“Conversation is the food of the ears.”—[Trinidad.]
75. C’est bon khé crâbe qui lacause li pas tini tête. (C’est à cause de son bon cœur que le crabe n’a pas de tête.)
“It is because of his good heart that the crab has no head.”[31]—[Martinique.]
[31] Implies that excessive good nature is usually indicative of feeble reasoning-power.
76. * C’est couteau qui connaite ça qui dans cœur geomon. (C’est le couteau qui sait ce qu’il y a dans le cœur du giromon.)
“It’s the knife that knows what’s in the heart of the pumpkin.”[32]—[Martinique.]
[32] This proverb exists in five Creole dialects. In the Guyana patois it is slightly different: Couteau oûnso connain quior iniam (le couteau seul connaît le cœur de l’igname.) “It’s only the knife knows what’s in the heart of the yam.”
77. C’est cuiller qui allé lacail[33] gamelle; gamelle pas jamain allé lacail cuiller. (C’est la cuiller qui va à la maison de la gamelle; jamais la gamelle ne va à la maison de la cuiller.)
“Spoon goes to bowl’s house; bowl never goes to spoon’s house.”—[Hayti.]
[33] Caïe or Caille, as sometimes written, is a Creole word of Carib origin. In the cities of the Antilles case is generally substituted—probably derived from the Spanish casa, “house.”