NEVER RIDE A FREE HORSE TO DEATH

Never abuse privileges that have been granted as favors.

Though the date of this saying is unknown it was used before the sixteenth century. There never was a time when men have not been found who would not take advantage of the liberality of others and their acts have been freely expressed in proverbs. "Give them a pea," as the Guernsey folk say, "and they will take a bean," or "Invite them to your home for a while," as the natives of India declare, "and they will take possession of the whole house." A borrowed horse is to them a gift of service that may be used to the limit of the animal's endurance, hence the warning that the beneficiary should not abuse a benefactor's bounty.

"If I have told right, thou hast given thyself above a thousand stripes; that is enough for one beating; for, to use a homely phrase, the ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death."-MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, A.D. 1547–1616, Don Quixote.

"Henry Ware, with his benevolence and frigid manners, reminded men how often of a volcano

covered with snow. But there was no deep enthusiasm. All his talent was available, and he was a good example of the proverb, no doubt a hundred times applied to him, of 'A free steed driven to death.""-RALPH WALDO EMERSON, A.D. 1803-1882, Journal, Aug. 10, 1843.

ALLIED PROVERBS

A borrowed horse and your own spurs make short miles. (Danish, Italian).

A dapple gray horse will sooner die than tire. (Scotch). A little more breaks a horse's back. (English).

A gentle horse should na be o'er sair spurr'd. (Scotch). A good horse has no need of the spur. (Italian).

A hired horse and your own spurs make the miles short. (German, Dutch).

A horse shall gang on Carrolside brae till the girth gaw his sides in twae. (Scotch).

All lay loads on a village horse. (English).

Another man's horse and your own spurs outrun the wind. (German).

Another man's horse and your own whip can do a great deal.

(Danish).

Beggars mounted run their horses to death. (English). Do not spur a willing horse. (English, Italian, French, German, Latin).

Give them a pea and they will take a bean. (Guernsey). Invite them to your home for a while and they will take possession of the whole house. (India).

(Dutch).

Milk the cow but don't pull off the udder.
Mount not a horse that does not belong to you-Boast
not of things of which you are ignorant. (Syriac).
The horse that draws always gets the whip. (German,
French, Italian).

NEVER BUY A PIG IN A POKE

The word "poke," meaning a bag, is of Celtic origin and has given us the words "pouch" and "pocket." The miller's cart of medieval days was called a "poke cart" because it was often filled with bags of meal.

The phrase, it is said, was often used in olden times by purchasers of small pigs when the peasants brought them in strong bags to the trading places, for it was a common trick of dishonest sellers to substitute a cat or some other small animal for a sucking pig and an examination of a package was a wise precaution. When on opening the bag a fraud was discovered and a cat escaped the tradesman was said to have "let the cat out of the bag." John Wycliffe said that peace should be in the church without strife of doggies in a poke.

Among poor peasants the selling of a fully grown pig was fraught with much anxiety for the money received was often necessary for the purchase of household supplies and payment of rents so that any failure to secure full payment might lead to want and much suffering. This fact gives significance to the saying, "A hog upon trust

grunts until it is paid for" which was current at the time.

The origin of the proverbial admonition to refrain from buying a pig in a poke is obscure. It may have come from a common trade custom as indicated above or it may have arisen, as Professor Alexander Negris maintains, from "the practice in Greece," during the Mahometan dominion of selling pork in the night time, which was done with the greatest secrecy, to avoid giving offence to the tyrant."

While similar admonitions are found in many lands, the English form is more frequently used, both because of its quaintness and alliteration.

"Blind bargains" have always been regarded as unfair; an honest seller is willing to show his goods and a prudent purchaser should know for what he spends his money.

"Down ran the blody streem upon his brest;
And in the floor with nose and mouth to-broke
They walweden as pigges in a poke;

And up they goon, and down they goon anon,
Till that the miller stumbled at a ston."

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, A.D. 1328-1400, Canterbury Tales.

"And a thousand fold would it grieve me more
That she, in my fault, should die one hour before
Than one minute after; then haste must provoke,
When the pig is proffered to hold up the poke."
JOHN HEYWOOD, A.D. 1497-1580, A Dialogue.

"But your teeth must water-a good cockney coke!
Though ye love not to buy the pig in the poke,
Yet snatch ye at the poke, that the pig is in,
Not for the poke, but the pig good cheap to win."
JOHN HEYWOOD.

"I will never buy the pig in the poke;
There's many a foul pig in a fair cloak."
JOHN HEYWOOD.

"In doing of either let wit beare a stroke
For buying or selling of pig in a poke."

THOMAS TUSSER, A.D. 1524-1580,

Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.

"However honest people, in their right wits, do not use to go to market to buy a pig in a poke. They do not lay their money out at a venture, upon what they do not see, handle and know very well, before the bargain is struck."-OSWALD DYKES, A.D. 1707, Moral Reflections.

"Examine the article before you part with your money. If you do not do so, and are taken in, you will have yourself to blame. If the pig in the poke should turn out to be very lean, it will be no wonder. If it had been fat the seller would have allowed you to see it."-CHARLES H. SPURGEON, A.D. 1834-1892, The Salt Cellars.

VARIANT PROVERBS

A pig in a poke. (Modern Greek).

Buy no cats in bags. (Belgian).

I'll ne'er buy a blind bargain or a pig in a poke. (Scotch).