Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

450 ROADS.
lander, from whom he has borrowed the term and the
expedient both.
This is not the only travelling direction, however, by
which a Southron is here troubled. We might imagine
that the Highlanders, not less than their Lowland neigh-
bours, were an astronomical or a maritime race. If the
question is about the direction of a place, the answer is,
" by the card"—on the rhumb line. " Which is the way
to Fort William, or to PitteuAveera," as it may happen.
" Ye'll had straght east :"—and that is all the answer
you can get, though your road should serpentize, and
diverge, and intersect on every point round the compass.
Indeed they deal only with the east and the west; and
the simplest translation of either is, follow your nose. It
is probable, however, that their affection for the term
east may have a Druid ical origin ; as the boy at Mr. Mac-
kenzie's inn desired his barefooted colleague Peggy to
ripe the ribs and put the poker east the grate, while
another had described a female, whose name he did not
know, as the lady who had flowers " east her head."
But the directions for finding- roads are not limited to
east and west, and miles and bitties. These are direct
answers ; and who needs be told that no Scot will give a
direct answer, if he can find a question to return. "Which
is the road." " Belike ye're no acquainted in these
parts"— or, "Ye'll be fae the south I'm thinking,"— or,
—"and where do ye come fae," and so on, to the end
of the traveller's patience. It is not less consolatory to
be told, when in doubt, or when you are sure that the
matter s utterly impracticable, " Ye cauna miss't —
keep straght forward." You see the bog before you.
" Are there any bogs,"— " Aye, it's rather saft."— " Can
I cross the ford."— "Troth, I think ye may."—"But I
may be drowned." — "Indeed and it's like."— "How