Hausa Proverbs
21
63 Mankaddé ba ya saba da tandu ba.
- The mankaddé is not used to (fit for) the tandu.
- Mankaddé, or more correctly mai'n kaddé, is a grease or ointment (shea butter).
- Tandu, a narrow-necked leather bottle.
- If shea butter were put in a tandu it could not easily be got out; it is not a suitable receptacle for it. Vide 49.
64 Da wutta da sebbi ba su zamma wuri daia.
- Fire and cotton cannot live in the same place.
Sebbi, cotton in the fluffy state before it is carded.
65 Da kwoi da duchi ba su gamma wuri daia.
- Eggs and stones will not stay in the same place.
66 Dan kuka ba shi zamma dan tsamia.
- The fruit of the kuka and the fruit of the tsamia are different.
- The kuka, the baobab or monkey bread tree; tsamia, the tamarind. The fruit of the former is very large, that of the latter small, in a pod like peas.
67 Taba ta banbanta da gari'n gero.
- Tobacco and the flour of millet are very different things.
- Tobacco is often used in the form of snuff, so that the outward appearance of gero flour and tobacco would not be very different.
68 Kowa ya seye raria ya san ta zubar da rua.
- Every one who buys a raria knows that it does not hold water.
- Raria, any kind of sieve: also the passages under the walls of a town which allow water to drain off.
- You know what you are about. You are doing it with your eyes open.
