Look for a raven and shear its wool. (Arabian).

Loud cackle, little egg. (Gaelic).

Mickle ado and little help. (Scotch).
More bustle than work. (Guernsey).
Much ado about nothing. (English).
Much bruit, little fruit.

(English).

Much talk, little work. (Dutch).

Muckle whistlin' for little red lan'. (Scotch).

Selling and buying and nothing upon the board. (Arabian). Small mouth, big words. (Pashto).

The cow is greater than the milking. (Gaelic).

The mountain is in labor and will bring forth a mouse. (Latin).

The noise is greater than the nuts. (English).

There is more noise than nuts to crack. (Spanish).
There is more talk than trouble. (English).
Would you shear a donkey for wool? (Latin).
Your windmill dwindles into a nut-crack. (Latin).

HALF A LOAF IS BETTER THAN NO BREAD

If you cannot have what you want take what you can get. A small benefit is better than no benefit at all.

Nothing is known of the circumstances under which this saying was first used. It may have been an expression repeated in time of famine when food was scarce and when small portions were distributed among the people.

It is often true that when one cannot obtain all that he desires it is wise to accept a portion. It is also true that half is better than the whole when a great sacrifice is required to secure all that is needed.

VARIANT PROVERBS

A bad bush is better than the open field. (English).
A blind mother-in-law is better than none at all. (Telugu).
A blind uncle is better than no uncle. (Assamese).

A little is bettah dan not'in'. (British Guiana).

A man were better to be half blind than have both eyes out. (English).

Bannocks (oat cakes) are better than nae bread. (Scotch). Better a bare foot than none. (English).

Better a blind horse than an empty halter. (Dutch).

Better a lame horse than an empty saddle. (German).
Better a lean jade than an empty halter. (English, Scotch).
Better a mouse in the pot than no flesh at all. (Scotch).
Better a poor horse than an empty stall. (Danish).
Better are small fish than an empty dish.

Gaelic).

(English, Scotch,

Better a wee bush than nae beild-shelter. (Scotch). Better coarse cloth than the naked thighs. (Danish). Better half a loaf than none at all. Better a little furniture

than an empty house. (Danish).

Better half an egg than an empty shell. (German, English,

Dutch).

Better half an egg than toom doup-i.e. empty bottom of a shell. (Scotch).

Better my hog dirty home than no hog at all. (English).
Better one eye than stone blind. (German, Spanish).
Better rags than nakedness. (Haytian).

Better something than nothing. (German).
Better straw than nothing. (Portuguese).

Kuhl better than blindness—i.e. A sore eye is better than no eye at all.

The word kuhl indicates a remedy for a diseased

eye. It is better to use the remedy even though

you have a sore eye than lose your sight. (Arabian).

Little better than none. (Arabian).

Sma' fish are better than naine. (Scotch).

The something is better than its want.

ALLIED PROVERBS

(Arabian).

Better lose the anchor than the whole ship.

(Dutch). Better lose the saddle than the horse. (German, Italian). Better lose the wool than the sheep. (French, Portuguese). Better ride a lame horse than go afoot. (German). Better some of a pudding than none of a pie. (English). Chicken-hawk say, he can't get mamma, he tek picknie. (British Guiana).

From the debtor accept even bran in payment. (Ancient Hebrew).

If I have lost the ring, I still have the fingers. (Spanish, Italian).

If you can't get tu'key, you mus' satisfy wid John Crow. (British Guiana).

If you find even fourteen annas of lost money, it is well.

(Assamese).

It is better to lose than to lose more.

guese).

(Spanish, Portu

Many see more with one eye than others with two.

(German).

One day is better than sometimes a whole year. (English). One foot is better than two crutches. (English).

Them that canna get a peck must put up wi' a stimpart―i.e. A quarter of a peck. (Scotch).

To whom a little is not sufficient to him nothing will be sufficient. (Modern Greek).

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

303

Archbishop Whately (A.D. 1787-1863), when quoting this proverb added the words, "but he who acts only on that principle is not an honest man."

Some men are honest from principle, others are honest from motives of expediency. The proverb applies to the latter class. To them honesty is not a matter of character but of policy. They say with Mirabeau (A.D. 17491791),.“We ought to want it (honesty) as the best means of getting rich."

The wise fabulist taught the advantages of honesty in the story of a woodman who, while felling trees by a river, accidentally let his axe slip from his hand and fall into the water. Mercury appearing at the instant drew a golden axe from the stream and presented it to the woodcutter in place of the axe that he had lost. "No, no!" exclaimed the man, "I cannot take that axe for it is not mine. The one I lost was made of iron and this is made of gold." Mercury being pleased with the man's honesty, went into the river and recovered the axe that was lost and restored it to its owner in addition to which he gave him the golden one that he had first offered,