Note 128 — Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs.

M. Baissac tells us, in a very amusing way, how this proverb originated at the time of the negro emancipation in Mauritius, when 30,000 pairs of new shoes were distributed. Another saying, equally characteristic, was—“Lhère li entré dans vous lacase, souliers dans lipieds; lhére li dans grand cimin, souliers dans mouçoirs”:—(When he enters your house, his shoes are on his feet; but once he is on the public road, they are in his handkerchief.)