Caûd (chaud) coume braïze.—As hot as embers, needs no explanation.
Ch’est coume un bourdon dans une canne.—It is like a humble bee in a can—is said of a droning monotonous style of preaching or speaking.
Ch’est coume les prières de Jacques Ozanne qui n’ont pas de fin.—It is like James Ozanne’s prayers which never come to an end. This is said of any matter which is prolonged to an unreasonable extent; but nothing seems now to be known of the individual whose lengthy supplications gave rise to the saying.
T’es coume Jean Le Tocq.—You are like Jean Le Tocq. This is addressed to a man who is seen abroad at an earlier hour than usual, and contains an allusion to two lines in the old Guernsey ballad of the invasion of the island by Evan of Wales in 1373, where it is said:—
“Jean Le Tocq sy se leva
Plus matin qu’a l’accoutumée.”
Indeed this last line is generally added.
Il a la conscience de la jument Rabey qui mangit s’en poulâin.—He has the conscience of Rabey’s mare, who ate her foal. Said of an utterly hard-hearted and unscrupulous man. The Rabeys are a well-known country family, and it is possible that this proverb refers to some domestic tragedy, the details of which have long been forgotten.
Avoir le corset de Maître George.—To wear the corset of Maître George. An allusion is here meant to a certain George Fénien. The Féniens were a family who owned property in Fountain Street, and seem to have become extinct towards the middle of the eighteenth century. This expression is applied to an indolent man, so that the “Maître George Fénien”[258] here alluded to must have lived up to his name, Fénien—Fainéant—a sluggard. We have seen in some of the preceding proverbs and sayings, allusions to individuals and families. Here are two or three more of the same kind:—