PROVERBS.

The Yorubas have an extraordinary number of proverbial sayings, and regard knowledge of them as a proof of great wisdom, whence the saying, "A counsellor who understands proverbs soon sets matters right." They are in constant use, and another saying runs, "A proverb is the horse of conversation. When the conversation droops a proverb revives it. Proverbs and conversation follow each other."

The following are taken as examples:--

1. Secrets should never be told to a tattler.

2. What is not wished to be known is done in secret.

3. He who has done something in secret, and sees people talking together, thinks they are talking of his action.

4. A whisperer looks suspiciously at the forest when he hears a noise, but the forest does not tell tales.

5. Continual sweepings make a dust-heap.

6. One here: two there: a great crowd.

7. One here: two there: the market is filled up.

8. Boasting is not courage.

9. He who boasts much cannot do much.

10. Much gesticulation does not prove courage.

11. It is easy to cut to pieces a dead elephant.

12. A hog that has wallowed in the mud seeks a clean person to rub against.

13. A man in a white cloth is never looked for in the palm-oil market.

14. The cross-roads do not fear sacrifices.

15. Disobedience will drink water with his hands tied up.

16. Disobedience is the father of insolence.

17. Calamity has no voice; suffering cannot speak to tell who is really in distress.

18. He who owns the inner square of the house is the master of the outer.

19. Peace is the father of friendship.

20. Strife never begets a gentle child.

21. He who forgives ends the quarrel.

22. A sharp word is as tough as a bow-string. A sharp word cannot be cured, but a wound may.

23. A peacemaker often receives blows.

24. There is no medicine against old age.

25. The afomo (a parasitical plant) has no roots; it claims relationship with every tree.

26. A man with a cough can never conceal himself.

27. Full-belly child says to hungry-belly child, "Keep good heart."

28 Houses that are not adjacent do not readily catch fire.

29. Do not attempt what you cannot bring to a good end.

30. He who marries a beauty marries trouble.

31. A man of the town knows nothing about farming, or the seasons for planting, yet the yam he buys must always be large.

32. A witch kills but never inherits.

33. Unless the tree falls you will never be able to reach the branches.

34. Another's eye is not like one's own.

35. A poor man has no relations.

36. Poverty never visits a poor man without visiting his children also.

37. The white man is the father of merchants, and want of money is the father of disgrace.

38. A man may be born to a fortune, but wisdom only comes with length of days.

39. People think that the poor are not so wise as the rich, for if a man be wise, why is he poor?

40. The appearance of the wise differs from that of the fool.

41. The labourer is always in the sun, the plantation-owner always in the shade.

42. A lazy man looks for light employment.

43. Laziness lends assistance to fatigue.

44. He who waits for a chance will have to wait for a year.

45. When the jackal dies the fowls do not mourn, for the jackal never brings up a chicken

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46. When fire burns in the bush, smuts fly into the town.

47. Tale-bearing is the older brother, vexation the younger.

48. He who knows a matter beforehand confuses the liar.

49. Time may be very long but a lie will not go to forgetfulness.

50. A lie costs nothing to a liar.

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