Melanesian proverbs

[Christine Jourdan]

There are some such sayings in Solomon Islands Pijin.  One that I
particularly like is 'staka fis long si' (literally: there are plenty of
fish in the sea) which I have heard people use to console someone who has
been jilted by a lover. In other words, there are plenty of people around,
and you will find someone else.
Cheers
Christine

At 19:58 70/01/04 -0500, Lise M. Dobrin wrote:
>Dear wantoks,
>
>A colleague is interested in the apparent dearth of proverbs ("A
>stitch in time saves nine" sort of thing) in Papuan/Melanesian lgs,
>and I thought that this might be a good forum in which to post his
>question. I have come across at least one clear case in a casual
>conversational context in my Arapesh texts ("the village pig attracts
>the bush pig", i.e., even if it looks like the trouble was caused by
>an outsider, an insider must have been involved). Apparently there
>are some in Orokaiva, but the examples I have heard in that lg appear to
be much
>more domain-specific than this. Has anyone heard such sayings used in Tok
>Pisin?
>
>Thanks,
>Lise
>
>
>
>
>________________________________
>Lise Dobrin
>Dept. of Anthropology
>University of Virginia
>Brooks Hall--PO Box 400120
>Charlottesville, VA 22904-4120
>
>
Christine Jourdan
Graduate Programmes Director
Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Concordia University
1455, de Maisonneuve W.
Montreal, H3G 1M8
Canada
Tel: 514-848-2169
Fax: 514-848-4539