A NORTH COUNTRY PROVERB [To . the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—" Many a mickle makes a muclde " is so complete in alliteration and so happy in assonance that we need not be surprised at its _currency ; but we in the North are greatly amused, nevertheless, for " mickle " and " muelde " are the same word, used in different districts with the same meaning. Give a falsehood ten minutes start, it has been mid, and you can never overtake it ; the same is true, apparently, of a false proverb. This one, at least, has been corrected a hundred times, yet a correspondent in a recent issue of the Spectator reproduces it as calmly as ever and labours it to the full. Perhaps the corrections have too often appeared where they are not needed, and too seldom where they are. The proverb cannot, however, be said to have only a single proper form, but " mony littles mak a muckle," or " mickle," is one ; and " mony pickles mak a puckle " is another. In this latter expression of the idea " pickle " and " pucide " are no doubt originally the same, but the word has grown to be ambiguous, and the variation helps to convey the proper sense, whereas there is no such useful ambiguity in the case of " mickle " or " muckle."—I am, Sir, 8w., J. M.
[We have often heard " Many a little makes a mickle," and Steele used the proverb in that form in the Spectator of 1712.—Em. Spectator.]
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