201. When the moon begins to shine, (even) the lame person begins to want to travel.  [Irony]

202. The fly that does not listen to advice follows the corpse to the land of the spirits.

203. The moon got tired; it shone until daybreak.

204. I am not afraid to kill a tall person, because I am not the one who will dig his grave.

205. The immature animal does not live in the grasslands [shrubby area without protection].

206. When the foot walks smartly, the eye looks smartly to see it.

207. When words fall from the mouth, deception is difficult.  [See #192.]

208. When one is carrying someone else's child up a hill, when it sees the parents it says "let me go".

209. One who knows his own things [is concerned about himself] does not know another person's things [is not concerned about someone else].

210. One does not know where the water enters the pumpkin.

211. Where the blacksmith peers at the iron is where the difficulty of the work lies.

212. A friend needs only one finger to communicate with his friend.

213. One does not learn [to use] the left hand in one's old age.

214. The son does not give birth to a first son before his father does.  [A youth does not know more than an older person..]

215. If a spirit stays in a village a long time, people will invite it to their secret [private] meetings.

216. A foolish person does not know that his brother is a guest.  [Treat family members well.]

217. House rat told bush rat that pumpkin seeds were in the basket.

218. When a woman grows old, it is as though no wealth were expended in marrying her.

219. If two people are equally matched in struggle, let neither of them strike the other to the ground.

220. It is not good for one who has cut a man with a knife to continue to pursue him.

221. If one tells an old woman to wipe her nose, it seems as though it is I who will chew her head if she dies.  [Mind your own business.]

222. For a human being to take a few palmnuts is acceptable, but if it were a dog it would be considered stealing.

223. The lizard longs to sit down, but his tail will not permit him to do it.

224. The snake says that anyone who sees him and doesn't lick up pepper soup will lick up blood.  [Some people use snake meat in pepper soup.  If one sees a snake and fails to kill it for soup, the snake will bite him and he will be licking up his own blood.]

225. The owner of the corpse carries it at the head.  [When something involves you, you are expected to play a major role in it.]

226. If one takes something forcibly from a weak person, he [the latter] says that a person is supposed to do things for his fellow man.

227. The chicken's egg is for wealth (for breeding) but that of the guineafowl is for meat.

228. The crab does not stay tied up  and still play the ubøo [musical instrument].  [When the "music" of eaters cracking the shells is heard, it is clear that the crab has been taken from its bonds and cooked.]

229. The chicken that is drinking [pecking at water] looks upward, because its death comes from above.  [Chickens raise their heads with each mouthful of water, in order to swallow properly.  This is an imaginative way of explaining the phenomenon.]

230. Akalata says that if it were not that one gave the øogbanje  [child who came as a temporary visitor] something  used to placate him,  then when his Iya [talisman] was dug up it would grow back ]or be covered up] again.

231. If the lizard that starts to run leaving the base of a tree, the child who is adept at catching will catch it.

232. The one who came to the toad's house  and  asked for a chair, did he see the one where the toad sat down?
    (i) This man asks me for the  horn of dog.
    (ii) This man asks me  for one leg of a snake.

233. The chicken says the reason he knows everyone hates him is that they see his droppings and they take money and go to buy pumpkin seeds in the market.  [Chicken has a high opinion of his own droppings!]

234. When an old woman is very cold, she remembers the one she was kind to in the past.

235. When fighting becomes excessive, those who broke their arms start to carry those who broke their legs.  [refers to those fighting on the same side]

236. It is lack of more food in the hand that causes the food in the mouth to be eaten slowly and carefully [suffer].

237. If you send me  on an errand to a prominent person, I will go, but if you tell me to  prepare a headpad and carry him, I will refuse.  [avoids involvement in  plots or intrigues]

238. One whose house is on fire does not hunt rats.  [ignoring the important to pursue the unimportant]

239. If medicine is prepared to clear the eye, one does not put pepper in it.

240. Rabbit says that when he lives far from the oil-bean tree, if the seed pods explode they fall down into his house, but when he goes and lives at the base of the oil-bean tree, it puts him into a bad [starving] condition [rubs ose  and üzîza  (both are kinds of pepper) into his eyes].

241. The reason that we have two ears is, if one starts to drop something into one of them but it does not accept it, one turns to the other.

242. Plantain-eater [large, noisy bird] says of the grasshopper it killed that an obstruction  [growth in the ear] made it deaf.

243. If the lizard excretes but does not excrete whitish substance, one does not know that it is the feces of a lizard.

244. Nwa-Arü shoots gunpowder, while turning to check on his market bag.  [divided attention]

245. When the goat lies down on the ground, it lies on its skin.

246. The palm wine-tapper does not reveal everything he sees on the top of the palm tree.

247. One who was not there when the corpse was buried digs it up at the foot.

248. The dog eats feces and the goat's teeth will rot.

249. The chicken says that it does not cry so that the thing holding it will let it go, but rather so that the world will hear its voice.

250.  One does not [have to] tell a deaf person that there is a commotion in the market--rather, he uses his eyes to see what is happening.

251. If one gives an old woman a child to carry, she says that she has no teeth.  Was she told to chew it to death?

252. If one who is smart but has no sense tells his father that he gave birth to a first son before his father did, the father asks him:  "My child, whose first son are you then?"

253. If the child wants to wander, he says that his mother is away on a journey.  (The next question will be, where did she go, and the child will start to tell.)

254. The young palm frond says that in the case of a small person, conditions tell him to come quickly and see his world in his eyes.  [experience the world for himself]

255. Where two people fought and separated themselves [unusual occurrence], was there a third person there?

256. If an old woman sees someone "taking care of her," she says that her relatives do not grow old.

257. The message that is sent to the smoke has reached the sky.

258. People generally get along well except for the one who is hot-tempered.

259. If the child who is not mature enough to shoot the antelope proceeds to shoot the antelope, the antelope jumps on him and his gun.

260. The rat says take ripe palm nut to set a trap for him, because what he comes and carries it with is his head.  [uses head to poke into trap.]

261. Where the child went today and "brought back something good," when tomorrow comes he goes there very early.

262. One who is on top says that he almost fell (he  has fallen from the top)--has he climbed down?

263. The chicken uses two feet to stretch itself, it strikes its chest  on the ground.  [bites off more than it can chew]

264. The chicken says that he goes to look at the place where  the bushfowl is being singed because birds  [fatty animals] are all alike.

265. The strong man ___carries fire in two hands, he uses  a trough (?) [special wooden holder to keep animal from sliding while being butchered] to chase  a dog.

266. If a bee stings a dog, when he sees a large fly he runs away very fast.

267. The small squirrel  does not own an oil palm tree, the large squirrel does not own an oil palm tree, yet at  all times the fights between the two of them are on account of oil palm trees.

268. Procrastination saw the palm fruit, Suddenness cut it down.

269.  Child who escaped death said if one takes the pestle and makes a bow out of it and he fails to die, if one bends the pestle [so the arrow will be effective], he dies.

270. The tree that [created, shone, tied nduko ] , if one cuts it down in the light of the open, grassy country, it falls on top of the grass.

271. The toad does not run in the afternoon for no reason.

272. The water that beats down on the stone washes its body.  [It has no bad effect.]

273. One who takes the bottom of his hand and excretes from his body  excretes it for himself.  [no effect on anyone else]

274. One who runs to separate fighters doesn't know that fighting is death.

275. A woman whose children die does not permit her child to sleep for a long time.

276. When one looks for a "kitchen knife" one reveals what he ate.

277. After one cuts everything completely, the whole thing returns to the farm of the yam farmer.  [One must buy food -- no profit]

278. The øogînî  [a beautifully colored proud rat) says that if it looked at the mouth it would use  to make a hole, it would nearly laugh itself to death.

279. The first got burnt, the second was almost raw.

280. If one stands up and digs up and breaks the "tail" [not root, but lower part] of a yam, one sits down to dig up its tail.  [Haste makes waste.]

281. No one knows the mind of one he is holding to the ground;  is it that if he is released he will fight or if he is released he will run away?

282. One who talks-- does he know the mind of the one who will answer?

283. When the child washes his hands thoroughly, he can eat with an older person.

284. The cricket says that one who "does not start to make holes when his companion does"  (to make holes with speed), the earth shuts him out. [The earth is softer at certain times, such as at the end of rainy season.]

285. If a child sneaks up and burns me, I will sneak up and burn him back.

286. Cockroach says it does not know how it danced the wall-gecko's dance and it brought on a quarrel.

287. One who hurries to lick his fingers--is he going to hang them up?  [He is not going to lose them--they will still be attached.]

288. One does not swat a fly directly on top of a sore.

289. Leopard said that the thing one used to know how sick he was was the eye of "Atani," which showed its seriousness.  [Atani= squirrel-like animal with bulging eyes.]

290. The atani  said that he should hurry and gather his children, because the thing that destroyed his nest would kill his children.

291. The arrow that the child used to shoot the bird-- it was an adult that carved it.

292. If a person who has diarrhea is not careful, he and his garment divide the feces in two.  [sharing equally]

293. When the grasshopper  perched on the chest of the blind man, he carried it.

294. If a thing starts to smell, one washes it in water; if water starts to smell, what is one going to do?  [Some things are beyond control.]

295. When one passes gas from above it confuses the fly.

296. The goat perspires, but its fur does not let people see it.

297. If one uses two hands to snap his fingers at the dog, he will not know which one to follow.

298. If the child engages in ruinous behavior, the child will be scolded.

299. A greedy person [one who consumes everything of the best immediately] does not know when he has consumed all of his daughter's bride price.

300. The snake that bit me used its tail to strike you.  [Don't rejoice over others' problems--the same thing  may happen to you.]

301. The herbalist whose medicine caused dysentery--did he keep his own buttocks high?  [Doesn't he know that he will be affected too?]

302. Speaking in proverbs protects you from the consequences of speaking bluntly [keeps the neck from being naked].

303. A child's crying constantly prevents us from knowing when he is being killed.

304. When the rat jumps in the water with the lizard, the water dries from the lizard but it does not dry from the rat.

305. Okra does not outgrow the planter.

306. When the lizard abandons  the base of the tree, the dog captures it.

307. Procrastination [always coming, coming] caused the toad not to sprout a tail.

308. If one kills a cow for a hawk, its eye is still on the chicken.

309. Where the hand of a small person reaches, there is where he hangs his bag.

310. When the leopard breaks his leg the deer comes to collect her debt.

311. The madman's brother feels shame, and not the madman himself.

312. If one finger is dipped in the oil, it contaminates all of them.

313. When the child eats the thing that he is staying awake for, then he falls asleep.

314. One who throws a young bird up into the air has shown him the road to his mother's place.

315. The toad does not run out in the afternoon for nothing.

316. One who owns  the corpse carries it at the head.  [It is heavier at the head; sign of the owner taking leadership role or having full responsibility at burial of his relative.]

317. Those who hurry toward a fight [perhaps to break it up, perhaps just to watch] do not know that fighting means death.

318. Let the hawk perch, let the eagle perch--the one that tells the other not to perch, let his wing break.

319. One who tells me to die, let him go to sleep before the chickens.  [It is abnormal to go to sleep that early (around 5 p.m.).  This is wishing some abnormality on the person.]

320. One who says that my possessions should not be mine [usually out of jealousy], let it happen that his should not be his.

321. The bow that is used to strike successfully at the eleke nti oba [tiny, clever bird, hard to hit], let it have twenty arrows.  [Something like a wager, where the 20 arrows would be a reward for accomplishing a difficult feat.]

322. One who is informed about someone else rejoices; but has the one who is accused confirmed?

323. If one stays at home to wait for someone, his waist will not break.

324. If one treats a child the same as his counterpart, he will be satisfied.

325. For the oil palm to develop fruit today and ripen today is not a good thing.  [Things should happen at the proper stages.]

326. If a human being has an itch, his fellow human being scratches it for him, but if an animal has an itch, it goes and rubs its body against a tree.

327. If the female sheep should sprout horns, is her skull hard enough?  [If you want to emulate someone else, first ask yourself if you have the prerequisites.]

328. Look for a black goat in the afternoon, otherwise she and darkness will be one and the same.

329. If one starts to praise his wife, she becomes puffed up.

330. The slave who sees that his companion is being buried with mbazu and laughs should know that things will be like that for him when his day comes.

331. Suddenness overcomes the strong man.

332. One whose house is burning does not chase rats.

333. Pepper should not go to a shameful fight.

334. One who sees an eagle should greet the eagle because one does not often set eyes on an eagle.

335. When one scratches another person's child on the head, let his own not come out to the street.

336. A child does not give birth to a first son before his father does.

337. When an elder does not speak openly [hems and haws], he gives away the secret.

338. It is the foolish child for whom the boundary of his father's land must be pointed out twice.

339. When the foot goes fast, the eye must go fast in order to see it.

340. If something is discussed too often, [even] a deaf person hears it.

341. One who gathers ant-infested firewood is telling the lizard to come to his house.

342. It is the one who had a strong say in things [is influential] who speaks loud; one who has no say swallows his words.

343. The cow has no tail--his personal god chases away the flies for him.

344. The matter that has been previously discussed needs only a nod of the head to agree to it.

345. No one who scrapes the surface of a yam sticks the shovel into its back.

346. The cow dung does not know that the adakada [brown beetle with thick shell] has entered it.  [Refers to being unaware.]

347. The poor, wretched person tells his god to come and take him away and kill him.

348. The corn  ripens for those who have no teeth.  [Opportunities come to those who cannot make use of them.]

349. The house-rat tells the bush-rat that fish is in the basket.

350. When  the palm fruit is being eaten, let us save some for the shy person.

351. Bail out water when it is in the slow, dripping stage.  [Nipping in the bud.]  [Øogbügba øola = small ring, puddle]

352. It is only the tree that, hearing that  it is going to be killed, remains standing.

353. If he had a nose he would have taken snuff.

354. If a child sneaks up and burns me, I sneak up and burn him back.

355. If one does not watch the small pot it boils over into the fire.  [Don't underestimate the small pot.]

356. A good market sells itself.

357. One does not [have to] tell a deaf person that the market is on fire.

358. The thing that a child is fond of will be his undoing.

359. One who has diarrhea does not know a bad bush.

360. If the dog persists stubbornly to the death, it does not allow him to perceive the smell of feces.  [Heeds no warnings.]

361. The chicken ignores the one who killed it and twists its neck [reproachful gesture] at the pot.

362. When a proverb about raggedy basket is quoted, the emaciated person jumps into the discussion.  [He takes it as referring to him.]

363.  The head splits, the stomach runs, which one is more serious than the other?

364. The day that I look for a wife is when mad women are looking for husbands.

365. The chicken says that it will not forget the one who plucked its tail feathers during the rainy season.  (This means that one should not forget someone who has done something for him when he was in great need.  It is to relieve a person from the great problem he has.)

366. One who bathes in tears knows himself.

367. Will I, because a yam-eater cooked breadfruit [low-status food], then call it elele  [ground bean food of even lower status]?

368. When one finds a woman for you, will he spread a mat for you too?  [Do your part.]

369. Where you bought pumpkin seed is where I went to buy pumpkin seed and pepper.

370. When a strong man eats a palm kernel, one sees its shell.  (This means that when a strong person does something, seeing it at that time you will know without being told.  Seeing this deed is to believe that a strong man has done it.)

371. Where one has come upon the corpses of two small birds,  whatever kills small birds lives there.  (This means that if something happens and happens again in the same place, this thing is not in vain.  There is something or someone causing it, it is not happening by itself.)

372.  One uses small things to know big [deep] things.  (Imurimu  is petty things.  Èimîrîmî  is many things. This means that it is by small things that one learns how a person is.  It can be that because of the money a man gave to one who eats with him, he tells him that he should go his own way.)

373. What belongs to a person belongs to a person.

374. There is nothing that the eye sees and weeps blood.  [Nothing is that bad.]

375. One who does not have a sore throat does not know thatone uses saliva to eat breakfast.

376. When the rain has stopped falling, it runs down into a hole.  [Everything clears up eventually.]

377. When something dies, there was something that killed it.

378. Lion says that Akara does not live in the forest.

379. The grass that the goat's eye  happens on first is what it will chew.
380. The fufu, no matter how well it is pounded, does not make for good  swallowing  if the soup is not tasty.

381. The broom  is  not important, but in the morning you look for it.

382. If twenty men fall on top of me, I know the first one who falls on top of me.  [Might also refer to attack.]

383. When the birth traditions have been observed in another town, it is  not good to return home without the child.

384. The right hand washes the left hand,  the left hand washes the right hand, they both are clean.

385.  One who eats watery food says that something thick should be cooked for him.  (Pitipiti  is something thick.)

386. Where a child points his finger and cries, if his mother is not there  his father will be there.

387. The lizard wants to squat but its tail will not permit it.

388. When the hawk flies up its shadow  is on the ground.

389. I have seen the road as a means of escape, but a woman calls it a place to run toward  [for refuge].

390. One does not stay beside a water pot and catch a frog.

391. Whatever a woman gives birth to  is what she will show to her husband.

392. The ram says  that walking is something to be done carefully.

393. The door thought that it was the only thing that one entered, but it did not know that one entered the thick forest of tangled vines.

394. Where there is a corpse the vultures will gather.

395. When the bachelor finishes running from cleaning up the ashes, they  still await him.

396. The monkey  traveled to the white man's land, returned, and was still a monkey.

397. It is said that there is no wealth to marry a wife for a young man, yet  the women of the house keep on giving birth to males.

398. One knows when the market he patronizes is held.

399. Rather than eat so much that I fall into the road, let me go hungry.

400. One does not beat a child on the day he spills the oil, but rather on the day that he spills the yellow [inferior or crude] oil.  [The punishment is for repeating the offense--not for the relative value of the oils.]