asante proverbs: a dog's thoughts lie in his chest

Yesterday I mentioned that I wanted to share some Asante proverbs with you.  Here's some from a collection originally published in 1879.
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The dog which has gone a hunting has not had any luck, so what can the cat (hope to) do?

When your dog says he will catch an elephant for you, he is deceiving you.

A dog's thoughts lie in his chest, but not in his head. (That is, he is always barking (talking) and never keeps anything to himself.)

If you take a dog (i.e. a quarrelsome, noisy person) as a relation, tears will never dry in your eyes.

The dog has a proverb which runs, 'A big thing does not get lost'.

Had the cat only some one to help it, it would be sharper even than the dog.

No one teaches a cat how to look into a calabash.

Even if the mouse were the size of a cow, he would be the cat's slave nevertheless.

All animals sweat, but the hair on them causes us not to notice it. - The saying is used in the sense that a rich or powerful man can bear losses or troubles better than a poor one, though both may equally have their worries.
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-- from Rattray, R. S. 1881-1938. Ashanti Proverbs: the Primitive Ethics of a Savage People. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1916. 87-94 passim.  What an awful title.

a foolish mouse, a cat's back

Designated Purchase Fund and Carll H. de Silver Fund, www.brooklynmuseum.org. PD

This is the top, or finial, of a staff created sometime in the 20th century. (You can see more photos of it here at the Brookyn Museum's website.)  It was carried by a particular sort of royal official among the Fante culture of Ghana and the Ivory Coast of Africa.  When I tell you that the official was known as an okyeame - a "linguist," that is, a king's spokesman - you won't be surprised to learn that this small scene illustrates a proverb, as linguist staffs of that period often did.  We're looking at a cat with a mouse climbing onto its back, which is a bad move for any mouse anywhere I'd imagine.  That's borne out by the matching proverb: "It is only a foolish mouse that tries to get into the cat's bag," or, lesser people shouldn't dare to mess with royal business.
Here's another okyeame staff at the Art Institute of Chicago which illustrates the proverb "The hen knows when it is dawn, but leaves it to the rooster to announce.”  Fante culture was found within the greater context of Asante civilization, and Asante visual art has a lot of interplay with its verbal arts.  Their proverbs are fascinating and vivid.  I'll share some more with you tomorrow.