The crow likes her greedy blue chick.

(Gaelic).

The crow's chick is dear to the crow. (Telugu).

The crow thinketh her own birds fairest in the wood.

(English).

The crow thinks her own ghastly chick a beauty. (Gaelic). The love of the ghoul is for his own son. (Syrian).

The monkey is a gazelle in the eyes of his mother. (Arabic, Syrian).

66

The porcupine says, Oh, my soft little son, softer than butter," and the crow says, "My son, whiter than muslin." (Pashto).

The raven always thinks that her young ones are whitest. (Danish).

The raven thinks her own bird the prettiest bird in the wood. (Irish-Farney).

The scald crow thinks her daughter is the prettiest bird in the wood. (Irish-Farney).

They asked the raven, "Who is the beautiful?”

little ones," he said. (Osmanli).

"My

Though but a young crow, it is golden to its mother. (Tamil).

Though earthen, one's own child is precious. (Tamil). To everyone his own son appears the most beautiful.

(Persian).

To the eye of a crow, its young one has milk white feathers. (Japanese).

Whether it is black, or dun, or brown; it is to her own kid the goat gives all her affection. (Gaelic).

ALLIED PROVERBS

(Personal Preference)

Every bird admires (loves) its own nest.

(Osmanli).

Every bird thinks her own family the nicest in the world.

(Irish-Ulster).

Every bird thinks its own nest beautiful, (Italian). Everybody thinks his own cuckoo sings better than another's nightingale. (German).

Every man thinks his own copper gold. (German, Danish).

Every man thinks his own owl a falcon. (German, Dutch). Every one's own property is precious to himself. (Osmanli). Every peddler praises his own needles. (Spanish, Portuguese).

Every peddler praises his pot and more if it is cracked. (Spanish, Italian).

Every potter vaunts his own pot. (French).

My own crow (is better) than the nightingale of other folk. (Osmanli).

No man calls his own dowie sour.

Dowie is a drink made from curdled milk, water and herbs. (Syrian).

The hen he has caught has four legs. (Telugu).

The beloved is the object that thou lovest-were it even a monkey. (Arabian).

To everyone, what belongs to himself, is beautiful. (Modern Greek).

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GREAT CRY BUT LITTLE WOOL

He who talks the most does the least.

The proverb is said to have been derived from an old miracle play or ancient "mystery," in which Nabal, the churlish Carmelite (I Sam. 252, 5) was represented as shearing sheep while the devil, standing near, was imitating him by shearing a hog that loudly protests over the work. A proverb predating the one now in use informs us that the present rendering is a repetition of the devil's statement at the time he was engaged in his useless task. It is given thus: "Great cry and little wool, as the devil said when he sheared the hog." The thought of the proverb was in the mind of Esop who lived several centuries after Nabal, when he told the story of the mountain in labor that brought forth a mouse. John Fortescue who wrote at the time the miracle plays were in vogue in England quoted the saying thus: "Moche Crye and no Wull"-but Cervantes who published his Don Quixote when the "mysteries" were on the wane and Samuel Butler in his Hudibras a little later gave the modern rendering.

Still another origin has suggested itself to some students, by the Scotch form, "Mair whistle than wo' quo' the soutar when he sheared the sow." Soughtar being the Scotch word for shoemaker, the phrase is said to have come from the shoemaker's use of bristles for flexible needles in sewing.

While the proverb may have been in use long before the miracle plays of the middle ages, there is more probability of its having been derived from them than from the Scotch form as suggested.

"Let me tell you, friend,' quoth the squire of the wood, 'that you are out in your politics; for these island-governments bring more cost than worship; there is a great cry but little wool; the best will bring more trouble and care than they are worth and those that take them on their shoulders are ready to sink under them. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, A.D. 15471616, Don Quixote.

"A bit of homely advice, quaintly put, is found in this-'Do not drive black hogs at night.' 'Much cry and no wool' is the result of shearing swine, a hopeless task. The adage is often met with in Fortescue's treatise on Absolute and Limited Monarchy, written over four hundred years ago. We find a reference to 'the man that shery'd his hogge, moch crye and no wull.' In a book published in 1597 it runs: 'Of the shear

ing hoggest there is great crie for so little woole' and we find the saying again in Hudibras and many other books, and in old plays."-F. EdWARD HULME, A.D. 1842-1909.

VARIANT PROVERBS

As the devil said when he clipped the sow. (Scotch). Great cry and little wool, as the man said when he sheared the sow.

(Italian).

Great cry and little wool, quoth the devil, when he sheared his hogs. (English).

Great cry but little wool, as the fellow said when he shore his hogs. (English).

Great noise for a little wool.

(Irish-Ulster).

Mair whistle than wo', quo' the soutar, when he sheared

Much cry and little wool, said the fool as he sheared the

pig. (German, Dutch).

Muckle din and little 'oo. (Scotch).

ALLIED PROVERBS

A farthing's worth of peas and the sound of grinding all night. (Hindustani).

A lofty shop, but the sweetmeats sold there are tasteless.

Great boast small roast. (English, Dutch).

Great cries but not a grain in the heap. (Telugu).

Great noise and little hurt. (Gaelic).

Great talkers are little doers. (French, Dutch).

Great vaunters, little doers. (French).

Great words but small measure. (Telugu).

His words leap over forts, his foot does not cross the

threshold. (Telugu).

I hear the noise of the mill but see no flour. (Persian).