Having suffered loss at the hands of their neighbours from the hills, this was a mode of expressing the painful truth that there was little hope of obtaining redress from those who had no _means_ at their disposal.
Proverbs connected with the bagpipes I set down as legitimate Scotch, as thus--_Ye are as lang in tuning your pipes as anither wad play a spring_[134].

You are as long of setting about a thing as another would be in doing it.
There is a set of Scottish proverbs which we may group together as containing one quality in common, and that in reference to the Evil Spirit, and to his agency in the world.

This is a reference often, I fear, too lightly made; but I am not conscious of anything deliberately profane or irreverent in the following:-- _The deil's nae sae ill as he's caa'd_.

The most of people may be found to have some redeeming good point: applied in _Guy Mannering_ by the Deacon to Gilbert Glossin, upon his intimating his intention to come to his shop soon for the purpose of laying in his winter stock of groceries.
To the same effect, _It's a sin to lee on the deil_.

Even of the worst people, _truth_ at least should be spoken.
_He should hae a lang-shafted spune that sups kail wi' the deil._ He should be well guarded and well protected that has to do with cunning and unprincipled men.
_Lang ere the deil dee by the dyke-side._ Spoken when the improbable death of some powerful and ill-disposed person is talked of.
_Let ae deil ding anither_.