20 MALAY PROVERBS. 



201. Ai bukan buroh untong chelaka ayam padi masak ma- 

 kan ka utan. 



" Alas ! what accursed misfortune is mine that the fowl 

 when the padi is ripe 3 should seek its food in the jungle !" 



To eat abroad when there is food at home, or to sleep 

 oat when there is a roof of one's own (rumah ada berdinding 

 bertandang tidor) are evidence of criminal misconduct ac- 

 cording to the menangkabau code. 



202. JJsahlah aim ta'endah ada aha pandang adap, tiada 

 aku pandang belakang. 



" Never mind, I value you not, I look ahead of me, not 

 behind me." 



A common phrase when a quarrel takes place between 

 two people closely connected by friendship or relationship, 

 husband and wife for instance. An astonishing amount of 

 spite can be put by a vituperative Malay into the phrase 

 "Pergilali, aku ta'endah" (Begone, I hold thee of no account) 

 with an extra emphasis on the first syllable of the last word. 

 The last part of the sentence is equivalent to " there are 

 as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it." 



208. Ampat gasal lima genap. 



Four is odd and five is even. See No. 137. 



204. Engkap-engkip bagel rumput tengah jalan. 



Coming and going, like grass in the middle of a path. 



Said of a man who is always in bad health, like grass 

 constantly trodden down by the feet of passers-by, he will 

 not flourish satisfactorily and yet will not die outright. 



205. Ai ha-lagi-lagi bagel blanda minta tanah. 



O more, more ! like the Dutchmen asking for land. 



Traditions of the Dutch, who had a factory on the Perak 

 river in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, still linger 

 among the Perak Malays. This proverb, which is directed 

 against greediness in general, probably originated in some 

 forgotten transaction between the early Dutch traders and 

 the Raja with whom they bargained for a site for their set- 

 tlement. 



