  Line [Most of the proverbs quoted in Martinique are current also in Guadeloupe, only 90 miles distant. All proverbs recognized in Louisiana are marked by an asterisk (*). The indications, Mauritius, Guyana, Martinique, Hayti, etc., do not necessarily imply origin; they refer only to the dialects in which the proverbs are written, and to the works from which they are selected.] Line “When the Acoma has fallen everybody says: ‘It’s only rotten wood.’” “The monkey smothers its young one by hugging it too much.”—[Mart.] “Wait till the hare’s in the pot before you talk.”—Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.—[Mauritius.] “Before the Indian tree (?) bore seed the monkeys were able to nourish their young.”—[Martinique.] “The monkey could nourish its young, before there were any avocadoes.” “Well dressed to-day; only a langouti “To-day drunk with fun, to-morrow the paddle.” Allusion to slavery discipline.—[Mauritius.] “All the cooking-pots are on the fire now.” One man is now as good as another:—this proverb evidently refers to the abolition of slavery.—[Mauritius.] “All the women go to confession now-a-days; but they no sooner return from church, than the devil piles more sins upon them.”—[Mauritius.] “If you see your neighbor’s beard on fire, water your own.” “Scold the flies, scold the meat.”—[Hayti.] “Joke with the monkey as much as you please; but take good care not to handle his tail.”—[Trinidad.] “What troubles the eyes affects the nose.” “Much bagasse and little juice.” (The bagasse is the refuse of the cane, after the sap has been extracted.)—[Mauritius.] “Bathe other people’s children; but don’t wash behind their ears.”—That is to say: Do not be servile in obsequiousness to others.—[Trinidad.] “A new broom’s a clean broom.”—This is a Creolization of our household phrase: “A new broom sweeps clean.”—[Mauritius.] “Shingles cover everything.”—Family roofs often cover a multitude of sins. [Mauritius.] “The stick is not stronger than the sabre.”—[Martinique.] “Blows returned never hurt.”—Vengeance is sweet.—[Mauritius.] “It isn’t one time only that the ox needs his tail to drive the flies away.”—Ironical expression for “you will have need of me again.” “Ox never says ‘Thank you,’ to the pasture.” “When the oxen lift their tails in the air, look out for bad weather.”—[Mauritius.] “It isn’t the fine head-dress that makes the fine negress.”—[Louisiana.] Madame Caba! Tiyon vous tombÉ! Madame Caba, Tiyon vous tombÉ! “Madame Caba, your tiyon’s falling off!” “The rat’s gains are for the serpent.”—[Martinique.] “Good gab saves one’s life.”—[Mauritius.] “The good white man dies; the bad remains.”—[Hayti.] “Fair words buy horses on credit.”—[Trinidad.] “A good dog never gets a good bone.”—Creole adaptation of an old French proverb.—[Martinique.] “A good cock crows in any henhouse.”—Meaning that force of character shows itself under all circumstances.—[Martinique.] “God gives nuts to people who have no teeth.” Originally an Oriental proverb; adopted into Creole from the French. As we say: “A fool for luck.”—[Martinique.] “God gives the little birds in the wood something to eat; judge for yourself, then, whether he will not give a Christian something to eat.”—[Martinique.] —“Eh! Marie! to papÉ travaÏ jordi?” —“Moin?—non!” —“Eh, ben! comment to fÉ pou vive, alors?” —“Ah!....ti zozo li ka boi, li ka mangÉ, li pas travaÏ toujou!” [“Hey, Marie!—Ain’t you going to work to-day?” “I?—no!” “Well then, how do you manage to live?” “Ah!....little bird drinks, little bird eats, little bird doesn’t work all the same!”] “Where there’s a good bed, there’s good housekeeping.”—[Mauritius.] “A good (swift) foot saves a bad (weakly) body.”—Like our proverbial refrain: “He that fights and runs away,” etc. “Idleness leaves the frogs without buttocks.”—[Louisiana.] “Good fortune is never hunch-backed.” (Same proverb in Martinique dialect, and in that of Louisiana.) “The good servant’s tail is cut off.”—Reference to the condition of a dog whose tail is cut off: he can’t wag his tail, because he has no tail to wag! “His mouth never keeps Sunday”—lit: “has no Sunday”—no day of rest.—[Mart.] “Plenty of sugar in the canes; but unfortunately we are not the boilers.”—Said when dishonesty is discovered in the management of affairs.—[Mauritius.] “The belly has no ears.”—[Trinidad.] “He-goat makes the gombo; but Rabbit eats it.” “What you push away from you to-day with your foot, you will pick up to-morrow with your hand.” “What you lose in the fire, you will find in the ashes.”—Meaning that a good deed is never lost. “Cast your bread upon the waters,” etc.—[Martinique.] “What is good for the goose is good for the duck.”—[Martinique.] “He who sulks eats his own belly.” That is to say, spites himself. The pun is untranslatable. “When one sleeps, one doesn’t think about eating.” “He who has once tasted arrack never forgets the taste.”—[Mauritius.] “He who has [would raise] a little millet out of doors, watches for rain.”—[Hayti.] “He who has a pretty daughter receives plenty of salutes.”—[Mauritius.] “Those who eat eggs don’t know whether the chicken suffered.” “He who is swift of foot takes the lead.” Force of character always brings its possessor to the front.—[Mart.] “What is not fit for the bag, is not fit for the maconte.” “He who takes a partner takes a master.”—[Martinique.] “What’s rightly done is never wrongly done.”—That is to say: Never regret anything done for a good motive.—[Mauritius.] “It’s the one who holds the skillet that knows the cost of lard.”—[Mauritius.] “He who kills his own body, works for the worms.” Applicable to those who injure their health by excesses.—[Mauritius.] “Let those who want to hatch hatch their own eggs.”—That is, let everybody mind his or her own business.—[Martinique.] “That will happen in the week of four Thursdays.” “What the eyes don’t see never hurts the heart.” “When the goat drinks, they say the sheep is drunk.”—Meaning that the innocent are made to suffer for the guilty.—[Martinique.] “The goat that climbs up the rocks must climb down again.”—[Guyana.] “The goat does not know how to fight; but his hide beats the charge.”—[Hayti.] “The goat that isn’t cunning never gets fat.”—[Martinique.] “The foolish goat eats at the foot of the hill.”—[Hayti.] “The clay-pot wishes to laugh at the iron pot.” “The roach has come out of the flour-barrel.”—Said to women of color who whiten their faces with rice-powder.—[Mauritius.] “The duck hasn’t enough water to wash with, and he wants enough to swim in.”—Refers to those who live beyond their means.—[Martinique.] “The coward lives a long time.” AlcÉe Leblanc Mo di toi, chÈre, To trop capon Pou payÉ menage! C’est qui di Ça,— Ça que di toi chÈre, AlcÉe Leblanc! In this case the word evidently refers to the niggardliness of AlcÉe, who did not relish the idea of settling $500 or perhaps $1,000 of furniture upon his favorite quadroon girl. The song itself commemorates customs of slavery days. Those who took to themselves colored mistresses frequently settled much property upon them—the arrangement being usually made by the mother of the girl. Housekeeping outfits of this character, constituting a sort of dowry, ranged in value from $500 to even $2,500; and such dowries formed the foundation of many celebrated private lodging houses in New Orleans kept by colored women. The quadroon housekeepers have now almost all disappeared. “Everybody has his own troubles.”—[Mauritius.] “Coal will never make flour.”—You can’t wash a negro white.—[Mauritius.] “Cat’s drinking the oil under the table.”—People are making fun at your expense, though you don’t know it.—[Mauritius.] “A black cat brings money (good luck.)”—[Mauritius.] “The she-cat who has a tom-cat, puts on airs.”—[Mauritius.] “When a cat has been once burned by fire, it is even afraid of cinders.”—[Mauritius.] “Conversation is the food of the ears.”—[Trinidad.] “It is because of his good heart that the crab has no head.” “It’s the knife that knows what’s in the heart of the pumpkin.” “Spoon goes to bowl’s house; bowl never goes to spoon’s house.”—[Hayti.] “It’s before the drum one learns to know Zamba.”—[Hayti.] “It’s the frog’s own tongue that betrays him.”—[Trinidad.] I think the prettiest collection of Creole onomatopoeia made by any folklorist is that in Baissac’s Étude sur le Patois CrÉole Mauricien, pp. 92-95. The delightful little Creole nursery-narrative, in which the cries of all kinds of domestic animals are imitated by patois phrases, deserves special attention. “It’s when the wind is blowing that folks can see the skin of a fowl.”—True character is revealed under adverse circumstances.—[Trinidad.] “It’s in the rainy season that the ox needs his tail.”—(See Martinique proverb No. 20.) [Trinidad.] “It isn’t every day that the devil carries off a poor man.”—[Martinique.] “It’s only the shoes that know if the stockings have holes.”—[Trinidad.] “Every fire-fly makes light for its own soul;” that is to say, “Every one for himself.”—[Martinique.] “When the cat’s away the rats give a ball.”—[Martinique.] “A burnt cat dreads the fire.”—[Louisiana.] “The dog knows how he manages to eat bones.”—[Hayti.] “The bitch never bites her pups to the bone.”—[Hayti.] “The dog that yelps doesn’t bite.”—[Louisiana.] “Dogs do not eat dogs.”—[Louisiana.] “The dog that dungs in the road forgets all about it, but the person who has to remove it does not forget.”—[Martinique.] “The dog is loud-mouthed in the house of his master.”—[Martinique.] “The dog has four paws but is not able to go four different ways [at one time].”—[Martinique.] “The horse remains in the stable, the mule in the field.” “He who laughs on Friday will cry on Sunday.” There is an English proverb, “Sing at your breakfast and you’ll cry at your dinner.”—[Louisiana.] “The pumpkin doesn’t yield the calabash.”—[Hayti.] “The hog knows well what sort of tree to rub himself against.” “AprÈs yÉ tirÉ canon NÈgue sans passe c’est nÈgue-marron.” This referred to the old custom in New Orleans of firing a cannon at eight P.M. in winter, and nine P.M. in summer, as a warning to all slaves to retire. It was a species of modern curfew-signal. Any slave found abroad after those hours, without a pass, was liable to arrest and a whipping of twenty-five lashes. Marron, from which the English word “Maroon” is derived, has a Spanish origin. “It is,” says Skeats, “a clipt form of the Spanish cimarron, wild, unruly: literally, “living in the mountain-tops.” Cimarron, from Span. Cima, a mountain-summit. The original term for “Maroon” was negro-cimarrÓn, as it still is in some parts of Cuba. “As you spread your mat, so must you lie.”—[Mauritius.] “Daddy Tortoise goes slow; but he gets to the goal while Daddy Deer is asleep.” “Conspiracy is stronger than witchcraft.”—[Hayti.] Di moin si to gagnin nhomme! Mo va fÉ ouanga pou li; Mo fÉ li tournÉ fantÔme Si to vlÉ mo to mari.... “Tell me if thou hast a man [a lover]: I will make a ouanga for him—I will change him into a a ghost if thou wilt have me for thy husband.”....This word, of African origin, is applied to all things connected with the voudooism of the negroes. In the song, Dipi mo vouÈ, touÈ AdÈle, from which the above lines are taken, the wooer threatens to get rid of a rival by ouanga—to “turn him into a ghost.” The victims of voudooism are said to have gradually withered away, probably through the influence of secret poison. The word grigri, also of African origin, simply refers to a charm, which may be used for an innocent or innocuous purpose. Thus, in a Louisiana Creole song, we find a quadroon mother promising her daughter a charm to prevent the white lover from forsaking her; Pou tchombÉ li na fÉ grigri—“We shall make a grigri to keep him.” “The adviser is not the payer.” That is to say, the one who gives advice has nothing to lose.—[Mauritius.] “When the cock crows before the door, somebody is coming.” “It isn’t ugly to run, when one isn’t strong enough to stay.”—[Trin.] “A tongue-thrust is worse than a serpent’s sting.”—[Martinique.] “Kicking doesn’t hinder butting.” There is more than one way to revenge oneself.—[Mauritius.] “Cutting off one’s nose is robbing one’s face.”—[Mauritius.] “Cutting off a mule’s ears won’t make him a horse.” “Monkey laughs when the snail dances.” “The horse doesn’t walk with the ass.”—Let each keep his proper place.—[Mauritius.] “Nonsense is not sugar-water” (lemonade), says Thomas. The vulgarity of the French word partly loses its grossness in the Creole.—[Trinidad.] “The crab doesn’t walk, he isn’t fat; he walks too much, and falls into the pot.”—[Trinidad.] “If you spit in the air, it will fall back on your own nose.” “The frog has no shirt, and you want him to wear drawers!”—[Trinidad.] “The water cress loves to drink water.” Used interrogatively, this is equivalent to the old saw: “Does a duck like water?” “Will a duck swim?”—[Mauritius.] “Hang up your maconte where you can reach it with your hand.”—[Hayti.] “When you see the woodlice eating the bottles, hang your calabashes out of their reach.” “When you see the wood-lice eating the pots, the calabashes can’t be expected to resist.” “At a dog’s wedding it’s the witnesses who get hurt.”—[Mauritius.] “Behind the dog’s back it is ‘dog;’ but before the dog it is ‘Mr. Dog.’”—[Trinidad.] “The teeth bite the tongue.”—[Hayti.] “Teeth do not wear mourning.”—meaning that, even when unhappy, people may show their teeth in laughter or smiles.—[Trinidad.] “The teeth are not the heart.” A curious proverb, referring to the exposure of the teeth by laughter. “Tell me whom you love, and I’ll tell you who you are.”—[Louisiana.] “The water that sleeps kills people.” “It’s the men who make the money; ’tisn’t the money that makes the men.”—[Mauritius.] “Before friends one can even take off one’s breeches.”—[Mauritius.] “Before strangers one must keep one’s drawers buttoned.”—[Mauritius.] “Ducks’ eggs are bigger than hens’ eggs.”—Quantity is no guarantee of quality.—[Mauritius.] “It’s the hen that makes the cock’s eggs.”—[Mauritius.] “Water always runs to the river.”—[Louisiana.] “Going gently about a thing won’t prevent its being done.” “It is not hard to do a thing for the sake of doing it.”—[Trinidad.] “One must never put a ’coon into a henhouse.”—[Martinique.] “Never wear mourning before the dead man’s in his coffin.” “Words must die that people may live.”—Ironical; this is said to those who are over-sensitive regarding what is said about them.—[Trinidad.] “Musn’t pluck one’s corn before it’s ripe.”—[Mauritius.] “Musn’t tie up the hound with a string of sausages.”—[Louisiana.] “Make one hole to stop another.” “Borrow money to pay a debt.”—[Mauritius.] “Every jack-knife found on the high-road, will be lost on the high-road.” “Folks who have nothing to do (lit.: who have a fine time) go to bid the Governor good-day.” Gens bon-temps: “fine-time folks.”—[Trinidad.] “Lazy folks ask for work with their lips: but their hearts pray God that they may not find it.”—[Trinidad.] “Folks who advise you to buy a big-bellied horse in a rainy season (when grass is plenty), won’t help you to feed him in the dry season when grass is scarce.” “Where the needle passes thread will follow.” “Fat has no feeling.” “Rags are better than nakedness.” “Half-a-loaf’s better than no bread.”—[Hayti.] “Hate people; but don’t give them baskets to carry water in.”—that is to say: Don’t tell lies about them that no one can believe—stories that “won’t hold water.”—[Trinidad.] “When the garden is far, the gombo is spoiled.” “Never say—‘Spring, I will never drink your water.’” “The devil never sleeps.”—[Martinique.] “We should never count the eggs in the body of the hen.”-(The Creole proverb is, however, less delicate.)—[Martinique.] “Play with the cat, and you’ll get scratched.”—[Martinique.] “Play with the dogs, and you will get fleas.” “To-day for you; to-morrow for me.” “Where the birds build their nests, there they sleep.”—[Martinique.] “The mud laughs at the puddle.”—Like our: “Pot calls kettle black.”—[Mauritius.] “The house roofed with shingles doesn’t look at the hut covered with vetiver.”—[Mauritius.] “Lagniappe is lawful booty.” “Threatened war doesn’t surprise old negroes in the grog-shops.” “Threatened war doesn’t kill many soldiers.”—[Louisiana.] “The ox’s tail says: Time goes, time comes.” “The tongue has no bones.” This proverb has various applications. One of the best alludes to promises or engagements made with the secret determination not to keep them.—[Mauritius.] “Misery for two, is Misery & Co.” “Poverty isn’t a screw; but it’s a very big nail.” The pun will be obvious to a French reader; but vice is not a true Creole word, according to Baissac.—[Mauritius.] “Rabbit says: Drink everything, eat everything, but don’t tell everything.” “It is raining; snails will be out presently.”—[Mauritius.] “When the rain is coming, the bull-frogs sing.”—[Louisiana.] “A donkey’s tail is not a horse’s tail.” Can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.—[Mauritius.] “Money’s good; but it’s too dear.”—[Mauritius.] “Money isn’t to be found in a mule’s hoof.”—[Mauritius.] “Money has no blood relations.”—There is no friendship in business.—[Mauritius.] “The cat’s tail takes time to grow.”—[Louisiana.] “The leprosy says it loves you, while it is eating your fingers.”—[Hayti.] “When the cock begins to crow, he is old enough to get married.”—[Mauritius.] “When the mountain burns, everybody knows it; when the heart burns, who knows it?”—[Mauritius.] “He went to school a kid, and came back a sheep.” “He has sold his pig.” “He’s hunting paliaca-birds.” “He only wants the itch so that he may scratch himself.” Said of a man who has all that his heart can wish for. “He is to be married, they say; but sometimes the marriage-ring slips from one’s finger.” “He is drunk with doing nothing.”—[Mauritius.] “The yam-vine ties the yam.” “A bed for two isn’t a bed for three.”—[Mauritius.] “Eyes have no boundary.” Equivalent to the English saying: “A cat may look at a king.”—[Mauritius.] “By petting her young one too much, the monkey ends by poking her finger into its eye.”—[Trinidad.] “Monkey in the calabash.” “Monkey says if his rump is bare, it’s nobody’s business.” “Monkey never says its young is ugly.” “The monkey well knows what tree to climb; he doesn’t climb an orange tree.” “Though the serpent has little eyes, he sees very well.”—[Martinique.] “The kid’s owner asks for it; you can’t blame him.” “Sickness comes riding upon a hare; but goes away riding upon a tortoise.”—[Mauritius.] “Misfortune doesn’t threaten like rain.” “Mothers make children; but not children’s hearts.”—[Trinidad.] “Eating once doesn’t wear out the teeth.”—[Trinidad.] “You won’t find a husband in the vetiver.” “Marriage is no trifling wager, and housekeeping is no sport.”—[Mauritius.] “Marry an empty bottle.”—Meaning to marry a girl without a dowry.—[Mauritius.] “The mosquito loses his time when he tries to sting the alligator.” “Tangled up, or tied up, like a bundle of crabs.”—Said of people notoriously clumsy. “Thin as a cat that lives on musk-rats.”—[Mauritius.] “The same stick that beats the black dog can beat the white.” “Lying isn’t as bad as speaking badly about people.”—Lying is less wicked than calumny.—[Martinique.] “Thanks cost nothing.”—[Louisiana.] “Just put a mulatto on horseback, and he’ll tell you his mother wasn’t a negress.” “Better to eat one’s own codfish than another person’s turkey-cock.”—[Martinique.] “When the mulattoes get to fighting, the goats get killed.” “The negro carries corn in his pocket to [help him to] steal chickens; the mulatto carries a rope in his pocket to steal horses; the white man carries money in his pocket to deceive girls.”—[Louisiana.] “Misery makes the monkey eat red pepper.”—[Martinique.] “‘I’m well enough as I am,’ are words one doesn’t often hear.”—[Louisiana.] “I’m not going to lend you a stick to break my head with.”—[Louisiana.] “I’d rather have horn-fish to-day, than mackerel to-morrow.” “I don’t propose to drink tea for his fever.” “Mountains, only, never meet; men meet.”—We are certain to encounter friends and enemies under the most unlikely circumstances.—[Mauritius.] “Folks see the faults of others; they have no eyes for their own.” “The mosquito is little; but when he sings, your ears are full of him.”—[Mauritius.] “There’s no cheese but what can find brown bread.” “Don’t stir up dry manure.”—Said to those who desire to resurrect forgotten scandal.—[Mauritius.] “Your leech isn’t going to climb on me.” That is: you shan’t take advantage of me.—[Mauritius.] “It isn’t your silver creeper that is going to climb over my summer house.” “Play with the fire and you’ll burn your shirt.” This proverb appears to be current wherever any form of the patois prevails.—[Mauritius.] “You can’t eat calalou with one finger.” “When a man is dead, the grass grows tall before his door.”—[Trinidad.] “Feed horses for officers to ride.” To be the victim of one’s own foolish liberality.—[Martinique.] “The shoe only knows whether the stockings have holes.” “Wherever there are bones, there are dogs.” Meaning that when one is rich, one has plenty of friends.—[Martinique.] “If you get angry with the high road, what way will you go?”—[Hayti.] “You pretend to die; and I’ll pretend to bury you.” “You jump, but you come down all the same.” “Wherever there’s carrion, there are buzzards.” “You haven’t crossed the river yet; don’t curse at the crocodile’s mother.” “Asking pardon doesn’t cure the bump.” “Talking is no remedy.” In Creole the word signifies medicine as well as remedy.—[Trinidad.] “Talking too much arouses the dog from sleep.” “Words have no color.”—This is generally said to people who stare a speaker out of countenance.—[Trinidad.] “Words are cheap.” In Martinique the phrase is PaoÛÒles pas chÂge: (“Words are no weight to carry.”)—[Trinidad.] “By talking too loud the jaw becomes swelled.” “It isn’t for want of tongue that the ox can’t talk.”—[Trinidad.] “It isn’t on the day I am greatly changed” [when I am most unfortunate] “that I am going to meet my godmother.”—[Martinique.] “It isn’t the same day you eat that you find yourself puffed up.” “Poor folks give breakfast with their hearts.”—[Hayti.] “The weakest is always in the wrong.”—[Martinique.] “Little by little the bird builds its nest.”—[Louisiana.] “Little boy who won’t listen to his mother dies under the noonday sun.” “Better let your child be snotty, than pull his nose off.”—[Mauritius.] “Anything is good enough to eat; but every word is not good enough to be spoken.” “The chickens don’t brag about their own soup;” i.e. chicken-soup.—[Martinique.] “It’s the cackling hen that has laid the egg.”—[Mauritius.] “The hen that lays two eggs is never killed.”—[Mauritius.] “It is better to take care beforehand than to ask pardon afterward.”—[Louisiana.] “Little thirst, a little cocoa-nut; big thirst, a big cocoa-nut.” “If a little crumb falls, it is picked up; if a Christian falls, he is not picked up.”—[Hayti.] “When the tree falls, the kid can climb it.”— “When your stomach gnaws you, it isn’t with fine clothes that you can fill it.”—[Martinique.] “When the bowels growl a fine coat won’t make them hold their peace.” “When the pot won’t boil for you, you must never take the lid off.” Ya pas bouillon pou vous, macommÈre; Canari cassÉ dans difÉ (bis). Bouillon renvÈrsÉ dans difÉ Ya pas bouillon pou vous, macommÈre Canari cassÉ dans difÉ. [“There’s no soup for you, my gossipping friend; the pot’s broken in the fire; the soup is spilled in the fire,” etc.] “When the cannon speaks, the gun is ashamed.”—[Mauritius.] “When the Devil goes to mass he hides his tail.”—[Mauritius.] “When the devil wants to get hold of you, he chats to you about God.” Lit.: “He talks Good God to you.”—[Mauritius.] “When somebody gives you a donkey, you musn’t examine the bridle.”—Never look a gift-horse in the mouth.—[Mauritius.] “When a woman lifts her dress, the devil looks at her leg.”—[Mauritius.] “As soon as one gets a clothes-press, one never looks at the trunk.” “It’s when death comes that you think about your life.”—[Mauritius.] “When one’s arms are too short, they won’t go round.” “When the sky falls all the flies will be caught.” “When he gets something into his head, it isn’t in his foot.” “When the foot slips the rest follows.”—[Mauritius.] “When the master sings the negro dances; but when the overseer only whistles, the negro jumps.”—A relic of the old slave-day Creole folklore.—[Louisiana.] “As soon as a mulatto is able to own an old horse, he will tell you that his mother wasn’t a nigger.”—[Martinique.] “When one has no mother, one must be suckled by one’s grandmother.”—[Louisiana.] “When you’re in ill-luck, a snake can bite you even with its tail.”—[Martinique.] “When you eat with the devil, see that your spoon is long.”—[Martinique.] “When the sweet potato is cooked, it must be eaten.” “When your hen is laying, don’t put her in the pot.” “Grab for too much, and it slips away from you.”—[Mauritius.] “When the belly cries, the ears are deaf.”—[Mauritius.] “An empty stomach brings wit;”—lit.: When the stomach is empty, wit comes. “When you look overhead, your eyes become small.”—[Mauritius.] “When you are given an ox’s head to eat, don’t be afraid of his eyes.”—[Hayti.] “Sometimes you sow red beans, and white beans grow.” “The best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley.”—[Mauritius.] “When a ship is broken (wrecked), the accident does not prevent others from sailing.” “What business have eggs in the calinda—i.e. dance—of stones?” (Calinda, said to be derived from the Spanish que linda!—“how beautiful!”) “Doing favors gives one the back-ache.”—[Martinique.] “’Tis the rat eats the cane; but the lizard dies for it.” “The cockroach is never silly enough to approach the door of the hen-house.”—[Martinique.] “Cockroach is never in the right where the fowl is concerned”—(lit.: before the fowl.) “Bushes have ears.”—[Trinidad.] “Doing favors brings sorrow.”—[Louisiana.] “The rock’s hard-headed; but when the stone-hammer speaks to him, he answers.”—[TÊtu means an obstinate person, also a stone-hammer.] “An empty sack cannot stand up.” One cannot work with an empty stomach.—[Martinique.] “The snake says he doesn’t hate the person who kills him, but the one who calls out, ‘Look at the snake!’”—[Martinique.] “When the canary can’t be found, take the bengalee.” When you can’t find what you like, be content with what you can get.—[Mauritius.] “If the snake cares to live, it doesn’t journey upon the high-road.”—[Guyana.] “If the snake wasn’t spunky, women would use it for petticoat strings.”—[Trinidad.] “If the frog tells you the alligator has sore eyes, believe him!” “If your petticoat fits you well, don’t try to put on your husband’s breeches.”—[Martinique.] “If the sea were to boil, the fishes would be cooked.”—[Louisiana.] “If the fields could talk, we should know too many secrets.” “If the elephant didn’t know that he had big guts, he wouldn’t have swallowed calabashes.”—[Trinidad.] “‘If-I-had-only-known’ is never before one; he always comes behind.”—[Martinique.] “If I had some moussa “If there were no sighing in the world, the world would stifle.” “If the lizard were good to eat, it would never be found under a tub.” “The sun sets; misfortune never sets.”—[Hayti.] “Sun rises there [pointing to the east]; he sets there.” [pointing to the west] “Shoes are fine things; but it’s a pity they bite one’s feet.” “Tafia always tells the truth.” “The drum makes a great fuss because it is empty inside.” “A penny buys troubles that doubloons cannot cure.”—[Trinidad.] “‘So-much-the-worse’ has no cabin.” “When one person knows another by broad daylight, he doesn’t need a candle to recognize him at night.” “The present has enough to do to mind its own affairs.” “A little string for a little dog.”—[Martinique.] “A little axe cuts down a big tree.”—[Martinique.] “Children (little folk) know how to run; they do not know how to hide.”—[Martinique.] “When the tiger is dead, the dog takes [rules] the country.”—[Martinique.] “The tortoise would fly if it had wings.” Tout bois cÉ bois; Main mapou Pas ‘cajou. (Tout bois c’est du bois; Mais le mapou N’est pas de l’acajou.) “All wood is wood; but mapou wood isn’t mahogany (cedar).” ChÈr bijou Dacajou, Mo laimin vous (“My darling mahogany jewel, I love you!”) “All that’s like Mammy Lison’s doings.” “Everybody who wears spurs isn’t a jockey.” All is not gold that glitters.—[Martinique.] “Every bed-chamber has its mosquitoes in it.”—Equivalent to our own proverb: A skeleton in every closet.—[Martinique.] ........ In old days the Creole story-teller would always announce his intention of beginning a tale by the exclamation “Tim-tim!” whereupon the audience would shout in reply, “Bois sec;” and the story-teller would cry again, “Cassez-li,” to which the chorus would add “.... dans tchu (bonda) macaque.” Thus the story-teller intimated that he had no intention of merely “joking,” but intended to tell the whole truth and nothing else—“a real good story”—tois fois bonne conte! “Every day isn’t Sunday.”—[Louisiana.] “All play is play; but poking a piece of wood into one’s ear isn’t play.”—[Guyane.] “Every monkey thinks its young one pretty.”—[Louisiana.] “All mules have big ears.”—Equivalent to our proverb; “Birds of a feather flock together.”—[Martinique.] “Everybody knows what boils in his own pot”—i.e., knows his own business best. “Work doesn’t hurt;—‘tis the eyes that are cowards.”—[Mauritius.] “Too much scratching brings smarting.”—[Mauritius.] “Too much profit bursts one’s pockets.”—[Martinique.] “Too much jewelry, empty cupboard.”—[Martinique.] ........—[Mauritius.] “What’s the good of emptying one bottle only to fill another?” “It’s the old pot that makes the good soup.”—[Martinique.] “An old cock, a young hen.”—[Mauritius.] “Thieves do not like to see their comrades carrying the bags.” “You can’t teach an old monkey how to make faces.” “Send dog, and dog sends his tail.”—Refers to those who obey orders only by proxy.—[Trinidad.] “Christians are known by their tongues, oxen by their horns.” (Literally, are taken by or caught by.)—[Martinique.] Caroline, zolie femme, Chombo moin dans collet. [“Caroline, pretty woman; put your arm about my neck!”—lit.: “take me by the neck.”] There are other African words used by the older colored women, such as macayÉ, meaning to eat at all hours; and OuendÉ, of which the sense is dubious. But the Congo verb fifa, to kiss; and the verbs souyÉ, to flatter; pougalÉ, to abuse violently; and such nouns as saff (glutton), yche or iche (baby), which are preserved in other Creole dialects, are apparently unknown in Louisiana to-day. In Chas. Jeannest’s work, Quatre AnnÉes au Congo [Paris: Charpentier, 1883], I find a scanty vocabulary of words in the Fiot dialect, the native dialect of many slaves imported into Louisiana and the West Indies. In this vocabulary the word ouenda is translated by “partir pour.” I fancy it also signifies “to be absent,” and that it is synonymous with our Louisiana African-Creole ouendÉ, preserved in the song: OuendÉ, ouendÉ, macaya; Mo pas, ’barassÉ, macaya! OuendÉ, ouendÉ, macaya; Mo bois bon divin, macaya! OuendÉ, ouendÉ, macaya; Mo mangÉ bon poulÉ, macaya! OuendÉ, ouendÉ, macaya;..etc. This is one of the very few songs with a purely African refrain still sung in New Orleans. The theme seems to be that, the master and mistress of a house being absent, some slave is encouraging a slave-friend to eat excessively, to “stuff himself” with wine, chicken, etc. “They are gone, friend: eat, fill yourself; I’m not a bit ashamed; stuff yourself!—I’m drinking good wine; stuff yourself!—I’m eating good chicken; gorge yourself,” etc. Here ouendÉ seems to mean “they are out; they are gone away,”—therefore there is no danger. There is another Creole song with the same kind of double refrain, but the meaning of the African words I have not been able to discover. Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas, ou dindin; Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas marchÉ ouaminon: Quand li marchÉ Ouarasi, ouarasa! Quand li marchÉ Ouarasi, ouarasa! [“Nicholas, etc., you are a turkey-cock! Nicholas walks ouaminon: when he walks, it is ouarasi, ouarasa.”] The idea is obvious enough; viz.: that Nicholas struts like a turkey-cock; but the precise signification of the three italicised words I have failed to learn. “One finger can’t catch fleas.”—[Martinique.] “One hand must wash the other.”—You must not depend upon others to get you out of trouble.—[Martinique.] “A wicked word hurts more than a blow from a stone.”—[Martinique.] “The monkey is sly; it was he that first taught the black man how to steal.”—[Mauritius.] “Monkey never watches his own tail; he watches his neighbor’s.”—[Mauritius.] “Dogs make their dinner upon what belongs to fools.”—[Louisiana.] “The goat’s business is not the sheep’s affair.” “What’s past is nothing; it’s what’s to come that’s the rub.”—[Mauritius.] “The ox never finds his horns too heavy to carry.”—[Mauritius.] “The salt never says that it is salty.” True virtue never boasts.—[Mauritius.] “There is no covering for the ears.”—[Martinique.] “The white man’s eyes burn the negro’s eyes.” Tout, tout, pays blanc—DaniÉ qui commandÉ, DaniÉ qui commandÉ Ça! DaniÉ qui commandÉ. [“All, all the country white” (white-man’s country); “Daniel has so commanded,” etc.] I do not know whether the prophet Daniel is referred to. “Red eyes can’t burn the savannah.” A better translation might be: “Red eyes can’t start a prairie-fire.” The meaning is that mere anger avails nothing. “Curses don’t make funerals.”—[Mauritius.] “When the tropic-bird screams overhead, a storm-wind is coming.”—[Mauritius.] |
|
