=The greatest barkers bite not sorest.=
=Great barkers are nae biters.=--_Scotch._
Those who threaten most loudly are not the most to be feared. "Timid
dogs bark worse than they bite" (Latin),[645] was a proverb of the
Bactrians, as Quintus Curtius informs us. The Turks say, "The dog
barks, but the caravan passes." "What matters the barking of the dog
that does not bite?" (German);[646] but "Beware of a silent dog and of
still water" (Latin).[647] "The silent dog bites first" (German).[648]
"A fig for our democrats!" Horace Walpole wrote in 1792. "Barking dogs
never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous
action. They said nothing, and did everything. Ours say everything, and
will do nothing."
=Threatened folk live long.=
"Longer lives he that is threatened than he that is hanged"
(Italian).[649] "More are threatened than are stabbed" (Spanish).[650]
"Threatened folk, too, eat bread" (Portuguese).[651] "David did not
slay Goliath with words" (Icelandic).[652] "No one dies of threats"
(Dutch).[653] "Not all threateners fight" (Dutch).[654] "Some threaten
who are afraid" (French).[655] "A curse does not knock an eye out
unless the fist go with it" (Danish).[656] "The cat's curse hurts the
mice less than her bite" (Livonian).
=Lang mint, little dint.=--_Scotch._
That is, a blow long aimed or threatened has little force; or, as
the Italians and Spaniards say, "A blow threatened was never well
given."[657]
=Silence grips the mouse.=
"A mewing cat was never a good mouser" (Spanish).[658] "He that
threatens warns" (German).[659] "He that threatens wastes his anger"
(Portuguese).[660] "The threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance"
(Spanish).[661] "Threats are arms for the threatened" (Italian).[662]
=Fleying [frightening] a bird is no the way to grip it.=--_Scotch._
=The way to catch a bird is no to fling your bonnet at her.=--_Scotch._
"Hares are not caught with beat of drum" (French).[663]
=Let not your mousetrap smell of blood.=
=Never show your teeth when you can't bite.=
=Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.=
=A boaster and a liar are cousins german.=
"Believe a boaster as you would a liar" (Italian).[664] "Who is the
greatest liar? He that talks most of himself" (Chinese).
=The greatest talkers are always the least doers.=
=Great boast, small roast.=
"Great vaunters, little doers" (French).[665] "It is not the hen which
cackles most that lays most eggs" (Dutch).[666] "A long tongue betokens
a short hand" (Spanish).[667]
=Saying gangs cheap.=--_Scotch._
=Saying and doing are two things.=
"From saying to doing is a long stretch" (French).[668] "Words are
female, deeds are male" (Italian).[669] "Words will not do for my aunt,
for she does not trust even deeds" (Spanish).[670]
=His wind shakes no corn.=--_Scotch._
=Harry Chuck ne'er slew a man till he cam nigh him.=--_Scotch._
Harry Chuck is understood to have been a vapouring fellow of the
Ancient Pistol order, one of those who would give "A great stab to
a dead Moor" (Spanish).[671] "It is easy to frighten a bull from
the window" (Italian).[672] "Many are brave when the enemy flees"
(Italian).[673]
=It is well said, but who will bell the cat?=--_Scotch._
"The mice consult together how to take the cat, but they do not agree
upon the matter" (Livonian). "Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man
remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of
Bell-the-Cat upon the following remarkable occasion:--When the Scottish
nobility assembled to deliberate on putting the obnoxious favourites
of James III. to death, Lord Grey told them the fable of the mice, who
resolved that one of their number should put a bell round the neck of
the cat, to warn them of its coming; but no one was so hardy as to
attempt it. 'I understand the moral,' said Angus; 'I will bell the
cat.' He bearded the king to purpose by hanging the favourites over the
bridge of Lauder; Cochran, their chief, being elevated higher than the
rest."--(_Note to Marmion._)
=Self-praise is no commendation.=
=Self-praise stinks.=
=Ye live beside ill neebours.=--_Scotch._
=Your trumpeter is dead.=
The last two are taunts addressed to persons who sound their own
praises.
=A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggen
o't.=--_Scotch._
A man does not prove the depth and sincerity of his sentiments by an
ostentatious display of them.
=Good wine needs no bush.=
=Gude ale needs nae wisp.=--_Scotch._
A bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay or straw hung up at a roadside
house, is a sign that drink is sold within. This custom, which still
lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and
prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among
whom a bunch of ivy, the plant sacred to Bacchus, was appropriately
used as the sign of a wine-shop. They, too, used to say, "Vendible wine
needs no ivy hung up."[674] "Good wine needs no crier" (Spanish).[675]
"It sells itself" (Spanish).[676] "Bosky" is one of the innumerable
euphemisms for "drunk." Probably the phrase, "he is bosky," originally
conveyed an allusion to the symbolical use of the bush, with which all
good fellows were familiar in the olden time.