The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-26
PROVERBS OF HEJAPAN ESE
THE ETHoROUGHNESs WITH WHICH
 THESE ESSENCES

or Philosophy Permente the Thought | and Speech Of All Classes-A Surpris- ing Lack of the Characteristic orien- tai Inversion-MnximsW Which DispHr- age the Permnnence of Love and the Stability Of Woman --some Noble Say fngs. It Is just thirty years since young Ja- pan abolished at one blow the feudal system, which had reigned unaltered in the country for seven centuries, and adopted en bloc the institutions and methods of the most advanced western civilization. It is nothing if not strictly modern and up- date. And yet noth- ing will so surely touch the Japanese heart as the unexpected quotation of one of those old national proverbs which were current coin in the land be- fore the peoples of modern Europe had emerged from their original barbarisms.
 These old sayings are perpetually Ill the mouths of all classes, from the pro- lessor in his lecture-room to the child Tn the nursery. A judicious teacher, by the LlIiGlY use OL Out oI LltoC NiiiSNN' arrows. will often arouse the languid and Tagging attention of class whom he may perhaps be instructing in com parative anatomy or the higher mathe- rnatics. And a pretty game, in when the same old proverbs are used, is one of the favorite amusements of the Jap anese children. Miss Isabelle Bird de- scribes it (not quite correctly, by the by) in her interesting book about un- trodden Japan. It is played With pack of cards, composed of pairs, one card having a proverb inscribed on It, and it's mellow card a pictorial rephe- sentation of that proverb After the cards have been shuffled and dealt, the proverbs are read out in turn. and Who- ever believes himself to have the cor responding picture calls out If right he gets rid of his card. The one who first gets rid of all his cards wins the game, and the holder of the last card loses it. They play this game with wonderful animation and rapidity. and with what Miss Bird calls "the most amusing courtesy
 "EVEN A MONKEY MAY FALL
 FROM A TREE
 One would perhaps expect to find the proverbial philosophy of an isolated people in the far east enthusiastically different from that which has sprung up among ourselves. But as matter of fact. it's frequent similarity, Tn thought and phrase, is peculiarly strlk- ing. "Roses have thorns," Walls have ears" and many another proverb which might be quoted are both good English and good Japanese There IS in many cases, of course, play upon words, or an alliteration, in the original Japanese which cannot well be rendered < into English, and the loss Of which ire quently deprives the translated proverp of all of it's original saver But the force of our adage, More haste, less speed" is quite apparent in their IT III a hurry, go round;" our Accidents will happen in the best-reguated families, J in their "Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree;' or our bucolic pro- verb. which Lord Chesterfield found so offfiensive about the man who kissed the COW, in their Even the worm that eats smart weed to his taste"
 The Japanese choice of metaphor for expressing an identical thought is, of course. often strikingly different, and nerl1aps may be considered as generally inferior to our own. They do not expect to gather grapes from thorns or figs from th1stles any more than we do, but their less picturesque phrasing of the thought is, "The spawn of frogs will be- come nothing but frogs" When we say, "Those who play with edged tools must expect to cut their fingers" the Jap says, "If you keep tigers you are likely to have trouble' And our obser- yation that "The scalded dog fears cold water" is most unpatriotically rendered bv "The beaten soldier fears even the tops of the tall grass"
 "YOU CAN'T RIVET A NAIL IN A
 CUSTARD."
 The idea of our "All lay the load on the willing horse" appears somewhat ohscurelv in the Jap, Those who know the ropes do most of the hauling; o,,r "OiI and water won't mix" is by them very oddly expressed in You can't rivet nail in a potato custard; y and in place of our sarcastic reference to what happens to the fool, they sim @ ply say, "A wise man keeps to his mon- ev" But the advantage is by no means invariably on the European side. 'Fa- mons swords are made of iron scrap 1lgS Is certainty q llloic DlNlulC CoioN saving than our "Despise not the day of small things:" our commonplace "Out of evil good may come" finds W1tf them fine poetical expression in 'The lotus springs from the mud;' and 1T point of poignancy our Adding insult to injury" is vastly inferior to theil "Rubbing salt on a sore"
 Love and marriage, of course, nave begotten numerous proverbs among tht Japanese as in every other nation O. the world; but their experience in th' matter does not appear to have been al together a happy one. Love flies witt the red petticoat," is one of their favor ite sayings which becomes intelligibl' to us of the west when we learn tha the flaming garment in question is worl only by unmarried girls. But jealousy apparently, is by no means so ready tt ny. "rTrust a woman" says the Jap anese Benedick, ''as long as the moth CTS eyes are upon her" "A wise wife, we learn from another proverb, "seldon crosses her husbands threshold am friends of the family receive a broa hint in Don't stay long when the hus