197. Marié éne boutéye vide. (Epouser une bouteille vide.)
“Marry an empty bottle.”—Meaning to marry a girl without a dowry.—[Mauritius.]
198. * Maringouin perdi so temps quand li piqué caïman. (Le maringoin perd son temps quand il pique le caïman.)
“The mosquito loses his time when he tries to sting the alligator.”[81]—[Louisiana.]
[81] Ripost to a threat—as we would say: “All that has as little effect on me as water on a duck’s back!”
199. Marré conm yon paqué crabe. (Amarré comme un paquet de crabes.)
“Tangled up, or tied up, like a bundle of crabs.”—Said of people notoriously clumsy.[82]—[Martinique.]
[82] Anyone who has ever seen a heap of live crabs in a basket, will comprehend the fun of this saying—intimating that the sinews of the gawkish person are tangled up as hopelessly as crabs in a market-basket.
200. Mégue coment çatte qui manze lérats-misqué. (Maigre comme un chat qui mange des rats musqués.)