Un tchien (chien) vaut bien p’tit qui ne vaut pas ùn caoup de sufflet (coup de sifflet).—A dog that is not worth whistling for is not worth much.
Les grands diseurs sont de p’tits faiseurs.—Great talkers are little doers.
Où ’est qu’il y a du crottin, il y a du lapìn.—Where you see their droppings, you may expect to find rabbits. Used both literally and metaphorically. There is no smoke without fire.
Il y a terjoûs (toujours) un épi qui mànque à la guerbe (gerbe).—There is always a spike of corn lacking in the sheaf. Nothing is ever perfect.
I’ n’y a bouais (bois) dont non (on) n’fait buche.—There is no wood but what will serve for firing, meaning that everything can be put to some use or other; but the latter half of the proverb is sometimes varied to “dont i’ n’ fait buche,” and it is then equivalent to the English saying “All is fish that comes to his net.”
Va où tu peux, meurs où tu deis (dois).—Go where you can, die where you must. Dispose of your life as you please, death is inevitable.
Il est niais coume Dadais qui se couachait (couchait) dans l’iaue (eau) d’paeur (peur) d’être mouailli (mouillé).—He is as foolish as Dadais who lay down in the water to avoid getting wet in a shower.
Il est niais coume Dadais qui tâte l’iaue pour vée (voir) s’a bouit (bout).—He is as stupid as Dadais who puts his hand into the water to feel if it is boiling.
Il est pûs (plus) niais que Dadais qui se fouittait de crêpes.[256]—He is more simple than Dadais who flogged himself with pancakes. The word “Dadais” is used in the sense of simpleton. In the three sayings that we have just quoted “Dadais” bears a strong family resemblance to the “Simple Simons” and “Silly Billies” of English nursery tales.
Ch’tait du temps du Rouai (Roi) Jehan. Ch’était du temps des Scots.—Are used in speaking of events which took place beyond the memory of man. It is easy to understand how the reign of King John came to form an epoch in the history of Guernsey; for it was then that the connexion with the mother-country, Normandy, was severed, and the islands, until then part and parcel of that Duchy, became attached to the Crown of England, and have so continued ever since. But it is not so easy to say when or how the latter saying originated. It may refer to an invasion of the island by David Bruce, about the tenth year of Edward III., (A.D. 1336); when great atrocities appear to have been committed on the inhabitants; but some old people seem to think—and probably with reason—that the “Scots” were a Scotch regiment sent here in the early part of last century on a fear of hostilities breaking out between England and France. It is right, however, to notice that in the Guernsey dialect “Ecossais” and not “Scots” is used to designate Scotchmen.