Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/135

 has an opportunity," except by presuming that the Malay author of the proverb alludes to the female tiger!


 * 40. Tidak hujan lagi bichak inikan pula hujan.

"Muddy enough when there is no rain, but now it is raining." Said of a thing difficult to perform at any time without the addition of an aggravating circumstance.


 * 41. Ta' tumboh ta' melata
 * Ta' sunggoh orang ta' kata.

"A plant must sprout before it climbs; if it were not true people would not say it." "No smoke without fire."


 * 42. Tiada bahan batu di galas.

"For want of a load a stone is carried on the back." To give one's self needless trouble.


 * 43. Tolak tangga ber-âyun kaki.

"Kick away the ladder and the legs are left swinging." To be in an unpleasant position in consequence of a blunder of one's own.

Sometimes another line is added.


 * Pelok tuboh mengâjar diri.

"Then you fold your arms and think what a fool you're been" (lit, to hug the body and lecture one's self).

This phrase is common in Malay pantun, e. g. the following allusion to the bad management of a Malay lover who abandoned a dark beauty for a fair one and got neither;


 * "Itam lepas puteh ta' dapat.
 * Tolak tangga ber-âyun kaki.”

Klinkert has this proverb in his collection but gives it as "Tolak-kan tangga kaki berayun."


 * 44. Ta sunggoh salurang me-laut balik iya ka tepi juga.

"The salurang fish does not really go out to sea, it always returns to the bank."

A hit at stay-at-home people who never leave their own villages.

The salurang is a small fresh-water fish, very common in the Perak river.