“The sun sets; misfortune never sets.”—[Hayti.]
303. * Soleil levé là; li couché là. (Le soleil se lève là; il se couche là.)
“Sun rises there [pointing to the east]; he sets there.” [pointing to the west][127]—[Louisiana.]
[127] A proverb common to all the dialects. In uttering it, with emphatic gesture, the negro signifies that there is no pride which will not be at last brought down, no grandeur which will not have an end.
304. Souliers faraud, més domage ziutes manze lipieds. (Les souliers sont elegants, mais c’est dommage qu’ils mangent les pieds.)
“Shoes are fine things; but it’s a pity they bite one’s feet.”[128]—[Mauritius.]
[128] M. Baissac tells us, in a very amusing way, how this proverb originated at the time of the negro emancipation in Mauritius, when 30,000 pairs of new shoes were distributed. Another saying, equally characteristic, was—“Lhère li entré dans vous lacase, souliers dans lipieds; lhére li dans grand cimin, souliers dans mouçoirs”:—(When he enters your house, his shoes are on his feet; but once he is on the public road, they are in his handkerchief.)
305. * Tafia toujou dîe la vérité. (Le tafia dit toujours la vérité.)
“Tafia always tells the truth.”[129]—[Louisiana.]