29.10.2010

Shetland.    A  Shetlandic  proverb  remarkable  for  the  reiteration  of  the  word  " cood. "


A man considering himself unjustly blamed for not doing what he considered had been beyond his power, and so feeling aggrieved replied : 

" Foo cooda quin a coodna?

                 Cooda dae mair or a cood, cooda ?"

(Eng. " How could I when I could not ?  Could I do more than I could, could I ? ")

Communicated to Mr. Black by Mr. A. K. WILLIAMSON, a native of Shetland.

Source: Country Folk-Lore Vol. III, Examples of printed folk-lore concerning the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black and edited by Northcote W. Thomas; published for the Folk-Lore Society by David Nutt, 57-59 Long Acre, London, 1903