P’tit à p’tit l’ouaisé (oiseau) fait sen nic (nid).—Little by little the bird builds her nest. Rome was not built in a day.
Tout neû g’nêt (neuf balai) néquie (nettoie) net.—A new broom sweeps clean.
I’ n’y a itaïls (tels) que les féniêns (fainéants) quand i’ s’y mettent.—There are none like idlers when they once set to work.
Ch’est cauches (bas, chausses) grises, et grises cauches.—This is the equivalent of the French proverb “C’est bonnet blanc, et blanc bonnet,” and the English, “Six of one, and half-a-dozen of the other.”
Ch’n’est pas les ciens (ceux) qui labourent le pûs près du fossaï (de la haie) qui sont les pûs riches.—It is not they who plough nearest the hedge who are the richest. Economy may be carried too far.
I’ s’y entend coume à ramaïr (ramer) des chaoux (choux).—He understands as much about it as about putting pea-sticks to cabbages. The meaning conveyed being: he knows nothing at all about it.
Tout chu (ce) qui vient de flot se retournera d’èbe.—All that comes with the flood will return with the ebb. Riches too rapidly acquired, or ill-gotten, will disappear as quickly as they came—nearly equivalent to the French proverb “Ce qui vient de la flûte s’en va par le tambour.”
Si l’houme aïme autre mûx que sé (mieux que soi) au moulìn i’ mourra de set (soif).—If a man loves others more than himself, he will die of thirst even were he in a mill. The mill spoken of in this selfish proverb, which is equivalent to “Look after number one,” is, of course, a water-mill.
Biauture (beau-temps, beauté) d’hiver; santaï (santé) de vieil homme; parole de gentilhomme; ne t’y fie, homme!—A fine day in winter, the health of an old man, the word of a nobleman; trust to none of these, O man! The marked distinction of “noble” and “rôturier,” if such ever existed in Guernsey, died out many centuries ago; and this proverb has all the appearance of an importation from Normandy, or some other part of France, where the peasantry were oppressed by the feudal system. The word “biauture” does not belong to the Guernsey dialect, and when the saying is quoted in the present, it is generally with reference to the two first clauses.