The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-05
PROVERBS OF f NATION.
Bright Sayings of tho Haitian People.

PROVERBS OF 4 NATION.
 Bright Sayings of tho Haitian People.
 Somebody has said that proverbs
 are the concentrated wisdom of the
 ages" said Dr. Edward Murray, a for
 mer missionary to Haiti. Tt Is quite
 true in a sense and the study of the
 proverbs of different nations forms one of the most interesting of literary cre- ations. have been a resident of Haiti a number of years, and have had an ex-
 ceptionally favorable opportunity to study the natives and their folklore and sayings, and I have found the is- land particularly rich in that respect, for in the absence of libraries and books, folk-stories and proverbs form the national literature of a primitive people.
 "I have been particularly interested in Haitian proverbs, both on account of the likeness and the variations to be found between them and those of our own tongue. They are used more or less in the conversation of all classes, but they are particularly the heritage of the poorer classes, which is only natural, turning as many of them do on the injustice of the rich and power full toward the poor.
 Nearly all of their proverbs have a piquant local flavor, but they are not slow to adapt to their own use the say ings of the other races with whom they have mingled. One instance of thiQ ic Q inc fa1 the French that One cannot make an omelette without breaking the eggs The application is plain, it being anal ogous to our saying that One cannot eat their cake and have it too.'
 "The curse of corrupt government
 under which the islands solong suffered
 is suggested in the proverb said to have
 been the caution of a wary old office
 holder to his successor: My son, pluck
 the goose without making 1t scream
 It was a warning that was not very
 generally followed in former years, for
 salaries of government offices were oft en of small importance compared with
 the perquisites to be wrung from the unfortunate people over whom the off, cial was stationed. It is worthy of note that the Chinese have precisely the same proverb in their own lan- guage, pointing apparently to the same moral.
 "In this same connection there is a l popular proverb used by the smaller office-holders in condonement of their
 own offenses because of the example set them by their superiors. It is:
 
 jar, how can you expect the calabash
 to resist?' The woodlouse, by the way, is peculiar product of the island, eat ing everything from paper to railroad iron. The saliva 1t secretes actually affects iron, causing it to rust, whence the origin of the newspaper yarn some years back of a new species of insect that was destroying the railroads of the
 tropics by honeycombing the rails. It
 is needless to say, however, that the
 ravages of the pest on the railroad
 tracks are not serious. Another pro- verb somewhat similar to the above is: When the woodlouse eats the bottle, 1 hang your calabashes high
 "The one-sided nature of island jus tice some years back may be gathered l from the saying current among the people. ''The cockroach never wins his 1 cause when the chicken is the judge Such a saying is a sad commentary on | the conditions existing between the
 masses and the classes in the islands | under the old regime. Another con-
 plaint of the poor against the rich in | which the cockroach figures is: The l hens eggs will taste of the reaches. | It means that when the parents are
 raised in ignorance and poverty the | children will be the worse for it. It is | on the same order as the common Eng
 fish saying of Blood will tell,' or the | Biblical warning, The parents have | eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge
 "A saying that is somewhat equiva- | lent to our own of All is not gold that | glitters,' runs: Only the knife knows l the heart of the yam.' It is a sadder l proverb than ours, for it means that l. through trials and sorrows the world comes to know many a mans sorrows l that it would not otherwise see. An other somewhat in the same line cor l responds to the saying about the pea cock: When he looks at his feet his feathers fall' It is used as a gibe at ] the purse-proud, and reads: When the wind blows you see the skin of the l fowl
 "The saying Shoes alone know when ] the stockings have holes,' would seem ] to be in a line with our own of No one | knows where the shoe pinches,' but it is
 used rather in the sense of Familiarity
 breeds contempt though it is expres' | sive in either direction. Another say. | ing with similar meaning is that | Only the sea knows the bottom of a ship a saying that is particularly ex- pressive in the tropics, where the bar | nacle-incrusted bottom of the ship is a familiar sight in all the dockyards. "The tinge of pathos and suffering l present in SO many of the Haytian proverbs breathes in the complaint of the negroes. The rat eats the sugar
 cane, and the innocent lizard dies for it. And again, The lizard Is innocent only among those who know him.
 "They rebuke selfshness with the warning that He who eats his dinner alone must saddle his horse himself. There are many more interesting pro- verbs that I might quote to you, but
 the above are some of the most com
 mon and with the greatest local flavor. One other interesting one, however, was
 bred of the great e.sgro uprising in the islands many years ago. It is, Con sy,i,.o nv io yoora ,,ouarF,,J than w{tch-