PROVERBS ABOUT WOMEN.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 335, 9 May 1885, Page 4

PROVERBS ABOUT WOMEN.

Proverbs about women are common in every language, but particularly so in the East. In Japan they say, ' Where the hen crows the house goes to ruin,' evidently an Eastern rendition of the gray mare. Rut in China, ' A bustling woman a.nd a crowing hen are neither fit for gods or men,' while the Persians believe in adapting the means to the end, as indicated by the expression, *If you be a cock, crow ; if a hen, lay eggs.' i * In Russia, t It never goes well when the hen - crows,' and. another thought is pertinently expressed in. the proverb, 'The wife does " not beat the husband, but her temper rules Mm, 1 The Chinese, however, have perhaps the meanest saying about women ever written, ' There are two good women ; one dead, the other unborn.' As an expression of contempt, however, it is closely pushed by the Bengalese nation, ' A perfect woman is as Tare as wings upon a cat, or air flowers, or rabbit's horns, or tor-toise-hair ropes.' Woman as a wife, is not less the object of proverbial attention. The Talmud says, ' Though the wife be little, bow down to her ; that is, lis-ten-to her advice ; while the Chinese say, 'A good man will not beat his wife ; ' a selfevident proposition, the truth of which is not affected by the Persians, ' A bad wife is * like, a fig tree growing on a wall' — which undermines the walls by its roots. In China, 'The widow is like a rudderless boat,' and in Siam, 'He who marries a wolf looks often at the forest.' In Russia, ' A wife is not a guitar,' which will be silent when you have done with it ; while in Ceylon, ' A wife is like the morning flower ' — to be tenderly handled. The Talmud, however, sums up l||&he .whole case : ' Grod did not make woman liPllom. man's head, that she should rule over iim; nor from -his feet, that she. should be his slave ; r but ii&ia his' side, tbat*she should be near his -Heart.'