LVIII.

CHIEN JAMAIN MORDE PETITE LI JUSQUE NANS

ZOS.

The bitch will never bite its pups to the bone; or, as the French say, The kick of the mare never harmed the horse.

LIX.

PETITE QUE PAS CAPABE TÊTE MAMAN LI YO TÊTÉ GRANNE.

The baby that cannot suck its mother, will suck its grandmother.

This may be regarded as the Haytian ver

sion of the familiar line of Horace,

Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit.

LX.

ZIEUX ROUGE PAS BRULÉ SAVANNE.

Red eyes will not set the prairies on fire. Rien ne seche plus vite que les larmes,1 say the French.

Every language abounds in proverbs which, like these, treat tears as one of the most serviceable weapons of hypocrisy.

'Nothing dries quicker than tears.

LXI.

SI ZANDOLI TÉ BON VIANE LI PASSÉ CA DRIVÉR.

If the lizard were good to eat, it would not be so common. And if soft words would butter parsnips, fewer would be wasted in flattery and idle compliment.

LXII.

SI COULÉVE PAS TÉ FONTÉ, FEMMES SE POUEND

LI FAIR RIBANS JIPES.

If the adder were not so dangerous, women would take it for petticoat strings.

But for the dangers which beset the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, we should yield to them even more readily than we do now.

The arts, however, which the flatterer practices upon those who, unlike the lizard, are either too innocent or not worth preying upon, or who, unlike the adder, are not dangerous, are fitly described as a leprosy:

LXIII.

LEPE DIT AIMÉ OUS PENDANT LI MANGE DOEGT

OUS.

The leprosy pretends to love you that it may eat your fingers. The pliancy of courtiers, the sycophancy of politicians and place-hunters, and the servility of toad-eaters of all denominations were never perhaps more justly characterized. It would seem to be scarcely more extraordinary for persons to put faith in the affection of a foul disease which is eating away their extremities than it is for men of exalted rank and influence to tolerate around them many who seem to be their favorites. When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner; his success is assured.

LXIV.

OU FACHE AVEC GAN CHEMIN QUI COTÉ OU VE

PASSÉ.

If you quarrel with the high-road, which way will you go? This is usually employed in deference to the presumptive wisdom of the majority and

the good sense of manners and usages which have been sanctioned by time and popularity.

Descartes took many more words to say the same thing. One of the four rules of life which he prescribed to himself while making his search for truth was: “to obey the laws and customs of my country, adhering to the religion in which God has given me the grace to be educated from my infancy, and governing myself in all other matters according to the most moderate and least extreme opinions that are commonly received by the more sensible of those with whom I have to live. ... And among many opinions equally prevalent I chose the more moderate, as well because they are the most convenient in practice, and probably the best, all extremes being generally bad, as to wander as little as possible from the true course in case I had mistaken the road."

LXV.

C'EST CUILLER QUI ALLÉ LA CAYE GAMELLE; GAMELLE PAS JAMAIN ALLÉ LA CAYE CUILLER.

The spoon goes to tray's house, but the tray never goes to spoon's house.

The poor visit the rich, but the rich do not visit the poor. Those who want go to those who have, but those who have are less apt to go to those who want. The obscure and humble seek the society of the fashionable, the distinguished, the powerful; the latter do not seek the society of the humble or the obscure.

"There are but two families in the world," said Sancho Panza, "those who have and those who have not. My grandmother,” he added, with a delightful simplicity, "had great esteem for the families of those who have, and I am of her way of thinking."

The Haytians have another proverb which is a corollary of the preceding: