MALAY PROVERB- 



tage. Hence this blunt saying ••You need not come to my 

 morning bath " which is equivalent to " I see through your 

 flattery,** 



Tevaan is here used for the personal pronoun. In this 

 sense it is commonly used in Perak between persons whose 

 rank is the same or nearly so. This implied equality of 

 rank characterises the word when it is used in the significa- 

 tion of "a companion" or "to accompany.'* a point which 

 is missed, I think, in Favre's dictionary. To accompany as 

 a teman is "to accompany for a short way" L e. as a friend, 

 or as a mark of politeness. 



213. Ayam terlepas tangan bawa tahi. 



•*The fowl has escaped and the hand is left dirty.'* 



Said in ridicule of a person who lose- something which 

 he looked upon as secured and finds himself an object of 

 general derision, e. g. a Malay whose fiancee, after all the 

 preliminaries have been arranged, jilts him and marries 

 another. 



!14. Bagei si-kndong dapat chin-chin. 



"Like finding a ring to one who has lost his hand." 

 (Lit. Like the lopped-one who gets a ring i. 



A sarcastic phrase aimed at persons who come in for a 

 stroke of good fortune which their humble condition and 

 habits of life prevent them from turning to account. 



215. Bagei bersUloJi tengah hari. 



"'Like carrying a light in the day time.' 3 



Unnecessary trouble or waste of power, " idle and ridicu- 

 lous excess." 



216. Bagei petei sisa pengait. 



"Like^zW beans, the leavings of the hook." 



Xot worth the trouble of taking, like the pods left here 

 and there on the tree after the crop has been plucked. 



Petei " cet arbre (Parkia speci<:sa produit une espece de 

 •• gros haricots cpue les naturels mangent comme hors 

 " d'teuvre, malgre leur odeur forte et desagreable/' Favre, 

 AnagyrU L. Marsden, 



