Glowing Embers

Flames in ancient African fires dwindling,

Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none can come to buy, and in the whithered field where the farmer plows for bread in vain.

-William Blake

When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly. No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come. A single stick may smoke but it will not burn, burning embers are easily kindled. If you are hiding, don't light a fire.

Before one cooks one must have the meat, if you watch your pot your food will not burn. Fine words do not produce food, beauty will not make the pot boil.

Thunder is not yet rain. Rain does not fall on one roof alone, the house roof fights the rain but he who is sheltered ignores it. Rain beats a leopard's skin but it does not wash out the spots.

Drunkenness and anger speak truthfully. It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man, expect poison from standing waters. Only a fool tries to jump fire a fool will pair an ox with an elephant. Restless feet may walk into a snake pit.

A single bracelet does not jingle. When one is in love a cliff becomes a meadow. The mouth that speaks not is sweet to hear. The cattle is as good as the pasture in which it grazes. The heaviest ear of grain bends it's head the lowest.

Do not show your teeth until you can bite, every dog is brave on his own doorstep. Save your fowl before it starts flapping.

If there were no elephant in the bush, a buffalo would be a great animal. A cow that has no tail should not try to chase away flies. One does not slaughter a calf before its mother's eyes. The end of an ox is beef, and the end of a lie is grief.

A man who has once been tossed by a buffalo when he sees a black ox thinks it is another buffalo. Because a man has injured your goat do not go out and kill his bull. Wood may remain ten years in water but it will never become a crocodile.

A cow must graze where she is tied. A little shrub may grow into a tree, the most beautiful fig may contain a worm. The busy bee has no time for sorrow. The fox condemns the trap not himself, the fox provides for himself but God provides for the lion. If a centipede loses a leg it does not prevent him from walking.

Do not call to a dog with a whip in your hand. If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree, cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won't eat you.  What is said over the dead lion's body could not be said to him alive.

When the leopard is away his cubs are eaten. Darkness conceals the hippopotamus. Do not be like the mosquito that bites the owner of the house. Cactus is bitter only for those who taste of it.

When one sets a portion to oneself, usually it is not too small. Spilled water is better than a broken jar it is only the water that is spilt the calabash is not broken!

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Even the longest day has an end time destroys all things, earth is the queen of beds. Life is a shadow and a mist, it passes quickly by and is no more. What has been blown away cannot be found again.

Everything has an end.