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Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Definition and Classification 31 Winick, Stephen D. Baltmannsweiler, Germany: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren. Yusuf, Yisa Kehinde, and Joyce T. Zholkovskii, Alexandr K. Q Two Examples and Texts This section is once again divided into two major parts. The first consists of six case studies to illustrate the ways of investigating the origin, history, mean- ing, and function of individual proverbs.
Some additional proverbs and proverbial ex- pressions are looked at as well to show how the miller profession gave rise to them. As the attached selected bibliography indicates, I have published major studies on these six proverbs in previous years. They are up to 50 printed pages in length and contain many more historical references as well as dozens of notes and bibliographical details that cannot possibly be included here.
I am simply presenting significantly shortened versions without any references. They are meant to tell intriguing stories, leaving the many pages of annota- tions to my previous publications where they can easily be found. While it is not possible to include large selections of proverbs in this book, several representative lists have been assembled from various standard collections to let readers get a feeling for the different metaphorical expressions of wisdom from various cultures and lan- guages of the world.
They are cited in English translation only, but it is no problem to find them in their original languages in many of the bilingual proverb collections listed in the bibliography at the end of this book. A small collection of English-language proverbs that have been coined in the United States is also provided. Two samples of proverbs in regional use in Vermont and Texas together with some Mexican American proverbs are included as well, and so are two sets of Native American and African American proverbs to illustrate the unique proverb lore of these minorities.
It was difficult to de- cide which linguistic groups should be represented. Regarding various minorities, it seems appropriate to cite examples from the meager number of recorded proverbs of the Native Americans and from the rich proverb tradition of African Americans. There is one caveat to keep in mind when reading through these lists. Again and again attempts have been made to delineate a particular worldview or even national character from lists of proverbs.
This is a dangerous undertaking, since such generalizations are often based on just a small number of texts see Robinson ; Nicolaisen The examples listed here are not intended to say anything in particular about the nationalities or minorities under con- sideration.
The proverbs are simply cited to indicate the wealth of different metaphorical proverbs in the world. When the proverbial push comes to shove, the wisdom expressed in proverbs is actually quite similar from culture to culture. That is why so many proverbs have found a wide distribution be- yond national borders and why there are so many equivalent proverbs that might have different images and structures, but that mean the same thing! The first recorded allusion to the proverb appears in the didactic poem Works and Days by the Greek writer Hesiod of the eighth century B.
The Babylonian Talmud from about B. The step from a vivid metaphor about human nature to a precise metaphorical proverb must have taken place once people wanted to express its basic mean- ing in a concise and repeatable way.
By the time of Aristotle in the fourth cen- tury B. The Roman scholar and writer Varro, for example, employed the proverb in its social meaning with an underlying moralistic tone in the first century B. In addition to the appearance of Greek and Latin references of the proverb in secular literature and medieval Latin proverb collections, there was also a considerable influence that the early church fathers had on the dissemination of the proverb.
Basil shows in his writings during the fourth century A. Tiny little fish, catching the scent, follow it and gather together in the mouth of that huge whale, who closes his mouth when it is full and swallows all those tiny fish.
Two splendid illustrations from a Physiologus manuscript of the twelfth century show this most clearly. The first English appearance of the proverb is in an old English homily on St. Est—sone the more fishes in the se eten the lasse. So in this world do the rich who are lords, destroy the poor men who are underlings, and moreover live on them and obtain from their labors all that they possess.
Having presented a somewhat superficial literary history of the proverb well into the sixteenth century, it must also be mentioned that there exists a parallel iconographic history of the proverb attesting to its currency and pop- ularity. Two English misericords of the fifteenth century show a big fish whale that swallows a smaller fish headfirst, bringing to mind the Physiolo- gus tale and its illustrations.
In the center panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights he too has a large fish whale swallowing up a smaller one headfirst. In context of the whole picture this scene signifies that the Epicurean small fish the sinner searching for earthly pleasures will be damned and go to the hell of the devil represented by the whale.
At least as grotesque is another fish scene that Bosch included in the left panel of his famous painting The Temp- tation of Saint Anthony Here the giant fish has grasshopper legs, a church seems to ride on its back, and it even has a wheel in the form of a shield war for propulsion.
Since the beast is also swallowing a fish, this scene might be referring to the devilish greed of the world, which includes the ra- pacity of the church and which will clearly lead to war, devastation, and an- archy.
Once again there is a fish-like monster, but this time it has human legs and a man is being devoured headfirst. Here death is the final winner as can be seen in some of the early En- glish literary texts as well. See son, this I have known for a very long time, that the great [fish] bite the small. The picture shows the world upside-down as can be seen immediately from the soldier-like figure in the center, which is sawing open the large stranded fish by holding the grotesque saw upside-down.
Devouring of smaller fish is Cited from Max J. Examples and Texts 39 going on everywhere, indicating that the world knows no law and order and that anarchy rules supreme.
The absolute chaos is also shown by the fact that the fish are being swallowed with their heads first, sideways an impossibility , and tail first. It is a world of violence, threat, doom, and death. Everybody wants to live, prosper, and exert power over the other, including even a fan- tastic fish-like monster flying through the skies with a gaping mouth. The op- pressor who victimizes the small, weak, and poor becomes the victim, and this unceasing chain reaction is splendidly illustrated in a small scene of the right bottom corner, where a big fish has a smaller one by its tail which in turn has clasped its jaws around a smaller fish yet.
The engraving from with its many reproductions was part of a pop- ular satirical and didactic print media during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is well possible that William Shakespeare might have had one of them in front of him when he wrote the following lines in Pericles : Third Fisherman: Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea?
Pericles, act 2, scene 1 But one need not look far to find literature and art joining forces in the em- blematic publications of the early seventeenth century. The German Joachim Camerarius presents a round emblem in showing a singular fish eating a smaller one of its own kind.
It is little wonder that this motif gained such popularity in the seventeenth cen- tury. War, might, and oppression were rampant in Europe, and one is justi- fied to look at these emblems as sociopolitical statements. They are satirical caricatures of sorts without attacking any person in particular.
Such indirect criticism of the politics of the day couched in the language of natural phenomena most certainly was an effective way to vent frustrations and to moralize and teach at the same time.
Just as in the Bruegel drawing, an old man is teaching a young boy about the nature of things. But while the fish in the emblems show the in- evitability of their fate by swimming towards the monster, in this picture the smaller fish try to swim away, that is, they try to flee from the stronger who is temporarily hampered in its cruel ways by having caught a fish sideways. Too much greed does have its trouble too, and even the big fish is not always ab- solutely successful in its evil schemes.
But the seventeenth century also provides the first American references of the proverb. Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, in his treatise on The Blovdy Tenent, of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, discussed in A Con- ference betweene Trvth and Peace presents an interpretation of the proverb that goes right back to the prophet Habakkuk.
But this must have an End. The great Fish will have eaten all the little ones, and then they must look out for other Prey. The great fish swallow up the small, and he who is most strenuous for the Rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of Government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which Humane Nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances.
This somewhat fatalistic view that the logic of the fish will always be here continued into the nineteenth century and beyond. Yes, the great States eat up the little. As with fish, so with nations. Aye, but how do the great States come to an end? By their own injustice, and no other cause. They would make unrighteousness their law, and God wills not that it be so. Thus they fall; thus they die. For the most part its written or pictorial uses continue the fatalistic tradition that the big- ger and stronger will always take advantage of the smaller and weaker.
He clearly states that sharks as humans would be much worse than normal sharks since they would go about their destructive busi- ness of annihilating others in an ordered and carefully planned way: welfare, education, politics, culture, and religion would all be structured so as to be in absolute control of a few big fish.
The entire society would consist of a care- fully orchestrated process of creating small and meek fish that could easily be controlled or devoured if they were to step out of line. There would also be a religion, if the sharks were humans. It would teach that the little fish would only begin to live properly in the bellies of the sharks. More- over, there would also be an end to equality of all the little fish if the sharks were humans.
Some of them would receive offices and would be placed above others. Those who were a bit larger would even be allowed to devour the smaller ones. That would of course be pleasant for the sharks since they themselves would then get larger pieces to devour. And how are things in the socio-political situation of the world today? Some are extremely satirical and cynical, others are full of irony or even humor, but such are the re- actions of modern people who so much would like to break out of this endless chain reaction of rapacity of all kinds.
The pictorial representations of the proverb in the mass media can basically be divided into five groups: 1. One large fish randomly pursuing several smaller ones who are trying to flee, that is, the aggressor preys on the weaker. Involuntary takeovers merger mania in the business world is a frequent motif. A big fish planning to devour one small fish, making the aggressive nature of the beast even more drastic.
Again, the business world is depicted in this way, when one large company swallows up a smaller one. The metaphor also fits po- litical situations when a large country overpowers a smaller one.
Spiraling inflation, the relationship of wages and prices, the class struggle, and minority issues have been depicted by such fish chains. A vicious circle of fish of the same size trying to devour each other, showing perhaps the futility of this constant rapacity. Multiple takeover attempts by equally strong companies have been illustrated by such circular fish groups.
Even the symbolic inversion of this proverbial law in some texts and illustrations seems only momentarily able to liberate humankind from its basic and unfortunate truth about human nature. Judging by the recorded history of this proverb, which spans almost three thousand years, nothing really has changed at all.
Mills driven by water were in use during classical antiquity, and windmills have been recorded since the very early Middle Ages. They clearly occupied a central role in mercantile life for centuries, and because of their common appearance in villages and cities, the folk began to generalize their observations and experi- ences relating to millers and their mills into colorful metaphors. There exist lit- erally dozens of such proverbs, proverbial expressions, and proverbial comparisons based on the milling trade in many languages and cultures.
People use this old formulaic language without necessarily understanding the precise meaning of the metaphors dealing with the vanished water- or wind-driven mills and their traditional millers. The old phrases have become linguistic relics of sorts, and while many have indeed gone out of use, there are those that hang on and that people of the modern age would not want to miss.
About one hundred years later the Paston Letters c. And it should be noted that this mill law is common throughout the Eu- ropean languages. It goes back to medieval Latin records, where the proverb appears in various wordings. The following three medieval Latin variants clearly indicate the legal nature of the old proverb by using such words as right and rightfully law and lawfully : Qui capit ane molam, merito molit ante farinam.
Whoever arrives first at the mill, rightfully grinds his flour first Ante de iure molit, molam qui prius adivit. He by right grinds first, who first came to the mill Iure, molendinum qui tardus adit, molet imum.
Whoever comes to the mill first, grinds first Qui cicius venerit, cicius molit. The many translations of his Adagia proverb collection helped to spread this fascinating proverb from language to language through the process of loan translations. Who arrives first, should grind first Spanish: Quien primero viene, primero muele.
Who comes first, grinds first Dutch: Die eerst ter molen comt sal eerst malen. In any case, examples of the longer mill proverb can be found in many Germanic and Romance languages today, but in English it has been lost and has become a very general and barely metaphorical rule of conduct. His beard, as any sow or fox, was red, And broad it was as if it were a spade. A sword and buckler bore he by his side. His mouth was like a furnace door for size. He was a jester and could poetize, But mostly all of sin and ribaldries.
He could steal corn and full thrice charge his fees; And yet he had a thumb of gold, begad. A white coat and blue hood he wore, this lad. A bagpipe he could blow well, be it known, And with that same he brought us out of town. Prologue, — This description reduces the miller to a Judas-like deceiver with his red beard, black nostrils, furnace-like mouth and chunky as well as broad body frame. And one might well ask why the miller and his honorable profession deserve such a prejudicial characterization?
For the most part it must have been a psy- chological reaction by customers who felt very much dependent on the miller. They needed him to get their grain ground, and they wanted the most meal and as quickly as possible from their grain. This placed them in the con- trolling hands of the miller.
In fact, they were actually at his mercy, and they projected their fears and anxieties of being controlled and perhaps cheated upon this tradesman. Thus the proverb relates to problems of deception and mis- trust among members of two very basic professions. A short poem by Nicholas Breton from the year shows all of this quite clearly, indicating one more time how the folk saw the role of the miller whose broad thumb influenced the weight scales to his own advantage and to the detriment of his customers: I would I were a Myller and could grind A hundred thousand bushels in an hour, And ere my Master and my Dame had dinde Be closely filching of a bag of flour.
That is a wonderfully satirical verse about human greed at the expense of the miller profession. Whether the expectations were justified or not, many a farmer will have felt cheated by the miller when confronted by the small amount of ground flour from the large quantity of grain originally supplied. Such stereotypical expressions exist about other professions as well, no- tably against lawyers, physicians, and priests.
This is not necessarily directed negatively against the miller. The proverb simply states that one cannot pay attention or be aware of everything, using the metaphor of the mill and its miller to describe this fact through known facts. This is exactly the way Shakespeare employs this metaphorical proverb.
In the literary context of its appearance in Titus Andronicus, it has absolutely nothing to do with a mill or a miller. What, man! Here the proverb functions simply as a bit of rationalization and positive per- suasion to encourage the brother to pursue his amorous desires.
Of course, there is also a bit of misogyny in those sentences preceding the proverb with its metaphorical message that Chiron should be able to win Lavinia in a clan- destine fashion. They are nothing but innocuous metaphorical phrases referring to someone having added too much water to a recipe, espe- cially one thickened with flour. The second expression with the same meaning simply alludes to the fact that millers using water-wheels for power had little need for more water.
And proverbs about the mill itself? These proverbs seem almost simplistic in their wisdom. In its metaphorical meaning the proverb alludes to the general truth that small causes will have small effects. As is the case with hundreds of proverbs, this proverb found its way into the vernacular languages.
But the message is the same: justice is often a slow process, but it is inevitable. Examples and Texts 51 Thus retribution may be delayed, but it is certain to overtake the wicked sin- ners.
Here we have God or the ancient gods as the ultimate miller metaphorically grinding up his imperfect children, that is, punishing them for their sins. This interpretation can also be seen in a passage in A. This can be seen quite well from two references out of letters by George Bernard Shaw. Thus Winston S. Truman used the phrase effectively to de- liver a Cold War slam at the Soviet Union: The Soviet Union has hitherto refused to cooperate with the free na- tions on real disarmament or control of arms and has used every con- ference or international discussion on disarmament merely to further her own design for conquest.
In the face of past failures and even realiz- ing the Russians still are seeking only further grist for their peace prop- aganda mills, while they arm for imperialistic purposes, we ought to put the burden of proof on the Russians by answering them with a concrete counter-proposal.
One is reminded of a modern interpretation of this phrase in D. What are the chances of survival of the proverbial language cited as exam- ples in this short survey of metaphorical wisdom relating to millers and mills? Some of them have already dropped out of general use, and their old and an- tiquated metaphors are in need of historical and cultural explanation in order to be understood at all. But there are also those more common expressions that will definitely continue to be effective images for a modern life that is becom- ing ever more devoid of traditional mills.
With such an inter- national dissemination of the proverb it should not be surprising that it also made its way to the distant United States, but let me mention here as an aside that it never really made it across the English Channel. Americans most likely learned the German proverb from immigrants who carried it with them to their new homeland. It should surprise no one that W.
The apple does not fall far from the trunk. Edwin Fogel includes it again in German in his su- perb collection of Proverbs of the Pennsylvania Germans , but in the subsequent decades it was registered in English translation in regional collec- tions from North Carolina, New York, Illinois, and Washington.
The Dictionary of American Proverbs that is based on this major collecting exercise from oral sources ascribes a general United States currency to it.
Checking through 18 German-English dictionaries dating from to , it becomes clear that English and American lexicographers have strug- gled for many years to find the appropriate equivalent to the German proverb, when at least by the s if not earlier they could have cited the loan translation that had become quite established in the United States at least.
But lexicography appears to be a rather conservative endeavor, and it would behoove lexicographers to pay more attention to the impressive com- parative research that phraseologists and paremiologists have been conduct- ing for quite some time. As it is, it took until for the translated proverb to appear in a foreign-language dictionary.
Alan Dundes was able to make available to me an impressive 73 references of this proverb that were collected by his students at the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley between and They also make clear that immigrants like the Pennsylvania Germans brought the proverb with them to America. In fact, 35 of the 73 references state that this is a German proverb. But there are 12 informants who consider the proverb of Yiddish origin, two informants each claim that it is Swedish or Russian, and one in- formant thinks it to be Irish.
This should not be surprising since, as has been shown, the proverb is well known throughout most of Europe. What follows are some quotations from these records to illustrate the importance and value of folklore archives for the historical and geographical study of proverbs.
A reference that cites the proverb in the German language was collected by a student on January 26, , from Frieda Barkley, a retired German- American teacher from Benicia, California.
Barkley in , she was 82 years old. Surely she had heard and learned the proverb from her parents before the turn of the century, and this reference is an indication of how immigrants maintain their proverbs within the family setting where the native language continues to be spoken. Another older German immigrant placed the proverb into an alarming context in that, unfortunately, applies also to the present-day situation in the reunified Germany.
She believes she learned it from her mother, Sarah Beber, between the ages of 10 or 15, circa This proverb is a Yiddish saying that was used by everyone. Sarah Beber moved to the United States from Germany, and this proverb was one of those that she had learned when she had been little.
Just as other German immigrants, they continued citing it in Yiddish or German in this country, eventually also translating it into English when communicating with people who knew only that language.
There is no doubt that the Jewish pop- ulation in America did play its part in spreading this proverb. Even though the Folklore Archive at Berkeley contains no references by Dutch immigrants, it must be mentioned here that they also brought the proverb with them to the United States.
This is made abundantly clear in a letter to the editor of U. Though well into my 70s, I can still hear my elders speaking their native Dutch about the accomplishments and peccadilloes of neighbors and family: Ya, de appel valt niet ver van de boom—Yes, the apple falls not far from the tree. Modern scholars might belittle the positivistic folklore collections of earlier times, but they still need accessible texts, hopefully with contexts, to do seri- ous historical and geographical work.
It behooves folklorists from time to time to publish new collections in order to show the modern use of proverbs and other verbal folklore genres. The folklore archives contain not only texts in contexts, they often also include invaluable interpretive comments by both the informants and collectors.
These are treasures that should be used, pub- lished, and interpreted, if folklore as a scholarly discipline wants to maintain its credibility. In the meantime, the modern computer offers diachronic research possi- bilities that can only be called the dream of any historically minded folklorist let alone paremiologist. While the database goes back only to the end of the s, it is now constantly being expanded to become more and more inclusive.
This short contextualized reference can then be printed out at once, but one can also decide to print out the entire wonder upon wonders! Obviously the miraculous world of computer searches of databases has its problems and snags at times, but none of them negate their positive value. Furthermore, there is not a single Anglo-American proverb collection that would even come close to listing over a hundred references for any proverb. In fact, not even all such collections could together come up with that number of citations for a single proverb.
Database searching for particular proverbs is truly revolu- tionizing paremiography as it has been known thus far. Mention has already been made that the proverb appears to exhibit some- what of a male association. This fact is certainly born out by the 45 contex- tualized references that clearly refer to a father and son relationship.
A typical use of the proverb in this meaning is the following excerpt from an article on Pennsylvania politics: The state is well into its second generation of moderate-to-leftish Re- publican leaders. Its gubernatorial candidate, Lt. William W. This summer, the younger Scranton is showing that in Pennsylvania, the apple does not fall far from the tree. The proverb is rarely used to refer to the relationship of mother and son, probably because the physiognomic and physical similarities between them might not be as striking as between two males.
If you want to know where Clinton first learned to use his head—not to mention where he got his indomitable, take-a-licking-and-keep-on-ticking spirit—look no fur- ther than Virginia Clinton Kelley.
No immediate reason for this discrepancy comes to mind, save that the proverb is in fact of a predominantly male orientation. The mother was a kurveh [whore] and so is the daughter. After all, children are usually a product of the traits and attitudes of both parents. But it must also be said that this proverb does not always refer to family relations either. In a word, yes. The proverb is changed to state that the apples fall far from the tree, a shrewd advertising trick or pun to indicate that new models of Apple computers are reaching ever expanding markets.
There was a time when the doyen of proverb studies, Archer Taylor, stated in the old Proverbium journal that one must not leave any stone unturned when investigating the origin, history, and dissemination of a particular proverb see Taylor Taylor accomplished his numerous historical stud- ies of individual proverbs by searching through proverb collections and liter- ary works for references and variants.
But just imagine if he had had such folklore archives as the one at Berkeley at his disposal. The conclusion that all historical proverb dictionaries are sorely out of date is cer- tainly justified. Much updating work is needed to register older as well as newer references for at least the more important proverbs. The investigation of individual proverbs has indeed become revolutionized by the electronic age. Leaving no stone unturned in proverb searches now means even more consultation of printed texts, the careful scrutiny of folklore archives based on field research, and many fruitful hours scanning vast computerized databases.
As people look at these slurs, it is becoming ever more obvious that the native population suffered terribly in the name of ex- pansion and progress. Native Americans were deprived of their homeland, killed mercilessly or placed on reservations, where many continue their mar- ginalized existence to the present day.
It is alarming that this invective against Native Americans that became cur- rent on the frontier around is still in use today, astonishingly enough both by the general population and the Native Americans themselves. Wit- ness for example the book title The Only Good Indian: Essays by Canadian In- dians that was chosen for a collection of short prose and poetic texts in which these native inhabitants from Canada express their frustration with their marginalized life in modern society.
How bad must their plight be if the editor, Waubageshig, decided to choose this invective against his own people as a title! The explanation is given in the introduction as follows: Police brutality, incompetent bureaucrats, legal incongruities, destruc- tive education systems, racial discrimination, ignorant politicians who are abetted by a country largely ignorant of its native population, are conditions which Indians face daily. Yes, the only good Indian is still a dead one.
Not dead physically, but dead spiritually, mentally, economi- cally and socially. The result is a shocking stereotypical image that permeates all modes of expression, of which linguistic examples are only a small part. There can be no doubt about the sad fact that Native Americans were declared proverbially dead by the middle of the nineteenth century, es- pecially after the end of the American Civil War, when United States soldiers joined bigoted frontier settlers in a mercilessly carried out campaign to kill off the native population of this giant land.
Such willfully planned and ruthlessly executed destruction of the Native Americans needed its battle slogan, a ready-made catchphrase that could help the perpetrators to justify the inhuman treatment of their victims. Its poly-semanticity is grotesque to say the least. On the one hand, it is a proverbial slogan that justifies the actual mass slaughter of In- dians by the soldiers.
Be it by physical or spiritual death, Native Americans were doomed victims of perpetrators who acted with manifest destiny on their side while so- called innocent bystanders did nothing to prevent the holocaust of the Na- tive Americans.
The time was ripe for this all-encompassing and all-telling proverb, but whence did it come? Although most lexicographers attribute it to a remark allegedly made by Gen- eral Philip Sheridan in , the terminus a quo for this slur can be found in The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session [of the] Fortieth Congress I have never in my life seen a good Indian and I have seen thousands except when I have seen a dead Indian.
I believe in the policy that exterminates the Indians, drives them outside the boundaries of civilization, because you cannot civilize them. It is his luck. It must be remembered that James Michael Cavanaugh from Montana had expressed a quite similar sen- tence already in in the United States House of Representatives, and no- body is claiming that he originated this frontier proverb.
If it was not General Philip Sheridan who coined the proverb in its present form, it was certainly also not an even more famous, or rather infamous, In- dian fighter who made the following incredible remarks during a speech in January of in New York: I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian. Reckless, revengeful, fiendishly cruel, they rob and murder, not the cowboys, who can take care of themselves, but the defenseless, lone settlers on the plains.
Just as this proverb persists in oral communication, so it also permeates written sources from scholarly books to novels, from magazines to newspa- pers, and even on to cartoons. This early reference also shows already what is to become a pattern in more modern uses of the proverb. Such vari- ants show, of course, also the regrettable internationalization of the slander- ous proverb and its underlying proverbial formula. Proceeding In Pro Per in a probate case is not recommended.
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