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10
Hausa Proverbs
5 Rua ba su yami banza.
- Water does not get bitter without a cause.
- There is reason for everything.
6 Kadda gammu ya birkitchi maidemmi.
- Don't let the gammu upset the carrier of a bundle of corn.
- Don't let the gammu become so big that it eventually gets bigger than the load that is being carried.
- Don't keep on giving things away until you become the poor man and the man to whom you give the rich one.
- Don't keep on giving your subordinates more and more power until at length they are more powerful than you are.
- Gammu, the pad the carrier puts between his head and his load. It is usually a small cushion stuffed with chaff or cotton, sometimes merely twisted grass.
7 Yawa shi kan sa zarre ya ja duchi.
- Quantity makes the cotton draw a stone.
- Unity is strength.
8 Makafo ya rassa ido, ya che ido na wari.
- The blind man lacks eyes, he says eyes stink.
- Na might perhaps be written 'na, as it is the abbreviation of yana, tana, &c., or rather it is more usually used in conjunction with a personal pronoun than by itself.
- Sour grapes.
9 Maidoki ya koma kutarr.
- How are the mighty fallen.
