Proverbs and Sayings of the Isle of Man.
255
45a. Dy beagh er e volg myr t'ee er e dreeym,
- Shimmey mac dooinney yinnagh ee harrish y cheym =
- If it were on its belly as it is on its back,
- Many a son of man would it put over the stile (see Health and Insects).
97b. Litcheragh goll dy lhie, litcheragh dy irree,
- As litcheragh dy goll dys y cheeill Je-doonee =
- Lazy to go to bed, lazy to rise,
- And lazy to go to church on Sunday (see Industry and House).
127a. Clagh ny killagh ayns kione[1] dty hie wooar = [May] a stone of the church [be found] in the head of thy dwelling[2] (see House).
60*. — Bureaucracy.
172. As stiff as the staff of government.[3]
62. — Rulers.
237a. Raad mooar Ree Gorree = The great road of King Orry (see The Sun, Persons).
252a. Duke of Atholl, King of Man,
- Is the greatest man in all the lan' (see Persons).
63, 64. — Justice, Laws.
173. Tra ta'n gheay 'sy villey yiow shiu magh yn Ghuilley-glass = When the wind is in the tree you will get the Lockman.[4]
174. Yn loam leigh, yn loam chair = Bare law, bare justice.
- ↑ Another version gives corneil, "corner".
- ↑ This was once the greatest curse that could be applied by one person to another. It evidently referred to sacrilege, which the Manx held in the greatest abhorrence and superstitious dread.
- ↑ Applied to a person whose carriage is stiff and erect. Its origin was a white staff, which the Governor of the Island received on his instalment, swearing that he will "truly and uprightly deal between the Queen and her subjects, and as indifferently betwixt party and party as this staff now standeth".
- ↑ An officer corresponding with the sheriff's officer in England.
