2. A fòce macaque caressé yche li ka touffé li. (À force de caresser son petit le macaque l’étouffe.)
“The monkey smothers its young one by hugging it too much.”—[Mart.]
3. Aspère[2] iéve dans marmite avant causé. (Attendez que le lièvre soit dans la marmite avant de parler.)
“Wait till the hare’s in the pot before you talk.”—Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.—[Mauritius.]
[2] Evidently a creolization of the Spanish esperar.
4. Avant bois[3] d’Inde té pòté graine, macaque té nouri yche yo. (Avant que l’arbre d’Inde portâit des graines, les macaques nourissaient leurs petits.)
“Before the Indian tree (?) bore seed the monkeys were able to nourish their young.”—[Martinique.]
[3] The word bois (wood) is frequently used in Creole for the tree itself; and pié-bois (“foot of the wood”) for the trunk or stump. “Yon gouòs pié-bois plis facile déraciné qu’mauvais l’habitude” (A big stump is easier to uproot than a bad habit), is a Martinique Creole dictum, evidently borrowed from the language of the white masters. I am sorry that I do not know which of the various trees to which the name bois d’Inde has been given by the Creoles, is referred to in the proverb—whether the mango, or China-berry. No tree is generally recognized by that name in Louisiana.
5. Avant zabocat macaque ka nouri yche li. (Avant qu’il y eût des avocados, les macaques nourissaient leurs petits.)
“The monkey could nourish its young, before there were any avocadoes.”[4]—[Martinique.]