WISDOM IN PROVERBS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 June 1934, Page 2

WISDOM IN PROVERBS

EASTERN MASTERPIECES Broadly speaking, writes an “Observer” contributor, proverbs seem to get better and bettei; as you travel eastward, with the very best cropping up in China. Turkey, the half-way house, however, has many excellent ones. On the other side of the world, it is in the West Indies that the nicest specimens are found; I think I should rank that region third. Well, let us journey eastwards, glancing at good proverbs as we go. “Mediocrity is climbing molehills without sweating,” says the Norseman. The implication, you observe, is that we ought not to be too scatching about the man of slight gifts, who does manage to achieve a slight success by working jolly hard for it. “Who gossips to you will gossip of you,” says the Spaniard. “Praise a horse after a month and a woman after a year,” is the Czech’s warning. “It is a good answer which knows when to stop,” shrewdly remarks the Italian.

“If everybody tells you you are tipsy go to bed, even if you know you are quite sober,” is the Serb’s way of saving you trouble. In Turkey the writer found the proverbs a sheer delight. Here are some of them: He who has lived much, does not know much; he who has travelled much, knows much. The thicker the veil, the less worth lifting. If an enemy be an ant, consider him to be an elephant. He who tells the truth is turned out of nine cities. A thousand friends are of small account. One enemy is of great account. The man who expects comfort must be deaf, blind and dumb. A Persian once remarked to the writer, with an expressive shrug of the shoulders: “In the ant’s house dew is a deluge.” That is another version of the Hungarian’s contemptuous comment: “He has climbed a cucumber tree.”

“Kiss the hand that you can’t cut off,” advises the Afghan. The Chinese version is, “If you bow at all, bow low.” “A book,” says educated Arabs, “is like a garden carried in the pocket.”

FROM CHINA Our “Too many cooks spoil the broth” (by gossiping and forgetting to stir ami tend it) pops up in China, in this sage warning about over-staff-ing a job. “One man carries two buckets of water from the well: two men bring one bucket; three men keep you waiting but bring none.” Here are some more proverbs (found in China: If you have two loaves of bread sell one and buy a lily. They are mere cattle in clothes who' do not study. Lending to a spendthrift is pelting a trespassing dog with meat dumplings. Be consoled. A dragon floundering through the shallows of a. swamp incurs the ridicule of little fishes. Wine does not make a. man tipsy. A man makes himself tipsy.

Better go home to the sun-scorched hilltop and make a. net than go down to the cool river and covet the fishes. A man who finds it painful to smile should not open a. shop. Ask the price at three shops.

Proverbs used by the West Indian darkies are a queer blend of jungle sayings imported from West Africa by the first slaves transported, and of darkfield versions of the Spanish, Portuguese and British wise-saws they have encountered during the past three centuries or so.

“When cow tail cut off, God A’mighty brush fly,” for instance, is a non-sheep-farming isle’s version of our “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.” And “Every man knows where his house leak” is a. barefooted version, on an isle periodically afflicted by torrential rains, of our “Every man knows where the shoe pinches.” In America, in the State of Delaware. the writer was sympathising with a poor old darkle who had lost his savings in a silly oil speculation, I am! had had to soli his little shop and go to work for a master again. It was what we call “a come down,” but he was philosophical about it. “Nebber mind, boss,” he said, jauntily; “tin plate don’ mind droppin’ on de floor, as de saying’ is.” .