. -- Morals in Words and Morals in Deeds. -- Maxims. -- The Scot is a Judge of Human Nature. -- Scotch and Norman Proverbs compared. -- Practical Interpretation of a Pa.s.sage of the Bible.

In a country where everyone moralises, one may expect to find a great number of proverbs, those time-honoured oracles of the wisdom of nations.

And, indeed, Scotland, the home of moral phrases _par excellence_, owns more than three thousand proverbs.

These proverbs show up all the characteristics of the Scotch people, their prudence, caution, sagacity, self-confidence, and knowledge of human nature.

Several of them are not exclusively Scotch, whatever the Scotch people may say. We have, in Normandy, many which may differ slightly in the wording, but which express the same ideas, a fact which shows once more how many traits of character the Scot has in common with the Norman.

Here are a few:

_Mony smas mak a muckle._ The French say "Little streams make big rivers."

_Anes payit never cravit_ (no more debts, no more bothers). The French go further when they say: "A man is the richer for paying his debts." I am afraid the truth of this adage might fail to strike the Scotchman at first sight. The only privilege of a proverb is to be incontestable.

This French proverb smacks of the sermon, it oversteps the mark.

_A cat may look at a king._ One man is as good as another. This ill.u.s.trates the independence of the Scotch character.

_Be a frien' to yoursel', an sae will ithers._ "Help yourself and Heaven will help you."

_We'll bark oursels ere we buy dogs sae dear._ A good maxim of political economy: "Don't pay others to do what you can do for yourself."

_A' Stuarts are na sib to the King_: All Stuarts are not related to the King. The French say: "The frock does not make the monk."

_Guid folk are scarce, tak care o' me._ The Normans say: "Good folks are scarce in the parish, take care of me."

_He that cheats me ance, shame fa' him; he that cheats me twice, shame fa' me._ A proverb that well ill.u.s.trates Scotch caution.

The fear of the devil has inspired many Scotch proverbs, which are in constant use still.

_The de'il's nae sae ill as he's caaed._ A delicate little compliment to his Satanic Majesty: the Scot is right, one never knows what may happen, it is as well to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. A personage who receives so few compliments is likely to remember with pleasure the folks who pay them.

The same neat spirit of flattery is visible in the following proverb:

_It's a sin to lee on the de'il._

_The de'il's bairns hae de'il's luck, and the de'il's aye gude to his ain_, are used to hurl at people who excite jealousy by their success.

Scotch sarcasm is well ill.u.s.trated in such a proverb as:

_Ye wad do little for G.o.d gin the de'il war deid._ This is reducing the _unco' guid_ to the level of devil dodgers.

_It's ill to wauken sleepin' dogs._ This is rather hard on the dog, who certainly cannot be considered the emblem of wickedness and hypocrisy.

In France we say: "Do not waken the sleeping cat," and I think with more show of reason.

The following is full of poetry:

_The evening bring a' hame._ The evening brings the family together around the hearth, and in the evening of life man turns his thoughts homewards, forgets the faults of his neighbours, and lays aside disputes and strivings.

_Let him tak a spring on his ain fiddle_, says a proverb that ill.u.s.trates the coolness with which Donald will bide his time. A lawyer, who had to listen to an eloquent tirade of an opponent in court, contented himself with remarking: "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."

The same idea occurs in:

_Ne'er let on but laugh i' your ain sleeve._

_A travelled man has leave to lee_: Folks will not go to far countries to prove his words. O Tartarin de Tarascon!

_Better learn by your neighbour's skaith than your ain skin._ So might Cleopatra have said when she tried the effect of poisons on her slaves before making her own choice.

_Drink little that ye may drink lang_, is a piece of advice Donald has well laid to heart, only he has modified the first part considerably.

I think I have quoted enough proverbs to prove that the Scot has the measure of his neighbour, and knows how to make use of him.

Most of them have a smack of realism which shows that Donald has a serious aim in life, that of being a successful man.

Even the use he makes of the precepts of the Bible proves it. He uses his Bible, but adapts to his purpose the lessons he finds therein.

The Bible is his servant rather than his master, and has this good about it, that with a little cleverness it can be made to prove anything.

If he sometimes come across a precept which is perfectly clear and irrefutable, Donald does not scruple to ignore it.

I was talking with a Scotchman one evening about the different religions of the world, and I remarked to him that when the Mussulmans call us "dogs of Christians," it is not because we are Christians, for they are admirers of the Christian religion, but simply because we do not follow the precepts of Christianity.

"The Mussulmans are quite right," I said, "Christianity is the grandest thing in the world; but Christians are mostly 'Pharisees and hypocrites'