303. * Soleil levé là; li couché là. (Le soleil se lève là; il se couche là.)
"Sun rises there [pointing to the east]; he sets there." [pointing to the west][127]--[_Louisiana._]
[127] A proverb common to all the dialects. In uttering it, with emphatic gesture, the negro signifies that there is no pride which will not be at last brought down, no grandeur which will not have an end.
304. Souliers faraud, més domage ziutes manze lipieds. (Les souliers sont elegants, mais c'est dommage qu'ils mangent les pieds.)
"Shoes are fine things; but it's a pity they bite one's feet."[128]--[_Mauritius._]
[128] M. Baissac tells us, in a very amusing way, how this proverb originated at the time of the negro emancipation in Mauritius, when 30,000 pairs of new shoes were distributed. Another saying, equally characteristic, was--"_Lhère li entré dans vous lacase, souliers dans lipieds; lhére li dans grand cimin, souliers dans mouçoirs_":--(When he enters your house, his shoes are on his feet; but once he is on the public road, they are in his handkerchief.)
305. * Tafia toujou dîe la vérité. (Le tafia dit toujours la vérité.)
"Tafia always tells the truth."[129]--[_Louisiana._]
[129] _Tafia_ is the rum extracted from sugar-cane. "_In vino veritas_."
306. Tambou tini grand train pace endidans li vide. (Le tambour va [lit: tient] grand train parcequ'il est vide en dedans.)
"The drum makes a great fuss because it is empty inside."[130]--[_Trinidad._]
[130] In Louisiana Creole, _faire di-train_ is commonly used in the sense of making a great noise, a big fuss. An old negro-servant might often be heard reproving the children of the house in some such fashion as this:--"_Ga!--pouki tapé fait tou di-train la?--Toulé pé?--pas fait tou di-train mo di toi!_" ("Here, what are you making all that noise for?--are you going to keep quiet?--musn't make so much noise, I tell you!")
307. Tampée ka gagnen malhèrs ka doublons pas sa gueri. (Un 'tampée' achète des malheurs que les doublons ne peuveut pas guerir.)
"A penny buys troubles that doubloons cannot cure."--[_Trinidad._]
308. * "Tant-pis" n'a pas cabane. ("Tant-pis" n'a pas de cabane.)
"'So-much-the-worse' has no cabin."[131]--[_Louisiana._]
[131] This proverb is the retort for the phrase: "So much the worse for you." Sometimes one might hear a colored servant for example, warning the children of the house to keep out of the kitchen, which in Creole residences usually opens into the great court-yard where the little ones play: _Eh, pitis! faut pas restér là: vous ka casser tout!_ ("Hey! little ones, musn't stay there: you'll break everything!") If the father or mother should then exclaim "_Tant pis pour eux!_"--so much the worse for them if they do break everything, you would hear the old woman reply: "_Tant-pis n'a pas cabane!_"--"So-much-the-worse has no cabin"--_i.e._, nothing to lose. She believes in an ounce of prevention rather than a pound of cure.