Tha king aa cums tha cadgers road.
The word Cadger is used in Scottish as in standard English to mean a travelling hawker (chiefly of fish), or beggar. However in Scots / Ulster-Scots it can also be used to denote "A person of a disagreeable" temper” (J. Sellar Poems (1844)
The Proverb also appears as: The King’s Errand may come in the Cadger’s Gate (Sc. 1737 Ramsay Proverbs 62). The king will come in the cadger’s road. Followed by the explanation: a great man may need the services of a humble one.
This proverb is also referred to in 1894 by D. MacLeod - Past Worthies of Lennox 175: "I telt ye then that the day micht come when the king would come in the cadger’s road, an’ ye micht be gled o’ a nicht’s lodgin’s frae me."
Update: Phililp has kindly reminded me that from cadger we also get the Ulster-Scots word Cadge. "Tae Cadge" is to beg, borrow or peddle.
A similar proverb we used at hame
Lang runs tha Hare
"Lang runs tha hare" A mine it weel, an "It's a lang road haes nae turnin" wud be anither sayin we haed.
ReplyDelete"Cadger" aye, an "tae cadge" meanin tae beg/borrow forby tae peddle.
A thocht ye micht be interestit that the Bard o Ballycarry, James O.rr used "badger" wi tha same meanin as "cadger", especially whaniver he wus a botheration. In "To the Potatoe" he says - "IN COMES THE BADGER, AFT A LANDER (a "lander" is an unexpected visitor that just 'lands in' on ye)