N.I.

10): [Greek: Kata Solona chreon telos hozan]--Do not praise the fairness of the day _till_ evening; do not call the life happy _till_ you have seen the close; or, in other matters, do not boast that all is well till you have conducted your undertaking to a prosperous end.
_Let him tak a spring on his ain fiddle._ Spoken of a foolish and unreasonable person; as if to say, "We will for the present allow him to have his own way." Bailie Nicol Jarvie quotes the proverb with great bitterness, when he warns his opponent that _his_ time for triumph will come ere long,--"Aweel, aweel, sir, you're welcome to a tune on your ain fiddle; but see if I dinna gar ye dance till't afore it's dune." _The kirk is meikle, but ye may say mass in ae end o't;_ or, as I have received it in another form, "If we canna preach in the kirk, we can sing mass in the quire." This intimates, where something is alleged to be too much, that you need take no more than what you have need for.

I heard the proverb used in this sense by Sir Walter Scott at his own table.

His son had complained of some quaighs which Sir Walter had produced for a dram after dinner, that they were too large.

His answer was, "Well, Walter, as my good mother used to say, if the kirk is ower big, just sing mass in the quire." Here is another reference to kirk and quire--_He rives[144] the kirk to theik[145] the quire_.