Evening journal., 1922-12-30
THE WISDOM OF THE
NEAR EAST
From the New York Herald.

4 @NA@-hAt A<@hAtA
From the New York Herald
With all Its wars and political dis
turbances the Near East has clung
TO its fondness for expressing its
worldly wisdom in its own quaint
folk lore and proverbs tinged with
Orientalism. At the Near East con-
ference Ismet Pasha, head of the
! Turkish delegation, frequently en-
| livened the discussions with homely
Turkish quotations. On one occasion
when a delegate said that Ismets
statement was not In accord with
! general report he replied: "Ah, a
case of Khoja Nasriddin's donkey"
| His reference evidently was to bit
of Anatolian folk lore regarding
favorite Turkish character, some-
thing of both knave and philoso-
pher, whose donkey braying at an
inopportune moment revealed his
falsehoods. by Allahl" Khoja ex-
claimed, ~'this fool world will be-
lieve a donkey when 1t will not be-
lieve Khoja."
In the Near East among people
who have little book learning folk
lore has a wide circulation. II came
down through many generations and
the proverbs gathered in the centu-
ries much OF the ancient philosophy
and cynicism of the Orient. zabelle
9. Boyajian in al article in the
Contemporary Review apparently
f1nds that the folk lore Of the Turks
and Armenians possesses more ra-
cial characteristics than does the
folk lore of any other OF the Near
East peoples. It is. at least, much
less familiar in its original form In
the West than that of any OF the
other races in the old Ottoman EN-
pire.
"A friend looks at your head, an
enemy at your feet" God turns the
mill OF the fool" Business by the
ounce. friendship by the pound" are
proverbs long used by both Turks
and Armenians. while crossing the |
river call the ferryman 'excellency'
is their way OF expressing the idea |
that dying men catch at straws. In
stead Of "A priest abroad and a
devil at home" the ArmeDians say
"A light abroad, a fire at home"
ITO kill two birds with one stone"
in Turkish is Cleaning the CANDLE
stick to butter the rico IF the
thief is strong enough he will ar
rest the householder" Is the Turk
ish way of implying that oulprit
may be clever enough to incr1min-
ate his victim. Whom the gods
wish TO destroy they first deprive Of
has its parallel in the Turk
ish proverb. THE end of an over
excited dog is the mango"
The Armenians convey the hope
lessness of reforming a rogue by
saying, while they were reading
the Gospel over the wolf he said.
Hurry up, the sheep are passing"
The Turks encourage unostenta-
tious living by saying do good and
throw It into the sea; IL the fish do
not know il Allah will" "Today's
egg is better than tomorrow's chick
en-" is the Armenian version of "A
bird in the hand is worth two In
The bush" An angry man Is said by
he Turks ito be wearing a shirt of
fire." An Armenian proverb which
explains itself Is IF God wishes to
rejoice the heart OF a poor man.
He makes him lose his donkey and
ind it, !,
Some OF the most telling points
against their own Government are (
made by the Turks in what appear
20 be innocent stories without hid
len meaning. Thus. in referring to A..
he all around dishonesty of a public
witty Anatolian remarked,
They asked the camel why his neck ,
vas crooked; he said. Which part
IF me is straight that my neck ,
hould be straight?'" " Oficial Tur-
,ey was surprised early In this cen
ury by the wide circulation Of the :
aging "A fish with a dead head
annot swim" It was the Young :
turks way Of describing the plight
4 Turkey under Abdul Hamid.
Miss Boyajian tells the story of !
low Khoja ate cucumbers by the :
vayside. He peeled them, making :
ne peelings thick. Let whoever
asses this way afterward think It !
vas a gentleman who ate cucum- ],
ers here" he thought Then he col
ected the peels and scraped them =
hin. Let the passersby imagine
lso that the geDtlman had ser
ants" He again collected the peels S
nd ate them, saying to himself, b
Let them think he had a horse h
8 we'll" Nothing in Turkish imag- n
~ could more completely express e
han did this story the pretensions e
( the Turkish officials. their inher- d
MT dishonesty and the utter ruin "
1ey brought to their country. They Ia
i'd not leave the people even the
cells they cast away. >,