Claw for claw, as Conon said to Satan

26 January · Scottish Highlands

Lore and belief

On St Conon’s Day Chambers recalled a Highland proverb that put words into the saint’s mouth during a fight with the Devil. Conon, a seventh-century bishop of Man and the Southern Isles, was remembered with reverence in the Highlands until the Reformation. The saying seems to preserve a lost legend of the holy man meeting Satan in a scratching match.

' Claw for claw,' as Conon said to Satan, ' and the devil take the shortest nails,' is a proverb of the Highlanders

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 165. Read the original

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