A FEW ARABIAN PROVERBS
The number of Arabs at present in Palestine is quite large, and intermingling with the Jews, the Syrian, the Greeks, who now inhabit the Holy Land, their picturesque manners and habits of thought make them the most attractive people to be found there.
The Arab loves nothing better than the exercise of figurative and fanciful conversation. His whole life is illustrated by parables and maxims and wonderfully imaginative tales. Speak to an Arab in flowery terms, and he will admire you, though he may disagree with you. Talk to him in the direct, terse, matter-of-fact manner or the occidental, and not even if he coincides with your views, will he condescend to listen to you.
To live with him, one must learn to mimic him, to imitate his gestures, his movements, his methods of speech, and one must also be able to excite his imagination with tales of a romantic or florid character.
When an Arab describes the beauty of a landscape, no artist can excel him. He is poet, singer, orator, and story-teller combined. Hills and dales, plains and ravines, sweep before his imagination, and he enters into a delirium of fancy. Solomon's Song of Songs is a fine example of the Arabic faculty of using the picturesqueness of nature to adorn a love tale.
But of all arts the Arab excels in the art of composing proverbs or maxims. The son of Ishmael retains a trait which is characteristic of his paternity in using every occasion to point a moral. The following proverbs have been collected by a resident of the city of Jaffa from the conversation of Bedouins on the streets of that city. They illustrate very admirably the diversified interests of the Arabs, as well as their knack of boiling down worldly experiences into moral sayings:
"Whatever the lady of the house breaks is kismet, or fate; but what the servant destroys is due to sheer carelessness.
"He who goes to feast with wolves should take with him a couple of dogs.
"The low-backed donkey has many riders.
“When the home of a liar is destroyed by fire, there is no one to believe it.”
"Kiss the hand you cannot bite.
"Speak softly, for even the earth has ears.
“The village dog does not sleep, nor doe:, he let others sleep.
"A man bitten by a snake, is in fear of a rope.
"When the ass was invited to a wedding feast, he said, 'There must be a lack of water or wood.'
"The piety of a fool provokes the laughter of Satan.
"Better a wise enemy than a foolish friend.
"As thy seed, so thy harvest; as thou judgest, so shall thou be judged.
"The shepherd dog does not eat, nor does he permit others to eat.
"The sheep that is separated from the flock, falls a prey to the wolf."
“The doubt of the wise man is better than the certainty of a fool. .
“All cats dream of mice.
"Stretch your feet according to the length of your bed.
"The camel was asked which was the easier, the ascent or the descent. He replied: 'Since I am burdened with this load, may the devil take both!'
"The bark of a dog does not disturb, the clouds.
"The wealth of the wise—their understanding. The wealth of the foolish—their riches.