The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-05-29
SOME TURKISH PROVERBS.
Sayings of the Turk that Are Very Like On
= --- Own.

Ii the Turk has been quailled rs
"unspeakable," he is very far from
being i~narticulate. Strange as it may
seem t. those who have formed their
opinion of him from hearsay, it is no
the less true that he is commonly Il
good conversationalist, and Il say
well and p%ointedlv what he has got to
say, with a wealth of Illustration in
anecdote, quotation, and proverb. The
latter form corlmends Itself especially
to the sententious Turkish mind. The
synthetic form of the language, too,
ecure brevity and ~conciseness. and
opportunities are afforded for those
]assonances, or rhyming novels. which
are SO dear to the Oriental. On look
ing yer a notebook containing sew
eral hundred Turkish proverbs. taken
down in the course of reading and
conversation. or borrowed from a col
lection made at the Oriental academy
at Vienna, the writer has amused him
self by grouping them roughly under
certain heads, so as to illustrate some
aspects of the national character and
surroundings.
But first it may be interesting to re-
mark how many well-known English
and other European proverbs have
their exact counterpart in Turkish.
How far are these to be accounted for
by contact with or conquest of lndo-
European racese Or has it been a
case of ''les beaux esprits Sc rem
contrentp" For instance, we find
''You shall not LOOK Il gift horse in the
mouth" in exactly the same words, as
yval1 DC slin fbot x, hpr, 10 hn Lop~oI
will never be drowned" the Turkish
version having the advantage of being
expressed in two words. The change
of words is but slight in ''Troubled
waters suit the tisher,'' Zone flower
does not make summer" and ''rhe
robe does not make the dervish;'
while in Turkey it is not pot hat says
to kettle, but negro to negro, that his
face is black. We are disposed to pre-
fer "The nail saved the shoe, the shoe
the horse, the horse the man, the man
the kingdom to our somewhat lum-
bering For want of a nail the shoe
was lost" etc. "Wake not the sleep.
ing dog" has as q c%orollary "Step
not on the sleeping serpent" and we
are warned that there is NO rose
without a thorn, nor love without a
rival" One instance in which our
%proverbial wisdom is opposed to the.
Turkish is to be found in the expires
sion ITO kill two birds with one
stone" The attempt to do this is con-
demned by sundry proverbs, such as
'One arrow does not bring down two
BIRDS and You can not knock down
nine walnuts with stone
Often we are reminded of scriptural
proverbs and apnorisms. Nothing
unheard of in the world" sounds Solo.
monian enough, while .Out with the
eye that profits Inc not" 1.-THE negro
does not whiten with washing" and
THAT which thou sowest, that also
shalt thou reap" are strik;ngly like
New Testament teaching. Again
and again we find expressed in
other words lessons Of charity, consid-
erateness, and justice that would not
be unworthy of a Christian teacher, as
The strangers prayer is heard"
"Ihe hearts testimony is stronger
than a thousand witnesses" "Among
the blind, close your eyes" ..In truth
Is right" ''Justice is half religion"
'.Neighbor's right, Gods right"
The heading under WHICH, perhaps.
the largest number of proverbs can be
grouped is that of opportune speech
and silence. If the Turk, as has been
said, talks well, he also knows how to
hold his tongue. He looks down with
the greatest contempt on the idle chat
terer, and does not even think that
good manners require him to make
sma]l-talk when he has nothing to say.
In fact, when on a visit to a well-bred
Turk with whom you have no COM
mon subjects of interest to discuss,
after exhausting those suggested by
politeness-his health, your own, that
of your family. the weather, and the
water Ga most interesting topic in the
east),-you may safely fall back upon
that golden silence which their pro-
verb, like ours, rates above silver
speech. Here his comment on the
chatterer: ''1here is no ass but ~brays;;"
.'The dog barks, the caravan passes;''
"Fool is he who alone talks, and is his
only listener;n "The tool wear his
heart on his tongue, the wise man
keeps his tongue in his heart" and
MANY words. an unsound heart"
He warns us of the mischief of evil
speaking: .'The knife's wound heals,
the tongues never;'' "The tongue
Stays more than the sword,'' and 1.-The
tongue is homeless, but it breaks
bones" Again, he feels kcenly the
danger of free speech under a corrupt
and despotic rule, while he extols hon
esty and good faith, and generals con-
dennis lying. The latter is condonea
in certain cases, for Some lies are
better than truth" and we may Lie,
veri is even strongly recommended,
for is not the 'ttruth-teller banished
out of nine cities?" while .'He who
holds his tongue his head" and
"There is 70 better answer than this,
L know not, l saw not"
But to turn to something pleasanter.
we will quote a few sayings still IA
miliar in our Turks mouth, which
have survived the corruption of the
palace and official kings, and seem
still to breathe the hardy and indie.
pendent spirit OF the old days, when
courage and enterprise were the only
passports to the highest places in a
%conquering empire. Then 1t could be
said that ''The horse is to him that
mounts, the sword to him who girds
it on ''The brave mans word is a
coat Of mall" Fortune is not far
from the brave mans head" '.The
hero is known on the battlefield"
and ''Fear not to-morrow's mis-
chance" Who but a conquering race
could have produced such a proverb
as Power on my head, or the raven
on my c%orpseP" and who can fail to
hear a true ring in Peasant erect is
taller than noble on Bonded knee" or
81 am the slave Of him who regards
me; the klng Of him who disregards
mep"
Almsgiving is creditable, for .the
hand which gives is above that which
takes;'' and it offers temporal advan-