Proverb Lore Part 9

Chinese proverbs do not appear to be very numerous, but they are often very happily phrased and thought out. "As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined," we say, and in China they have the same idea, "The growth of the mulberry tree is as its youth." Filial respect and the duties of friends.h.i.+p and hospitality are often enforced in this Celestial teaching. Thus, "At home respecting father and mother, what need at a distance to burn incense?" so only the heart be right, no need of ceremonial and formal observance. "To meet an old friend is as the delightfulness of rain after drought." On the other hand, "If a man does not receive guests at home he will meet with very few hosts abroad." The upholders of the "spare the rod and spoil the child" system of education of which Solomon was so distinguished an exponent will be in full sympathy with the Chinese view, "Pitying your child, give him much cudgel."

On our journey through life we may find, as they have done in the far East, that "If you do not entreat their a.s.sistance all men will appear good-natured," but "The sincerity of him who a.s.sents to everything must be small." "Master easy, servant lazy," is only too true. It is again a common experience that, as we say in England, "One man may steal a horse while another may not look over the gate," a state of things that they yet more forcibly express in China as "One man may set the town in a blaze, another may not light his lantern." What graceful lessons of trust in a Higher Power are these: "Every blade of gra.s.s has its share of the dews of heaven," "Though the birds of the forest have no garners the wide world is before them." To avoid even the semblance of evil we are quaintly told, "In melon patch tie not shoe, under plum-tree touch not cap," actions innocent in themselves, but possibly giving rise to misapprehensions!

The exigencies of the Chinese language make a literal translation often scarcely endurable or possible, while a lengthened paraphrase gives a wordiness that is not a true reflection of the epigrammatic pithiness of the original. Thus in Chinese "Yaou chi sin fo sze tau ting kow chung yen" is "Wis.h.i.+ng to know heart's thoughts listen to mouth"--that is to say, if you would desire to find out what most engages a man's thoughts you have only to listen to his conversation, for a man's words reflect his disposition, and he will thus, surely though unconsciously, reveal himself to you. The wisdom of knowing oneself, of offering something more than a formal service, are admirably enforced in these two heathen proverbs, redolent with the teaching of the New Testament: "If a man be not enlightened within, what lamp shall he light?" "If a man's intentions are not upright, what sacred book shall he recite?" "By a long journey we know a horse's strength, and length of days shows a man's heart." How beautiful, again, the imagery in this description of the swift flight of the days and years of human life: "Time is like an arrow, days and months as a weaver's shuttle."

How excellent the lesson of contentment with one's lot, "All ten fingers cannot be of the same length," yet all have their work to do. How good the lesson of forethought, of prevision of coming needs in this: "The tiles which protect thee in the wet season were fabricated in the dry."

How prudent the advice: "He who wishes to know the road across the mountains must ask him who has trodden it," must be willing to profit by the experience of the experienced, and take counsel. There is a rich mine of wealth for the social economist, for the agitator who would set one cla.s.s against another, in the following: "Without the wisdom of the learned the clown could not be governed, without the labour of the clown the learned could not be fed."

The mischief that may be wrought by evil speaking, the impossibility of recalling a hasty word, of cancelling a false judgment, is emphasised in the picturesque declaration that "A coach and horses cannot bring back a spoken word." How true the economic warning, "Who borrows to build builds to sell." How equally true the moral warning, "The forming of resentments is the planting of misery." How needful often the caution, "A single false move loses the game," a single false step may wreck a life.

Nothing can afford a better insight into the character and thoughts of a people than a consideration of their every-day utterances. If we were told a hundred things that a man had said we should have an excellent knowledge of the man, and if we read a hundred sayings that a nation accepts as guides, the nation stands revealed before us. Judged by this standard, and it is an entirely reasonable and just one, the j.a.panese come excellently out of the ordeal. Many suffer much in translation--the beauty of their outward presentment, as apart from their inner meaning, their manner as apart from their matter, consists often in an untranslatable play of words. Many are like ours, for G.o.d made of one blood all nations, thus: "Cows to cows, horses to horses," is practically our "Birds of a feather flock together." We append some few ill.u.s.trations of the wealth and beauty of this j.a.panese proverb-wisdom; and while we forbear to make any comment, we would ask our readers to ponder on each one: "The frog in the well knows nothing of the great sea"; "Overdone politeness is but rudeness"; "A famous sword may be made from an iron sc.r.a.per"; "The mouth is the door of mischief"; "Impossibility is a good reason"; "More words, less sense"; "Making an idol does not give it a soul"; "To submit is victory"; "The sp.a.w.n of frogs will become but frogs"; "Sword-wounds may be healed, word-wounds are beyond healing"; "Enquire seven times before you doubt anyone"; "Good medicine may yet be bitter to the taste"; "If you handle cinnabar you will become red"; "Too much done is nothing done"; "Who steals money is killed, who steals a country is a king"; "Good doctrine needs no miracle."

The Arabs delight in figurative language and happy comparisons and allusions; hence proverbs are constantly in use. Many of them have a strong touch of humour and sarcasm. John Lewis Burckhardt, after a very long residence in Cairo, made a collection of these, and they were published under the t.i.tle of "The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, ill.u.s.trated from their proverbial sayings." In this he was greatly a.s.sisted by native helpers, and the book is a most valuable one.

The examples are 999 in number, the author adopting a notion prevalent amongst the Arabs that even numbers bring misfortune, and that anything perfect in its quant.i.ty is especially affected by the evil-eye. By this means he doubtless received much valuable help from the natives that would otherwise have been withheld. Many of these proverbs are rhythmical in structure in their original form, but this feature is lost ordinarily in a translation. Long centuries of misrule have had their influence on the people, and the oppression of the strong, the insecurity of the weak, the power of bribery, the denial of justice, the imprudence of any independence of spirit, are revealed in these maxims.

Such a saying as "What does heaven care for the cries of the dogs?" has a sadly hopeless ring about it, while the depth of servility is reached in this: "When the monkey reigns dance before him," in utter abas.e.m.e.nt of spirit. "If thou seest a wall inclines run from under it"--that is to say, shout ever on the stronger side, and fly from him whose rule is tottering. Another striking adage is "He strikes me, and says why does he cry out?" the surprise of the unjust overseer that anyone should presume to raise any objection to his injustice and tyranny; while the prudence of being on the stronger side is seen again in this: "If the moon be with thee thou needest not to care about the stars." We would fain hope that a brighter day has now risen on this ancient land.

We have in the adage, "Truly the sword inspires dread even in its scabbard," a further suggestion of the fear inspired by those in authority; while the depth of misery, of callous brutality, is seen in "Thou takest from the sore-footed his sandal," the man is hopelessly crippled. Double-dealing and the evil of a sham friends.h.i.+p inspires the idea in "He said to the thief, steal, and to the householder, take care of thy goods"; while the selfish man is warned that in the day of trouble he need look for no a.s.sistance from others, for "He who eats alone chokes alone." "Three," another proverb tells us, "if they unite against a town, will ruin it," for while "Union is strength" for good, it is no less powerful for harm.

A quaint and delightful humour, as we have said, is a frequent attribute of these Arab utterances; thus the generosity of those who only give away what they have no need for is very happily satirised in the saying that "The dogs had enough, and then made presents to each other out of their leavings." How pithily, too, the braggart is brought before us in the saying, "If they had not dragged me from underneath him I should have killed him!" The sense of supreme self-importance is capitally ill.u.s.trated in the saying, "They came to shoe the pacha's horses, and the beetle stretched out his leg." The liberties that some people venture on with impunity when they think it safe are very happily brought home to us in the saying, "The captain loves thee, wipe thy hand on the sail." There is a good deal of quiet humour, too, in this, "He fled from the rain and sat down beneath the waterspout," a case of what in England we should call "Out of the frying-pan into the fire." How true, again, the proverb, "The camel has his schemes, and the camel-driver has his schemes," the interests of the driven and the driver being ordinarily very different; or this again, "The barber learns his art on the orphan's face," on the poor and the friendless who cannot resent an indignity or adequately protect themselves from maltreatment.[117:A] Of people who receive a piece of good fortune that they neither desire nor appreciate, the proverb, "A rose fell to the share of the monkey," holds good. It is also a warning against a thoughtless distribution of good things without heed to their appropriateness.

The picturesque expression, "Hunting dogs have scratched faces," is a wholesome recognition of the honour of the scars gained in honest labour; while the adage, "He walks on top of the wall and says I trust in G.o.d," is a reproof to those who needlessly and deliberately place themselves in positions of peril or temptation and then expect providence to step in and save them from the consequences of their folly. "G.o.d grant us no neighbour with two eyes" is the cry of the knave who would prefer that those around him should be a little blind to his proceedings.

"If they call thee reaper, whet thy scythe"; endeavour so far as may be to rise to the position, and show the t.i.tle deserved. Inculcating the lesson of grat.i.tude, we read, "A well from which thou drinkest, throw not a stone into it." Our proverb that declares that "The shoemaker's wife is the worst shod" has its Arab counterpart in the adage, "She went to sleep hungry, though her husband is a baker." The mischief done by careless speech in the land of the scimitar is enforced in the saying, "The tongue is the neck's enemy." "A single grain makes the balance heavier," and when two courses of action seem of almost equal importance, a very slight difference will turn the scale in favour of one or the other. The lesson of interdependence, the power of the small to a.s.sist the great, is indicated in "The date-stone props up the water-jar." "He left off sinning but never asked forgiveness" very graphically describes those who think reformation sufficient, and take no heed of bygone days, make no atonement for the old wrongs, solicit no pardon from those they have injured. "It is a fire, to-morrow it will be ashes," the fierce heat of pa.s.sion will have subsided, the glowing sense of wrong will have burnt itself out, and calm or apathy will take its place. The stronger the emotion the less likely is it to be lasting.

The delight in stories is a very marked feature of the Arab, and many of their proverbs are the pith and point of some narrative that their use at once recalls. Thus, when they say "Dust is good for the eyes of the wolf," it recalls the hypocrisy of the wolf who was asked why he was following after those poor sheep? He explained that he had found that the cloud of dust they created was good for his poor eyes! When a business is found to be somewhat risky they tell how one said to the mouse, "Take these two pounds of sugar and go carry this letter to the cat." "The fee is good enough," she replied, "but the business is tiresome." The wisdom of keeping one's own counsel is seen in the dialogue between master and servant. The former said, "O slave, I have bought thee." "That is thy business," he replied. "Wilt thou run away?"

"That is my business," he answered--a policy of non-committal.

Even amongst the savage tribes of Africa the proverb is greatly esteemed, and many of the maxims in common use are abundantly shrewd, while not a few of them have a very homely ring in them. Our English experience that "Fine words b.u.t.ter no parsnips" runs on all-fours with the West African savage's discovery that "The best words give no food"; while our bad exchange from the frying-pan to the fire is paralleled in the saying, "He fled from the sword and hid in the scabbard." The desirability of not too hastily trusting plausible strangers is very effectively taught in "Make not friends by the way, lest you lose your knife."

Over 2000 of these popular proverbs were collected by Richard Burton and given to the world as "Wit and Wisdom from West Africa," and a very interesting collection it is. Another good store will be found in the "Dahomey and the Dahomans" by Commander Forbes, R.N., and various missionaries have added to our fund of knowledge,[119:A] so that even stay-at-home people have abundance of interesting material brought within their ken.

That unreachable date of cla.s.sic folk-lore, the Greek Calends, has its quaint counterpart in the African saying, "I will pay thee when the fowls cut their teeth." A lesson on the importance of keeping up one's dignity, even in Yoruba circles, is given in the hint, "If thou husketh corn with the fowl it will not esteem thee." The animal life all around the village is naturally pressed into the service and made to contribute its share of proverb-lore. How quaintly happy, for instance, is this, "If stretching were wealth, the cat would be rich." How many a man in West Africa and elsewhere would be well content to find so easy a road to affluence. How equally happy this, "If there were no elephant in the jungle the buffalo would be a great animal"; or this, "One who has elephant's flesh does not search for crickets." What a shrewd humour again in the statement that "When the mouse laughs at the cat there is a hole near." By continuous effort much may be accomplished,[120:A] for "String added to string will bind a leopard"--a lesson taught again in this saying, "By going and coming the bird builds its nest."[120:B] How true again the statement that "One cannot deceive a baboon by tricks"; in all such he is more than one's match, and the trickster must be foiled by quite other methods. To try and outwit a knave is a hopeless task and is, moreover, bad for one's self-respect. It is well to see some return for one's outlay; it is bad enough to "buy," in English parlance, "a pig in a poke," but in Africa they carry the idea yet further and declare that "It is not well to buy the foot-prints of a bullock," while another caution as to the disposal of one's property is very aptly given in the reminder that "No one gives his pig to the hyena to keep," this keeping being in such case all too thoroughly seen to.

The Akra-man tells us that "The thread follows the needle"; in other words, certain consequences will naturally follow certain actions, and these results, good or bad, may be confidently antic.i.p.ated when we have once set the machinery to work. He tells us, too, that "Food you will not eat you do not boil"; people will not willingly work at any task unless in some way or other they see their advantage in it. Another ill.u.s.tration of consequences following upon a certain line of action is seen in the proverb, "A stick that goes into the fire begins to burn"; a deliberate entry into any temptation will scarcely leave one unscathed. Another quaint little piece of worldly wisdom is that "If you lay your snare in company you go in company to look at it"--if you avail yourself of the help of others, they in turn will expect a share of any resulting good fortune.

The Yoruba-man warns you that "When a man says he will give you a gun, ask his name"--that is to say, when a stranger displays a quite unexpected interest in you, and develops a quite unlooked-for generosity, it would be well before you accept his gift to find out something about him, and what his motive may be for this sudden friends.h.i.+p. "Lay on, lay on, makes a load," a fact that the man or beast that has to carry it realises sooner than the person packing. The repeated addition of small things soon mounts into a considerable burden. "A canoe is paddled on both sides,"--no half-measures, no want of unanimity, will suffice when some joint task has to be formed; it must be "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether," if any good is to come of it. We see the sudden impulse, the overmastering temptation, forcibly expressed in this, "When gold comes near you it glistens"; the eye and the desire are strained and dazzled, the desire to possess it is overmastering and "opportunity makes the thief."

Another very characteristic utterance is that "A slave does not show the timber." This at first sight is enigmatical, but Burton in his comment on it explains clearly enough that if the slave points out suitable trees that he knows of in the dense forest, his only return would be that on him would fall the labour of felling them and dragging them to where they were wanted; he therefore maintains a discreet silence.

Another woodman proverb is that "The split tree still grows," calamity is not so crus.h.i.+ng but that much good may yet be done in the life.

The importance of being on good terms with the ruler is as great in West Africa as elsewhere; hence we get the happy saw, "To love the king is not bad, but to be loved by the king is better." In the last that we shall quote, though the temptation to extend our list is great, we find ourselves quite in the opposite scale of savage society, in the touching proverb, "When a poor man makes a proverb it does not spread." This is Oji experience, but it is certainly not Oji alone. The man is poor and friendless, overridden and despised. The writer of _Ecclesiastes_ saw the matter as clearly, for he tells us that "There was a little city and few men within it, and there came a great king against it and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now, there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard." As it was in Palestine in the days of old, so it is in Oji-land to-day, and so in all lands will it ever be. The jokes of the judge will convulse the court and his wisdom enthral it, but no meaner authority therein, either as humorist or sage, will be heard, under pain of expulsion.

Another valuable store of proverb-philosophy will be found in the pages of the Talmud. The teaching is excellent: "A myrtle among nettles is still a myrtle"; "He who prays for his neighbour will be heard for himself"; "Prepare thyself in the hall, that thou mayest be admitted into the palace"; so pa.s.s through these things temporal that a welcome may be thine in the presence of the King. If offence must come, "Be thou the cursed, not he who curses," and "Let the honour of thy neighbour be to thee as thine own."

Scorn ingrat.i.tude and "Throw no stone into the well whence thou hast drunk," and bear ever in mind the difficult lesson, "Teach thy tongue to say I do not know." He who professes to know all things shuts himself out of much opportunity for gaining knowledge. "In two cabs of dates is one cab of stones," much that is profitless will ever be mixed with the good. How true too the caution, "He who is suspicious should be suspected." To the pure all things are pure, and the honest man thinks no evil, but the man of evil heart lives in a beclouded atmosphere and sees all things through a distorted medium. How wise and charitable, how just, the counsel, "Do not judge thy neighbour until thou hast stood in his place." The Arab proverb about standing on the wall and trusting to Allah is re-echoed in this Talmudic precept, "Do not stand in a place of danger, trusting in miracles."

Others, and these we must simply put down without comment, are--"One thing acquired with pain is better than fifty with ease"; "When the thief has no opportunity of stealing he thinks himself honest"; "Let the grapes pray for the welfare of the branches"; "Who is strong? he who subdues his pa.s.sion"; "If I had not lifted the stone you had not found the jewel"; "Whosoever does too much does too little"; "In his own house the weaver is a king"; "Iron sharpens iron, and scholar scholar"; "The way man wishes to go, thither his feet will carry him." It will, we trust, be seen from these examples that our commendation of the Talmud as a mine of proverbic wealth has full justification.

FOOTNOTES:

[91:A] The warning, "We know not under which stone lurks the scorpion,"

could not, for example, have had its birth in England, as it points to a peril from which we are wholly exempt.

[92:A] Or in less cla.s.sic phrase--"It's dogged as does it."

[93:A] "The preaching of the Word is in some places like the planting of woods, where, though no profit is received for twenty years together, it cometh afterwards. And grant that G.o.d honoureth not thee to build His Temple in thy parish, yet thou mayest, with David, provide metals and materials for Solomon, thy successor, to build it with."--THOMAS FULLER, _Holy State_.

[95:A]

"But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair."--"Henry IV."

[95:B]

"Festina lente, not too fast; For haste, the proverb says, makes waste."--"Hudibras."

[96:A] The Portuguese is identical: "Mais valle um pa.s.saro na mao do que dous voando."

[98:A] In French: "Entre la bouche et le verre, le vin souvent tombe a terre."

[98:B] Yet it must be remembered that--

"When I hae saxpence under my thumb, Then I get credit in ilka toon, But when I hae naethin' they bid me gang by, Hech! poverty parts gude company."

[99:A] He who mixes with unclean things becomes unclean.

[99:B] "Quien sirve no est libre," say the Spaniards--"He who serves is not free"; while an old English proverb reminds us that "He who rides behind another does not saddle when he pleases."

[101:A] "Donner est mort et preter est bien malade."

[102:A] Those interested may turn for fuller treatment of the proverbs of France to the "Six mille proverbes" of C. Cahier, published in Paris in 1836, to the "Livre des proverbes Francais" of Le Roux de Lincy, 1859, or the "Pet.i.te Encyclopedie des proverbes Francais" of Hilaire le Gais, 1860.

[105:A] In France they say, "Clef d'or ouvre toutes sortes de serrures."

[105:B] "I weigh the man, not his t.i.tle: 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better."--WYCHERLEY, _The Plain Dealer_.

[105:C] The Germans happily say, "Liebe deinen Nachbar, reiss, aber den Zaun nicht ein"--"Love your neighbour, but do not pull down the hedge."

[105:D] The sieve re-appears very graphically again in this: "A grain does not fill a sieve, but it helps its companion to do so."

[107:A] Another expressive proverb tells that, "Courtiers are shod with watermelon rind," a somewhat slippery and uncertain foot-gear, rendering one's footing not particularly safe.

[108:A] "In prosperity no altars smoke" is like unto it. This too is Italian.

[109:A] The old English proverb declares that "By the Street of By-and-by one arrives at the House of Never."

[110:A] "To send you any news from hence were to little purpose, ours being little else but the translation of English or French; and to send you our news from England were to carry coals to Newcastle."--"Th.o.r.esby Correspondence," 1682.

[117:A] The French adage, "a barbe de fou on apprendre a raire" is very similar.