Congo people who handed down proverbs
villagers · Lower Congo · before the 19th century
Proverbs passed down among villagers of the Lower Congo. Many, it is said, are sentences from old tales that became sayings. John H. Weeks, a missionary who lived there for thirty years, put them into English in his book of 1911.
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before the 19th century · A proverb. Weeks explains it: the verdict of one race against another is to be received with caution.
In a court of fowls the cockroach never wins his case.A proverb in John H. Weeks, Congo Life and Folklore (1911) · in place of the original: the English translation by John H. Weeks (1911)
before the 19th century · A proverb. An oily face was a sign of beauty, Weeks notes; the meaning is that a person is always beautiful to his own family.
The toad has an oily face where his father’s sister is.A proverb in John H. Weeks, Congo Life and Folklore (1911) · in place of the original: the English translation by John H. Weeks (1911)
before the 19th century · A proverb quoted in a folk tale by a son who comes back after his father had nearly killed him. He goes on: you should have punished me, but you should not have killed me.
If the Leopard gives birth to a palm-rat he does not eat it.A proverb in John H. Weeks, Congo Life and Folklore (1911) · in place of the original: the English translation by John H. Weeks (1911)
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