The Anaconda standard., 1899-08-09
Some African Proverbs.

From the London StandarN
To learn the proverbs of a savage
people is part of the white mans bur-
den, for no nation can deal properly
with a conquered and inferior race un-
less it conforms in the first instance to
it's long established truisms, if not TO
the peCuliarities of its folklore. Say
ngs that come down the stream Of
time like smooth polished stones are
ready to hand in the language of every
tribe in the uncivilized world; and in
order to guide, advise and befrlend a
conquered people, it is without doubt
necessary, at least in the first place,
to calculate with their own handy peb-
bles. A great number of African prov
erbs are of n practical nature. Never
theess, this is not to say that poetry
is altogether foreign to them. Apt ana
logy falls into beautiful expression oc-
cassionally, as when they say, con-
corning the protective power of great
man, The long shadow of the boras-
sus palm shelters him that is afar off;
or again, it touches an abysmal sub
Unity in a mastery way, as in the
following, He who goes to Pate re-
turns not-all that returns is a cry.'
Yet these instances are few and far
far between, and they stand almost
alone against a thousand sayings which
take a plain prose view of things whose
inspiring grandeur has drawn songs
and sublime sentences from other races.
The negro mind that first described
the galaxy as a hen with many chick
ems" must have spent many years in
eliminating all poetry from it's calcula-
tions. This was probably the first si-
gantic effort of inept imagery on the
part of the negro, and the second is
like unto it-"Heaven and earth are
two large calabashes which being shut,
can never be opened" From this
these scorners of poetry proceed from
70 Slk
lis the king of sheds, and the earth is
the queen of beds. Night''-but here
the natural poetry, though driven out
with pitchfork, creeps in AGAIN
Might is the queen of shades and the
sun is the king of torches" But once
descend to the ordinary things of daily
life, upon which it is so easy not to
write an epic poem, and you have a
collection of sharp saws which may
well have been set with the same In
strument as that with which some ne
gro races file their teeth. Il almost
killed a bird" says the fool with the
blow-tube. But you cannot eat the
almost in a stew" returns his more
practical father.
Similarly Promises are good If you
can cook them and Better is nine
take it. than ten go and come" \
self-evident proposition, but one not
without a point in its analogy, is this:
He who dives ON dry land sacrifices
his face" There is sound physiological
knowledge gathered, no doubt, empiri-
cally in these two sayings, THE load
without is carried by the load within
and The unsettled man eats fish, the
steady man eats meat" Don't tell
your secrets to a woman is piece or
wisdom which seems to have been mas
tered independently by every people on
the face of the earth, but among GER
tain African tribes it appears TO nave
an expansive application, subject to
the definition of the term woman.
This definition is found embodied in the
proverb There are more women than
men," which. according to Sir Richard
Burton, contains its own explanation
viz. that all those who listen to what
women say are counted as women.
Thus, the advice of the negro practical
" means never tell your secrets to old
women, male and female In practl-
cal matters the negro sometimes adds
a footnote to law which would in no
way disgrace a Moses or a Solomon.
Very gray was the hair on the head of
the man who said, IF a boy does nine
mischiefs he shall suffer for five OF them
his father for the rest