=A bad shift is better than none.=
=Better sup wi' a cutty nor want a spune.=--_Scotch._
A cutty is a spoon with a stumpy handle or none at all. It is not a
very convenient implement, but it will serve at a pinch.
=A bad bush is better than the open field.=
=A wee bush is better nor nae bield.=--_Scotch._
Bield, shelter. A man's present occupation may not be lucrative, or
his connections as serviceable as he could wish, but he should not
therefore quit them until he has better.
=Half a loaf is better than no bread.=
=I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.=
A shaft is an arrow for the longbow, a bolt is for the crossbow.
=If I canna do it by might I'll do it by slight.=--_Scotch._
"It's best no to be rash," said Edie Ochiltree--
=Sticking disna gang by strength, but by the guiding o' the
gully.=--_Scotch._
A gully is a butcher's knife. There is a knack even in slaughtering a
pig.
=There goes reason to the roasting of eggs.=
=Many ways to kill a dog besides hanging him.=
A story told by the African traveller, Richardson, supplies an apt
illustration of this proverb. An Arab woman preferred another man to
her husband, and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed. Her
lord, instead of flying into a passion and killing her on the spot,
thought a moment, and said, "I will consent to divorce you if you
will promise me one thing." "What is that?" the wife eagerly asked.
"You must _looloo_ to me only on your wedding day." This _looloo_ is
a peculiar cry with which it is customary for brides to salute any
handsome passer-by. The woman gave the promise required, the divorce
took place, and the marriage followed. On the day of the ceremony the
ex-husband passed the camel on which the bride rode, and gave her the
usual salute by discharging his firelock, in return for which she
loolooed to him according to promise. The new bridegroom, enraged at
this marked preference--for he noticed that she had not greeted any
one else--and suspecting that he was duped, instantly fell upon the
bride and slew her. He had no sooner done so than her brothers came
up and shot him dead, so that the first husband found himself amply
avenged without having endangered himself in the slightest degree.
"Contrivance is better than force" (French).[583] Lysander of Sparta
was reproached for relying too little on open valour in war, and
too much on ruses not always worthy of a descendant of Hercules. He
replied, in allusion to the skin of the Nemæan beast worn by his great
ancestor, "Where the lion's skin comes short we must eke it out with
the fox's."
=It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog=; _or_,
=It is easy to find a stone to throw at a dog.=
It is easy for the strong to find an excuse for maltreating the weak.
"On a little pretext the wolf seizes the sheep" (French),[584] or the
lamb, as the fable shows. "If you want to flog your dog say he ate the
poker" (Spanish).[585] "If a man wants to thrash his wife, let him ask
her for drink in the sunshine" (Spanish),[586] for then what can be
easier for him than to pick a quarrel with her about the motes in the
clearest water?
=A handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with.=
Everything to its proper use. In Italy they say, "With the Gospel
sometimes one becomes a heretic." Disraeli, and after him Dean Trench,
have given to this proverb an erroneous interpretation, founded on
a false reading. Their version of it is "Coll' Evangelo si diventa
heretico." Here there is no qualifying "sometimes;" the proposition is
put absolutely, and the two English writers consider it to be a popular
"confession that the maintenance of the Romish system and the study
of Holy Scripture cannot go together." It would certainly be "not a
little remarkable," if it were true, "that such a confession should
have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation;" but
the fact is that nothing more is meant by the proverb than what the
Inquisition itself might sanction. It is only a pointed way of saying
that anything, however good, is liable to be used mischievously.[587]