[8] The sarcasm of this proverb appears to be especially levelled at the rich. In other Mauritian proverbs the house of the rich man is always spoken of as the house covered with shingles, in contradistinction to the humble slave cabins, thatched with straw.
18. Báton pas fò passé[9] sabe. (Le bâton n’est pas plus fort que le sabre.)
“The stick is not stronger than the sabre.”—[Martinique.]
[9] Passé—lit: “past”—therefore synonymous with “beyond.” Word for word the translation would be:—“The stick is not strong beyond the sword.” But the Creole generally uses “plis....passé” instead of the French plus....que (“more than”). “Victorine li plis zolie passé Alphonsine”—Victorine is more pretty than Alphonsine. The Creole passé is really adverbial; bearing some semblance to the old English use of the word “passing,” as in “passing strange,” “passing fair.”
19. Batté rendé zamés fére mal. (Les coups rendus ne font jamais de mal.)
“Blows returned never hurt.”—Vengeance is sweet.—[Mauritius.]
20. Bef pas bousoin lakhê li yon sel fois pou chassé mouche. (Le bœuf n’a pas besoin de sa queue une fois seulement pour chasser les mouches.)
“It isn’t one time only that the ox needs his tail to drive the flies away.”—Ironical expression for “you will have need of me again.”[10]—[Martinique.]
[10] This proverb may be found in all the Creole dialects of the West Indies. We have in the South a proverb to the same effect in English: Flytime will come again, and the ox will want his tail.
21. Bef pas jamain ka dîe savane, “Meçi!” (Le bœuf ne dit jamais à la savane, “Merci!”)