Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/43

Rh the day") go upon the Queen's service, but thou hidest away in secret, and dost not go to do thy share, but only just now puttest in an appearance. So that here now thou actest like the little butterfly by the water: able to close up its wings, able to expand them; thou dost like the water-fowl: black when diving, black when emerging; for if thou dost like the little crab in the hole: grasped by the hand and yet not got, sprinkled with water, and not coming out,—then we detest that, Sir! And now if it appears that what is under the eye is not seen, or under the tongue and is not chewed, or near the nose and not smelt, or looked at and not known,—then we utterly detest that, Sir! So, although your feet even may go, and although your knees even may skulk along, and although your chin may touch the ground, we will not let you off unless you perform the service for the honour of the sovereign.

Here is another piece, the subject of which is

1. It is not well that men should make a hammer with two heads: both speaking good and speaking evil. For it is an evil thing, friends, to act like the tongue of the ox, licking carefully the hump and licking also the feet; able to enter into the nostrils, able to enter also the mouth.

2. Take heed to the mouth, friends, for the mouth is a compartment (or room), the mouth is just like a piece of cloth—tearing this way, and tearing that way; the mouth is like Alakaosy (the unlucky month), and if one does not butt another, one butts one's self. For the good (speaking) mouth is, they say, as a meal; but the evil mouth is, they say, a thing cleaving to one.

The evil mouth is just like the loin-cloth, binding only its owner. For there is no one guilty in body, they say, but they who are guilty in mouth are guilty. For the unguarded mouth, they say, is cause of calamity, and those who are free of speech, they say, reveal secrets; so that what is done by the mouth, they say, endangers the neck.

3. Take head, friends, to the mouth, and do what is right, for that only brings lasting good. For if one does good when young, they say, they have something to take to old age, yea, even to take with them in death. For that has given rise to the popular saying, "Do good that you be not forgotten, even when you have mouldered away."