MORE DAYS OF ROAMING AND SPORT 307 



is no ancient literature the old-time legends, axioms, 

 and proverbs, which surpass the meteoric word-comets 

 of to-day as a star outshines a candle, lose their beauty 

 and sparkle, their dry wise wit, and descend to mere 

 colloquialism, often meaningless. 



I did discover one gem, and I got it from a 

 mountain Jew in Daghestan, so that it is probably 

 of purely Jewish extraction, although the simi- 

 larity of proverbs does not necessarily imply that 

 they are not of native origin. Learned philologists 

 have taught us that the characteristic folk-tales and 

 characteristic sayings of all peoples have considerable 

 affinity, and in the expression of their catapultic words 

 of wisdom the Chaldeans have shown themselves to 

 have much in common with the Hittites, and we know 

 from comparison that the North American Indian 

 shares many of his proverbs with the Manx. Indeed 

 the " domovoi " himself has his counterpart on the 

 Isle of Man in the " dooiney-oie," a friendly super- 

 natural who attaches himself to individual households. 



But how I am digressing ! 



Here is the Jewish-Caucasian proverb : " God 

 cannot be everywhere, therefore he made mothers." 

 Mr. Barrie himself might have invented it ! 



Of purely indigenous proverbs — the Russian aphor- 

 isms are fast overlaying the strata of native simplicity 

 — we only heard three or four. One pleased me very 

 much. " To the eagle the air, to the lizard the sand." 

 The old shepherd Mazan used it one day when philo- 

 sophizing on his own disabilities. And, questioned 

 on our behalf by Keebeet, one of the Castle myr- 



