RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, ETC. 67 



always more tyrannically used and worse borne than one 

 descending from the immediate head; so that a servant 

 when he reigneth is really one of the things, as Agur saith, 

 which the earth cannot, or can hardly, bear. 



* # * # 

 Secondly, a summer angler is rather a dangerous visitor, 



particular if he have his fishing rod in a waterproof bag, 

 and a new basket on his back, rather well stuffed with 

 clean shirts and stockings. Be sure to observe his feet. 

 If he have on fine boots or shoes, you may note him 

 down as a fool and a ninny ; if he have good strong neat's- 

 leather shoes, well shod with iron, you may mark him 

 down as a customer. Many such have I been saddled 

 with, not for days, but weeks at a time. But really, if 

 it were not that they are all such potent eaters and terrible 

 drinkers, they are generally rather fine fellows. A man 

 can hardly be fond of rural sports without having some 

 good-humoured and amiable qualities. It is only the 

 frequency and length of their visits, else they could not be 

 accounted one of the evils under the sun. I suppose there 

 was no angling in Jordan ; therefore Agur could not be 

 expected to include this among his intolerable things. 



* # * * 

 Fourthly, the misery in these two last cases is reci- 

 procal; for before a genteel townsman would see a 

 countryman, who had been kind to him, and entertained 

 him in his peregrinations, approach his elegant habitation, 

 " he would see the deil puling heather," as John Brunton. 



