601. One should not hunt a squirrel empty-handed [without a weapon].
602. People who play the flute and those who play the trombone [some other type of instrument] know what they are playing.
603. A boxer cannot punch a head of palm nuts. [It has thorny spikes.]
604. One who travels to Asaba to marry agrees to use a boat at night [because of the great distance].
605. One does not learn how to use the left hand in old age. [You can't teach an old dog new tricks.]
606. There is no embarrassment in dancing well.
607. Older people say that their hands cause their backs to become ???.
608. The oil palm tree that the male monkey goes out early in the morning and travels to, if it is not the øosükwü variety it is the nutless variety. [Two of the best kinds.]
609. One who is being given something does not grow thin.
610. Atamiri [an animal] says that he runs around a lot during the rainy season; during the dry season he is not seen much.
611. The monkey says that corn tells you how you should eat it.
612. The toad says that the first step is the one that is the most important.
613. A poor person thinks about money more than death.
614. The rat asks the one who catches him and knocks him to the ground if he has heard that he (the rat) was a very good wrestler.
615. The bird with a long beak still can not peck out anything on its own head.
616. The small bird that cuts the long, rope-like grass while running says that this is a very big year. (The small bird is usually unable to break apart the vines; because of this it considers this a very great day.)
617. If a person has bad luck, his chickens do not go out of the compound to urinate. [They are afraid bad luck will dog them.]
618. Mr. "I am begging" does not go to the house of Mr. "Things are worse than for me."
619. If an evil spirit goes to kill a person and sees someone being carred (i.e., a corpse), it says that its journey has come to an end [its leg has been broken from traveling, or the journey has been aborted because its purpose has already been accomplished].
620. One does not try hard to have a child just because he has the strength [but because children are important]. [Having children does not go by a person's strength.]
621. I have an eye like an ufu [like a large squirrel] but I do not eat chicken. [I like to look but I don't touch.]
622. If one cuts a he-goat into pieces, what he cuts into pieces is finished.
623. One who does something in a hurry makes a mistake. (If a person does something too fast and makes a mistake, at that time he must start all over again at the beginning.)
624. The leopard was looking for something to eat and the grasshopper jumped into its teeth.
625. One who marries the daughter of someone in his age group--did he marry early?
626. If I am giving yam to a child and he bites my hand, which of the two of us was the first to find out how yam tastes? [I knew the taste of yam before you did, and it is not so tasty that you need to bite me.]
627. I do not know bitterness unless I chew onugbu [bitterleaf plant].
628. One stays in the shade and sees the moon. [An impossibility.]
629. Tortoise says that another corpse will die. [Another time wil come.]
630. Kpoto kpoto [onomatopoeic words] happens in the face of the cow. [Directly before a person.]
631. When a chicken's life is being saved, it says it prefers death. [Ingratitude, or ignorance of what is best.]
632. The quiet [seemingly innocent] dog ate the chicken's egg entirely.
633. It is in emergency situations that a man's strength is found out.
634. The dance that comes out in the time of the younger generation is the dance that they do.
635. A bad dog warms itself by the fire fiercely [menacingly].
636. Those who go with me to shoot lizards have already finished shooting rats. [Already advanced in their accomplishments.]
637. One who does get into trouble himself, his loincloth can get him into trouble.
638. People who have noses, let them take snuff. [Let those who have the resources do what they want.]
639. Cold is --
640. A mad person and his thoughts go together. [One can not fathom the mind of a mad person.]
641. A knife-wielder cuts because his opponent does not have [a knife].
642. Something brief [small] can be effective.
643. Things that are sweet are killers.
644. Be careful so that the sticky soup will be enough food for all of us. [Don't be wasteful. A careless eater can pull out too much in one spoonful because of the "drawing' of sticky soups such as okra.] [øOkwurü, agbøonøo, ogiri, egusi, mango.]
645. It has a beautiful feather. [It is beautiful in the feather.]
646. The old woman does not become old in the dances she knows how to do.
647. One who runs for his life never tires.
648. One who is afraid of work chooses to fight. [Still has the will or courage to fight.]
649. The bush that does not like baskets should not grow mushrooms.
650. When the stomach is fat you cannot cover it with the hands.
651. The young girl does not know what it is like to experience the death of a husband.
652. When the moon comes out, the young woman (or the old woman) likes to travel.
653. When fire burns a child, he learns something.
654. One who acts as though he has another one [of anything], but the other one does not exist.
655. The stream does not kill its owners.
656. The crying of a mature person is groaning.
657. The stronger hand breaks the [weaker] hand.
658. A man's neck is straightened only two times.
659. What the hand has it gives to the mouth.
660. Touching my body with your hand does not mean we are friends.
661. The beauty that comes to the market comes to be admired.
662. The hand that holds the woman is her husband.
663. It is said that the chicken trains [its young] so that it becomes (according to the manner in which she hatched the eggs) like one whose heart will not know its mother's condition .
664. The chicken of the house does not get fat.
665. The chicken that grows fat grows fat for its owner. [Benefit goes to owner.]
666. The chicken said, Is there any one who sees something to eat and still looks into the forest?
667. The child bathes by rubbing only the stomach.
668. When the rat runs away from the child, he says that it was a rat of feces. [Sour grapes.]
669. The baby says that he knows what to say but if his mouth speaks he will be thrown away.
670. When the old woman almost falls down, bad words come out of her mouth.
671. The fufu says that it does not fall to the earth without sand [on it].
672. The bachelor cooks yam and eats it from the fire--he and who else will contest for it?
673. The bachelor's running off involves only himself and his climbing-rope and his cutlass [oil-palm knife].
674. The woman's god is her husband.
675. When there are no more yams in the barn, the woman starts to answer calls harshly.
676. Some fighters will be killed, some fighters will go home.
677. A large following is a chief's honor.
678. Power varies--the scorpion has his in his mouth.
679. The mad person knows his own heart.
680. The message sent to a chief does not kill a leopard. [It is a harmless thing.]
681. The kola nut that breaks into two parts knows its mind. [Only two parts unusual.]
682. If the young man wrestled twice, was he able to defeat someone?
683. The blind man is always full of sleep.
684. If the palm nut grows in a crooked place, a bird with a long, curved mouth is sought.
685. The person who stays indoors does not know what his counterparts have sold in øokazî [a hard-leafed vegetable].
686. If one who killed someone is choked up, will someone else speak for him? [He will have to speak for himself.]
687. If the chicken's egg cracks the palm kernel, the stone will be seized with shame.
688. One who has a muskrat should cut off its mouth; one who has a toad should split open its stomach. [People who have faults should correct them.]
689. The forest that avoids the basket should not grow mushrooms because if it grows mushrooms the basket enters it.
690. The chief who is respected should respect himself.
691. The young woman goes reluctantly to her husband's house.
692. A person with short arms should not eat mango soup. [It is sticky, like okra, and it takes long arms to slurp it up quickly before it slides back.]
693. If one sneezes too hard the eyeballs keep on protruding.
694. If a child speaks out too rudely, he says that he spoke boldly to a prominent man.
695. Hot soup should be sipped carefully.
696. The blind man planted pumpkin seeds and the sun continued to shine on them.
697. You load a bag of salt on me and drink up my water.
698. Is the fool supposed to speak while the spirits are speaking?
699. One who keeps on taking action is better than -- .
700. Tortoise said that if you reach the place where he and another man have fought, if you do not see actual damage you will see some signs.
701. Just because a person is called kernel eater does not mean that he carries a bunch of stones [for cracking kernels].
702. When one who is being cured of the hydrocele develops a swollen stomach, try to find out if he left something in the bad bush. [The illness then would be a punishment.]
703. I washed the hands that I used to catch an ananri [bird] and a muskrat.
704. One does not have to tell the eye that it is brother to the nose.
705. The hawk says that he has no gun but he goes hunting.
706. The pear told the chicken "let it be enough."
707. When the chicken pilfers too much, the basket covers it. [It eventually tips over on top of it.]
708. A house should not be without a storage area.
709. The fruit said that if one keeps at it [keeps on tasting it], it will be tasty.
710. The kola nut says that the thing that makes it angry is that after they have eaten it, they say that there is no kola.
711. Something happened to the cocoyam that made it cry. [There is a reason for everything.]
712. One who tries to split open the oil bean pod when it is hard does not know that the oil bean pod has run out. [The season is over.]
713. If one who pounds food breaks his waist, the owner of the food still takes his food. [No point in overworking.]
714. The chicken that walks into the sharp stick knows that its eye will be plucked out.
715. If one kills a tortoise and puts aside the ring [certain part of tortoise]--are titled persons there?
716. When one says to let a thing happen, it happens to him.
717. If one does not think for himself, whom does he want to think for him?
718. One who uses his head to close the door and says that he is saving his life, saves the [armed robber or some kind of bad person?].
719. Have you seen a chicken that has not been let out [in the morning]-- it starts to cluck.
720. The muskrat says that its mouth is --, if one -- it is up to him.
721. The palm kernels that are being chewed, if they are not all gone, the ears [of the chewer] will not rest.
722. The fly is merely flying around the pile of feces that is too much for it to handle.
723. A great tree that saw me and was swaying, a great wind broke off its branches.
724. When you keep aloof, it looks like fear.
725. One who breaks a child's bow should string it again.
726. If fire does not burn a child in the lower back, he does not understand that the lower back is sore.
727. If a bachelor uses a spoon to eat something, who is going to lick the plate?
728. The beans [black-eyed peas] of the poor person are lost in too much grinding .
729. The whisper of the palm kernel and the breadfruit is in the ears.
730. The he-goat says that he went to his mother's home quarter and learned to baa.
731. The ram with a head like the he-goat should abandon the hard head, let it abandon -- .
732. The pear that was planted in the back yard did not mature, yet it became overdone [too soft].
733. Come and let me put some fish in for you ---.
734. If one ties a stone above the shelf [which is above the water pot], the water pot is shattered.
735. If the holes are crooked, the dog barks [because he cannot see through them].
736. While one is expecting the dried-up tree to fall, the living one falls.
737. The chicken pecks a thing to death before eating.
738. The chicken says that all of her children are [gathering themselves together?].
739. The apple says that the one that ripens better than it does is an albino.
740. When an old man holds snuff (in hand), he starts to tell stories about what happened in the old days.
741. Someone was asked to invoke the god and he rubbed uri on his mouth.
742. Hunchbacked is the way tortoise goes into the bush -- .
743. One does not know a blind person to be a thief unless he is caught.
744. Bumping around, stamping around--who is quarreling with you?
745. If the chicken chases the lizard too much, it [the chicken] strikes its head on the ground.
746. The night makes the sheep's head look as though it had horns.
747. Tomorrow is pregnant--who knows what it will bring forth?
748. Shaking hands past the elbow becomes an embrace.
749. The plantain-eater [large bird] that says it came when there was no sky or earth must have buried its mother and father in its head.
750. One who uses a large -- to carve [false] teeth, how much money will it yield in interest?
751. The guineafowl says it has done everything in its village and thus has become stubborn.
752. It does not hold true that a serious illness causes death.
753. The small squirrel does not own palm fruit, the large squirrel does not own palm fruit, but they meet together on the head of palm fruit.
754. Anything the hawk gives birth to will not fail to carry off chickens.
755. When the chicken hears a shooing noise it gets gooseflesh.
756. If there is no shooting on the pathway, there is no closing [people will continue to use it].
757. If you look a corpse in the face as it is, you would say, "Stop crying promptly."
758. Fatigue is similar to old age.
759. When a woman goes on a secret trip, she gathers firewood and returns home. [excuse for trip]
760. The egg of a chicken is beautiful to put snuff into, but if it is struck with the knuckles, it splits open.
761. One who sets a stick and rope trap runs the risk of [owes a debt to] blindness.
762. You should not use [the technique of] driving away against a good wife--if you drive her away, she marries another.
763. The titled person who did not know what to say said that his companions had already said what he wanted to say.
764. When one pounds the mortar too much for the amount of food, the owner of the food still takes his food.
765. The mushroom said that if a child prevents it from sleeping in the afternoon, it will prevent him from doing the errand his mother sent him on.
766. The overbearing [strong-eyed] chief is not -- .
767. One who has been invited to come and eat spoons it [the food] out from the edges. [Done out of politeness--avoiding appearance of greed.]
768. When a rich man chews palmnut in the forest it is something he wanted, but when a poor person chews it, it is eated out of hunger [poverty].
769. One can not stay on the ground and find out which bat is pregnant.
770. The young man whose girlfriend devoured yam said that it looked to him as though he should be planting his yams in the earth.
771. One whose father was struck in the head by a bullet uses a metal pot to make a cap.
772. If the husband carries his wife and climbs to the top of the oil palm tree, his wife pushes him into the market basket and carries it to market. [If he talks about her to other men, she will talk about him at the market.]
773. One who has been planting yam for a long time should go back to [visit] his mother's place, because if someone pursues him, it is not the yam sack where he will find refuge. [Do not forget to cultivate family ties.]
774. If quarreling increases, it extends to the sneaky person.
775. The reason one goes to moonlight games is that people can see each other, because there is no one on whom the moon does not shine in his own place.
776. If you pick off the fleas that are in the ajî [skirt made of wooly cloth], the owner of the ajî will be naked.
777. Where a child goes to get an oily mouth is where he could also get a bloody mouth.
778. If the child learns the trail of the snake, he will also learn the wanderings of the snake.
779. The dog says that one's eye is one's own share. (He is only looking.)
780. One has not seen a person whose yam was consumed by a leopard. [Leopards do not eat yams.]
781. Corn ripens for people who have no teeth, but if it ripens for me, I eat up all of them. [I know how to make use of good fortune.]
782. When palm nut is being chewed, a sick person wants some, but when he is given some, he says that his teeth are weak.
783. "One who questions" asked his mother if the pumpkin plant sprouted pumpkins.
784. One whose father has become a thief uses his foot to kick open the door.
785. The grasshopper that the plantain-eater killed turned a deaf ear to death.
786. Words are not bad while remaining in the mouth.
787. A person does not carry the corpse of an elephant on his head while digging out a mole-cricket from its hole.
788. The firewood that is in the town cooks food for the town.
789. If you hold a strong man to the ground but can not slash him with a knife, is it when he stands up again [that you will be able to do it]?.
790. It does not happen that a motherless person goes to welcome [a mother].
791. The dog does not sleep while meat is being cooked.
792. The spoken word is the visible thought [thought in action].
793. The rabbit said that camouflage was protecting its burrow.
794.
795. One does not use two hands to take palm kernels from the shelf.
796. If one starts to count the number of oil palms the winetapper has, his climbing will take place in the evening.
797. The chicken said that the reason it failed to go to a corner when defecating was that there was no one thought twice about killing it. [Random killing, random defecating.]
798. The dog lives with the one who brings it the jaw of the leopard [provides its food].
799. To know and to overlook makes a friendship grow.
800. Where a person lives is where he mends (his roof) .