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CULTURE

Malagasy Proverbs

By Mainty and Mampikanto
July 2004

   An Elder Man) An Elder Man
Photo: C. Leroy
1. Friendship cannot be bought.

2. Do not dance with someone else's song.

3. Do not dance on a load of wastes like an owl. (Do not be delighted about bad things.)

4. Do not whistle until you get out of the forest.

5. Do not trust a cat when you eat fish.

6. Dry hands are not clean.

7. A hut in which there is milk cannot be called poor.

8. The bad thing you own cannot be exchanged for the other's good.

9. Do not treat someone like a rock that you put on a mat for drying rice, when the sun is gone you throw it away.

10. Left hand and right hand: if one cut the other it will always hurt.

11. Nothing is so difficult that diligence cannot master it.

12. People in huge number are powerful like a gun.

13. Do not claim to be the owner as a pretender.

14. Quarrel with a stupid person, the sane one quits.

15. Quarrels are like grasshopper's hair: those who love it will have full in their eyes.

16. "Bye! Take care!" cannot feed the family. (This proverb was invented by London Missionary Society's Parrett, referring to the chore under the Malagasy Government who simply thanked the people and left without paying.)

17. Stepmother is callous: she behaves with partiality towards her children. (She ill-treats her stepchildren, even though they are all her offspring.)

18. Person's heart is not a stone but a resin, it can be comforted. (The resin burns and clears away in a smoke.)

19. Big bird with small egg. (For example a rich man who offers small donation.)

20. His meat has finished, so he is chewing nothing.

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