1201. If [a woman] waits until the toad grows a beard, no man will marry her.
1202, One acts in front of the wine tapper. ["Eye service"--work done only while being watched.]
1203. The child owns the goat and its hair. [Owns everything]
1204. The old person eats the soup in a greedy [selfish] manner. [Perhaps scooping out the meat before other people have a chance.]
1205. One who has yams to eat says that cocoyams give him diarrhea.
1206. Dancing and laughter are used to catch rats.
1207. A great tree does not make a great forest.
1208. You who are a bird, fly according to the strength of your wings.
1209. When the foolish person goes through a fence, you know how much sense he has.
1210. The empty stomach does not reach the navel. [An impossibility]
1211. If one does not find [see] what he wants to do, he does what comes his way [what he sees].
1212. Is preparation of the cocoyam the same as planting it?
1213. A person blows the flute that he owns.
1214. A person is accustomed to the knife that he uses to cut meat.
1215. One who continues to eat over the fire eventually eats with a [wooden] spoon.
1216. Should one leave a place where titles are taken and go to a place where sorcery is being performed?
1217. If you are given a nose you will take snuff. [Give an inch, take a mile.]
1218. One who beats up a dumb person--what did he say to you [to provoke you]?
1219. When the ear hears something, it rests. [Finally getting results brings a halt to things.]
1220. When the child eats the thing he was staying awake for, he goes to sleep.
1221. Where a person lives is where he mends the roof.
1222. "Come and eat, come and eat," and the loincloth rustles; "come and work, come and work," and the loincloth stickes [is silent].
1223. When one pretends to fall over laughing, it looks amusing.
1224. The white cock has beautiful feathers.
1225. When an old woman falls down twice, you count the things she is carrying in her basket. [Is her load too heavy? Has she lost any items in her falls?]
1226. Ten things do not happen to a dwarf.
1227. If the mat tears, you sleep on the floor.
1228. One who asks foolish questions [knows but asks anyway] asks his mother if the harmattan dries the pumpkin.
1229. Shame does not affect a thief as much as it affects his brothers.
1230. If you join a chief in laughter, will you join him in wearing the chief's garment [enjoying the benefits of being a chief]??
1231. That is not the way edibles should bear fruit. [Refers to false claims]
1232. It has been a long time that they have been talking about this.
1233. When a child tells a secret, he says that his mother is well into her journey. [Roundabout way to introduce a topic]
1234. If I bite you and you bite a palm kernel, you will find out what is hurting the ear.
1235. The poor person talks regretfully.
1236. If a goat is chased onto the farm, he goes into the yam barn.
1237. If you watch a leopard, you watch the stick that is used in carrying it.
1238. If goodness comes first, evil will get in its way.
1239. The young woman does not know that death exists.
1240. When the river is very wide, a boat is used to cross it.
1241. The chicken told those who have legs [ability] that pregnancy ???
1242. One who knows how strong he is swallows a small ütü [constipating fruit].
1243. It is the [tin] container of the medal that is the container of faith.
1244. If a woman eats broad-leafed yams and goes to market, when she arrives she will be "running her mouth." [Talkative from happiness--tasty kind of yam]
1245. It is not the day that the goat ate the yams that its teeth were pulled. [Punishment does not always follow immediately.]
1246. When people gather they wish something would happen to bring them together again, but let it not be because of a death.
1247. When the elephant scratches, the tortoise begins wanting to scratch.
1248. A story is better from the mouth of the one who tells it [originally].
1249. If one cooks badly he eats as though the food were very tasty. [Pretense]
1250. Where the hair stops is where the lotion reaches.
1251. In times when there were no war leaders, war was still waged.
1252. One who came to see the right hand showed himself to the right hand. [Exposed himself to the danger.]
1253. I saw a beautiful tree along the road but I had no knife to use in cutting it down.
1254. Monkey says that he knows how he is [i.e., ugly], so he stays under the utu tree.
1255. Tortoise says that the earth should be put on his head. [boast?]
1256. Monkey says that he is beautiful all over his body.
1257. A small person sits as though he is not well. [Curls up in chair.]
1258. You can't be wasteful and expect to be a wealthy person.
1259. When the river is too much for the swan, people can't swim in it.
1260. When the snake climbs up, the lizard falls to its death.
1261. One who defecates while in the water runs a motorcycle of his own. [Expels gas]
1262. One who does not know how to talk politely does not know how to answer politely.
1263. The earthworm innocently [without ulterior motive] burrows into the earth.
1264. One who always goes along listening [for criticism] must have done something to cause it.
1265. The dog says he has to eat feces, so let no one remind him of food with salt and oil in it.
1266. When one who has bad luck goes for firewood during the harmattan, rain drenches him.
1267. The cockroach says that the death it died in the oil was not a bad death for him.
1268. The spider says that the thing it uses for spinning is in its bottom.
1269. When it seems impossible to do a thing, there must be a way to do it.
1270. If the goat's body is roasted and it smiles, is it smiling at the one who is smiling at him or is it smiling at itself?
1271. The thing shared is not enough for those who are awake, yet you are told to remember those who are asleep.
1272. People do not send a dog to market to buy meat.
1273. The person whose throat was irritated by the yam, his throat was first irritated by the cocoyam.
1274. One who stands up knows where he is going.
1275. One who swims does not swim in the stewpot. [Be careful with stew--it is expensive and not limitless.]
1276. The dog that has been pilfering carries some stew on its nose.
1277. If the chicken wants to peck up a palm nut seed, let it bring the teeth with which to chew it.
1278. When a strong young man is praised, he starts to carry the house on his head. [Not literally.]
1279. When the teeth don't fit the mouth properly, they carry the burning of the tobacco.
1280. One who is greater than another person is also greater than his powers (or potential).
1281. One who carries something in the mind (against someone) and goes for divination accuses someone who did nothing (is innocent).
1282. The goat eats yam and the dog's ear is cut off.
1283. What killed the child's mother, the mushroom; what killed the child's father, the mushroom; what comes out of the child's bag, it is the mushroom.
1284. The load that a child ties up by himself isn't too heavy for him.
1285. The one who pounds the food [the harder job] does not complain, yet he one who cooks the stew does.
1286. One who is weak says that his brother is guilty. [Has no strength to stand up for him.]
1287. One who has something he is sharing always shares it with a dirty hand. [Hoping people will refuse it.]
1288. One who steals someone else's medicine--who told him what that medicine prohibits?
1289. The leg saw someone it knew and stood up.
1290. When sleep affects the mind it affects the eyes.
1291. A person can be a god to his companion. [Can help him.]
1292. Eight is good, but seven is better.
1293. My own, my own trades at the market. [One thinks his own is best.]
1294. One who has people is better off than one who has money.
1295. One person owns himself, but the public has to look at him. [Has an effect on him.]
1296. Intelligence is not wealth.
1297. If you follow gossip you can commit murder.
1298. Picking at food needs to wait for the mouth. [No matter how fast you pick up food the mouth can take only so much.]
1299. Luck is destroyed if you look it in the eye.
1300. Who owns this world?
1301. Anything a man does can be done by others.
1302. The one who has come on a journey is the one who goes home.
1303. Vegetable says that the one it looks at will not deceive it.
1304. If one does not know how to use a knife he cuts off his hand.
1305. Where the fire is extinguished --
1306. The healer cures the -- and the -- cures the healer.
1307. If you look at the sky, it seems to be close by.
1308. When the vulture is noisy in drinking water, the rain beats down on it.
1309. When the chicken -- , it stops --
1310. It is not good to have a feast for the spirits in the place where a man dies.
1311. When coming out in the morning, it seems that the rain has beaten down on the leopard.
1312. If leprosy afflicts a wealthy person it is called eczema.
1313. If the chicken burrows with its mouth, its mouth turns back on it.
1314. If one announces that the dog gave birth to one, he drags out that one and eats it.
1315. One who does not -- does not know his father.
1316. Distance is better than the eye --
1317. The way the chicken walks is not good for the hawk.
1318. One who eats fast does not know the value of strong teeth.
1319. One who bathes a lot does not disgust people.
1320. One who pounds in a mortar does not become friend with the yam.
1321. When an animal is butchered and a woman does not eat, there must be a shortage of salt and pepper.
1322. The sheep remembers its horns when it is going to fight the goat.
1323. When two eyes are watching, there is nothing you look at with one eye but do not see.
1324. When the leopard kills a goat, its teeth are not praised.
1325. When the sheep -- the leopard, it runs away.
1326. When a bird has no place to perch, it flies away.
1327. When a woman has bought a new cloth, she goes to trade in the market.
1328. A child has a chewing stick carved for him, but he has no teeth with which to chew it.
1329. When something happens, a quarrel results.
1330. If a person has not yet died, one can not say what killed him.
1331. When one who has refused runs away, the one who eats meat has given it to him.
1332. When a strong man is seen, people wait for him. [Ambush is the only way to overcome him.]
1333. Yam is something that gets used up, but time has no end.
1334. The lizard says that it joins its friend the chicken in drinking the water that someone has set aside. [Making excuses for itself.]
1335. If you come to the house of a person who does this, it is as though he were advising about the future. [Doing a thing now to prepare for the future.]
1336. When several young girls live in the house, their husband will die of hunger.
1337. You should not stay in the hawk's house and call it blind.
1338. You can not walk on two roads at once.
1339. If you marry from the lizard's house, you do not escape emergency ("come, come" calls)
1340. When whitish ash covers the fire, it looks as though it has been extinguished.
1341. If the world spoils a young woman, she and her mother work with palm trees. (She is rendered undesirable for marriage.)
1342. The groaning of the only child is something he would have told his brother.
1343. The one who begs for a gun bears witness to his friends that he is going to fight.
1344. The bean cannot be cooked in one small amount of water. (More will have to be added.)
1345. If two strong young men exchange bitter words about fighting, the land rejoices.
1346. Tortoise was looking for a way to chew a stone, then his wife cooked [something hard] for him. [fortuitous event]
1347. One who cracks open a palm kernel is inviting the chicken.
1348. The hunter knows the eldest son of the bird. [Has much knowledge.]
1349. The bachelor marries when there is trouble in the market.
[Possibly defending a woman from a melee gives him an opportunity
to get acquainted.]
1350. One who is going to ask questions about the earth should ask the rabbit.
1351. There is no way the rain can fall without the earth knowing about it.
1352. One who cuts off heads does not allow other people to touch the back of his head.
1353. One does not sell a chicken with a broken leg in a nearby place.
1354. The chicken that has children does not know how to run from the rain properly.
1355. One whose stomach is filled uses his leg to poke the fire. [He is lazy.]
1356. The voice that is used in quarreling is not the voice that is used in making peace.
1357. A guest does not take a title in someone else's land.
1358. Do not praise a guest before you know his character.
1359. If one eats some expensive delicacy, it is his money.
1360. I don't need to tell one who bit a gadfly to drink water. [Such advice is unnecessary--his burning mouth will tell him.]
1361. The large rabbit is greater than the nrürî.
1362. A young girl likes to go on errands that are beneficial [to her].
1363. The sweetest thing to hear is "let's eat.".
1364. The dance can reach the point where children can break their legs. [Not literally.]
1365. The toad says she didn't bear a child, yet her private parts are swelling.
1366. The ram climbs hills at a run.
1367. The hand that touches the earth does not go free. [Something must result.]
1368. The hard-luck person went to pass wind and feces came.
1369. Hunger that has hope does not kill a person.
1370. One who has been invited, if he treads to death a chicken he will not be quarreled with.
1371. One who takes a big thorn to carve his teeth--how much can he laugh? [The big teeth will not allow much laughing.]
1372. If one procrastinates in paying a debt, he still has to pay what he owes.
1373. After a proud person has been brought down, people start to laugh at him.
1374. When people finish licking the oil, they start to pay attention.
1375. One will not smell the spirits and open his mouth.
1376. If one is superior to you in tallness, you should know that you are superior to him in shortness.
1377. When feces are thrown into the bush, flies catch them.
1378. The chief said that he was not at home when his mother died. [Excuse for not spending a lot on a funeral.]
1379. If one rouses the partridge, let him not sleep. [Partridges crow at 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. and are very noisy, like roosters.]
1380. A king's son respects his counterparts.
1381. The child who is carried in the stomach passes the same gas that his mother passes.
1382. Having many followers is the honor of the chief.
1383. When an animal runs very swiftly, one must shoot it very swiftly.
1384. When one enters a difficult situation, he leaves it quickly.
1385. If you kill a cow for a hawk, it still has its eye on baby chickens.
1386. One should search for a black goat when there is daylight.
1387. One who throws a bird upward teaches him the ways of his brothers.
1388. If a young man lacks money, he says that his wife's character is not good. [Uses that as excuse because does not like to admit that he lacks money.]
1389. When a tree has fallen to the ground, you can see how big its branches are.
1390. Nduru [type of bird] walks on the ground because it is there that his necklace was lost.
1391. Beat the child, beat the child, and when you have beaten him your heart changes. [You feel regret.]
1392. Okpu [type of fish] told the fish that if the fight was like this, only he should fight it.
1393. What a person has is what he grows on his farm.
1394. When the chief comes to the discussion of deities, he knows what the spirits have in mind.
1395. If a woman defecates where her husband is, other people expect a bowl of fish. [To express her regret for disrespectful behavior.]
1396. When a child pounds cocoyam, the chickens get a portion of it.
1397. If you put food in a child's hands, remember to wash the pepper off his hands.
1398. The fly that perches on the corpse will surely follow it to the grave.
1399. The stubborn child of the he-goat with ? will not fail to come home with its ear mangled.
1400. The chicken that saw a scorpion and jumped up did not know
that poison was in its bottom.