Part 3: On cageyness, caution, moderation, patience, and prudence

E

The devious person goads one to confront a leopard and fills one's quiver with broken arrows.

The mouse that attempts to kill a cat will not live long on this earth.

A mouse dares not visit a market established by a cat.

“Today belongs to me; tomorrow belongs to me” is the attitude that pushes a youth into debt.

I will not go looking for a squirrel in my gourd to eat with pounded yam; but if a squirrel falls into my gourd I will eat it with pounded yam.

The curse is out of all proportion to the lost article; a needle is lost “the owner” brings out his/her magic wand.

The cursing is far in excess of what is lost; a needle goes missing and the owners invoke Ṣàngó.

What sort of sport is it that the dog is engaged in with the leopard?

The trader never confesses, “I sold all my wares.”

The fly does not heed death; all its cares to do is eat.

There is no disaster stalking the snake; it is whoever steps on a snake that is in trouble.

Three ears are unbecoming for the head; three people cannot stand in twos.

Grey hair shows age; a beard shows maturity; a moustache shows impudence.

The goat forages and returns home; the sheep forages and returns home; the pig's flaw is its habit of not returning home after foraging.

A goat does not venture into the lair of a wolf.

Save-the-person-from-death type of people abounds elsewhere; let-the-person-die-if-he/she-wishes type abounds in our house.

A person vows to disgrace you and you respond that there is no way he can succeed; if he spreads the word that you did not clean yourself after defecating, to how many people will you display your anus?

Whatever the rest of the world does I will not forswear; when a chicken wants to enter the porch it stoops.

“This is no great loss; this is no great loss;” the muslim's cap dwindles to almost nothing.

28. Máamú, (máa mú) the word here used for moustache, means “keep drinking,” a reference to the fact that when a moustached person takes a drink some of the drink clings to the moustache--for later drinking. The proverb presumably refers to the habit of drinking from a communal cup or bowl; in that situation a person who wears a moustache invites others to drink from a cup or bowl in which he has washed his moustache.  [Back to text]

29. The reference is to the skull cap associated with muslims. The idea is that once it was much larger, but then the owner raised no objection to successive requests for just a little piece of it. His response each time is that he can afford to give up just a little bit.  [Back to text]