Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/420

364 both frightened and glad"; "We are not chickens hatched in the winter, down-hearted, and weak-winged; but goslings hatched in the summer [when food is more plentiful], and therefore strong and lusty."

Of course there are many references to the Cock and to cock-crowing, as, "A cock coming into the market: not [proof of] strength, but regret for the village he has left"; "Many cocks in the compound, everyone wants to crow"; "A cock's spur: it's sharp enough, but it's low down"; Honoured as the father of the brood, and yet picking up scraps under the rice-pounder"; "The cock regrets he has wings, for he is caught by the wild-cat."

Promises not borne out by performances are spoken of in these: "Don't do like the fowl's early rising: he wakes early enough, but is still south of the hearth" (that is, he is still in that part of a native house where the fowls roost, he has not gone out to do any work). So again, "Up early, yet not gone far, like a fowl." His place in the house, again, is mentioned thus: "It is not the fowl's folly that he lives in the corner, for that is his share of the dwelling." Here is a piece of good advice about married life: "Let wedlock be like the fowl's clothing, only parted with at death." Native superstitions about treading on the tomb of one of the Vazìmba (the supposed aboriginal inhabitants of Imèrina, the central province) are thus referred to: "The Vazìmba has been trampled on, so the fowl's head must be cut off"—that is, as a sacrifice. Taking much trouble for small results is thus spoken of: "It's absurd to seek for an axe, when you only want to carve a fowl." Our last specimen needs no remark: "Like a cock's tail, the best of him is behind."

Here is a fable explaining why fowls scratch the earth, and why kites scream as they fly: "A fowl borrowed a needle from a kite, but the needle being lost, the kite said, 'I am not contented with your losing my needle'; so that is why the fowl scratches the ground, and why the kite carries away the chickens instead of his needle. And so,