Rodgers Dictionary of Proverbs
When you argue with a fool, make sure he is
not doing the same.
When you ask, you become a fool for a little
while and when you don't ask you
become a fool for the rest of your life.
When you bargain with a fox, beware of
tricks.
When you bear a grudge, your child will
also bear a grudge.
When you begin a mission, remember
Aktuh and Melota.
When you begin to understand the
situation, you know you must have been
ill-informed.
When you borrow your friends legs, you go
where he want you to go.
When you bow, bow low.
When you bump into someone, begging
your pardon doesn't put it right.
When you buy beef, you buy bones; when
you buy land, you buy rocks.
When you buy friends with anything other
than friendship, they do not stay bought
long.
When you buy, use your eyes and your
mind, not your ears.
When you can avoid it, never seek strife.
When you cannot bite a hand, kiss it.
When you can't do what you want, do what
you can.
When you can't find peace within yourself,
there is no use looking for it somewhere
else.
When you can't get bread, oat-cakes are not
amiss.
When you can't get meat, chickens and
bacon are good.
When you cease to strive to understand,
then you will know without
understanding.
When you chase a fellow man reserve the
strength to switch you back when he
recharges and turns.
When you chop off a snake's head, all you
are left with is a piece of rope.
When you climb the mountain and reach the
top, do not forget the branches shrubs
709
that helped your footing.
When you come back from a long journey,
offer your family something though it be
only a stone.
When you cook a guinea fowl, the partridge
gets a headache.
When you cry for rain, you cry for mud too.
When you curse your stepmother, your
mother will be the victim.
When you die, you rejoice, and the world
cries.
When you die, you will be spoken of as
those in the sky, like the stars.
When you die, your sister's tears will dry as
time goes on, your widow's tears will
end in another's arms, but your mother
will mourn you until the day she dies.
When you die, your trumpeter will be
buried.
When you do something wholeheartedly,
you are not in need of helpers.
When you don't get along with a hunter in
town, don't follow him to the bush.
When you don't wait for it, tomorrow still
comes.
When you drink from the stream remember
the spring.
When you drink milk under the palm tree,
people will say that it is palm wine.
When you drink water, remember where the
mountain spring is.
When you eat an egg do not insult the chick-
en.
When you eat new bread, don't drink water.
When you enjoy loving your neighbor, it
ceases to be a virtue.
When you enter a great enterprise, free your
soul from weakness.
When you fall behind, you eat dust.
When you fall into a pit, you either die or
get out.
When you fight fire with fire, somebody is
going to get hurt.
When you follow in the path of your father,
you learn to walk like him.