MALAY PEO VERBS, 17 



Tolak'han tangga kaki ber-ayun, 

 " Kick away the ladder and the legs are left swinging." Kl, 74, 



For explanation, see M. 43, _ 



Tiada rotan, altar pun ber-guna. 

 u When there is no rattan, one must use lianes" Kl. 08. ITk. 

 Ab. 1G3. 



In default of the right thing 1 , one must be content with a substitute. 

 Cf . " Half a loaf is better than no bread. " ' See M. 236. 



Tiada sebab ayam sa-ekor meng-tahu-i liari slang. 

 '• It is not by one wretched fowl that we learn that it is day- 

 " light." Kl. 95." 



The cock need not flatter himself that the world would not know it was 

 day but for him. 



Said of a busy-body who imagines that important events are due to him 

 alone. 



84 Sr*^ ^ ^ &&& ^M* iLi 



Tiada raakan nangka-nia maka kena getah-nia. 

 '■ Without having eaten the jack-fruit, he is smeared with it's 

 ' : sticky juice.'' Kl. 99. 



Cf. Sa-orang malum nangJm sa-rata kena • gctah-nla. "One man eats the 

 "jack-fruit and all the rest are smeared with its juice." 



Quoted when a man gets into trouble without having partaken in the profits 

 of an enterprise : or, where a whole family or community suffers suspicion or pun- 

 ishment through some misdeed from which only one of its members has derived 

 any advantage. 



85 S^> \JuJ>j±J 



Tida/c ter-bawa selcam. 

 " Unable to carry chaff." 

 A sneer at laziness — " You are too lazy to carry seTtatn even." A similar idiom 

 is : Bivat SiJm, OTjpa7ieigSlang sanvpei sihu, " You cant lift your arm " or " Yon 

 "have got bangles up to the elbows." 



