A SCOTS- PROVERB [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]. .
.
SIR, --7- Friday's hair and Sunday's horn goes to the dule on Monday morn,"- is a very intriguing proverb; and one doeS not wonder that Mrs. Campbell Clover-has been puzzled by it.
It certainly seems to have an Ecclesiastes-flavour, and' to suggest that fasting and, feasting come all to the same thing in the end, are all vanity and vexation of spirit. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary gives no light, exeept to tell what- is well known, that " dule " means grief or - sorrow. - The Oxford English Dictionary - gives no direct -light either, -but it does tell us that " hair," in older English, "Andre," means a -hair shirt for doing penance,- and that ." horn can mean both a drinking vessel and the liquor in the vessel. - - • - - Friday, as all know, was .(and is) the great day for fasting and penance, while Sunday, in • mediaeval Scotland, was no strict and - severe Sabbath, but a day often filled with feasting and merriment. But, says our proverb, when both alike are past and= over, on Monday- morning,- they leiye behind nothing but memories of sorrow or disappointment: —I am, Sir, &c., Jsreas B. Jonweram. - St. Andrew's Manse, Falkirk.
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