'May a deadly disease love you and Allah hate you!'
Uncle Toby, who would not have had the heart to curse a dog so, would have found the Excommunication of Ernulphus quite outdone in the desert, where cursing is perfected.
'He lays goose eggs, and expects young turkeys.'
'The dream of the cat is about mice.'
Meaning, as we say, that what is bred in the bone will not come out of the flesh. Æsop has dramatized this proverb in a pretty fable.
'The people went away; the baboons remained.'
'A rose fell to the lot of a monkey.'
Or, as the Latins said, 'Asinus ad Lyram'—'A gold ring in a sow's ear.'
'God bless him who pays visits, and short ones at that.'
'The husband of two parrots—a neck between two sticks.'
'I asked him about his father. "My uncle's name is Shayb," he replied.'
'They wanted a keeper for the pigeon-house, and gave the keys to the cat.'