[scots-l] Here's tae us! Wha's like us?

[David Kilpatrick]

Ref Nigel's comments about the arrogance of this toast, I just sort of concurred in replying that the toast with its response 'Damn few, and they're a' deid!' was 'arrogant' (Nigel's word).

But is it? I have never heard the toast used that way, and I've heard it used a few times at our music sessions locally - and always quite gently, the implication being far from arrogance, but affection for old customs and manners.

Think about -

Here's to us...

Who's like us?

Very few, and they're all dead...

Is not saying anything apart from 'well, here we are still, and there's not many left of our kind/persuasions/generation/religion/lack of dress sense... amongst the living!'

That strikes me as a fairly good-humoured, self-deprecating toast and not arrogance at all. I have no idea why I so readily accepted the concept that the toast was arrogant.

David

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