Spanish Salt : a Collection of All the Proverbs which
are to be Found in "Don Quixote." With a Literal English Translation, Notes, and Intro- duction, by Ulick Ralph Burke, M.A. (B. M. Pickering.)—This little book,—one of the most amusing collection of proverbs we have come across, though all of them are taken from one book, " Don Quixote,"—is translated and edited for us by Mr. Ulick Ralph Burke, with great care and skill. He gives us not only the Spanish proverbs, but the nearest English equivalents, and not unfrequently those of some other people as well, with any additional explanations needful to make the local detail clear to us. For example, wo take one at random :—" 91. Tras la crnz ester el Diablo :" "The Devil lurks behind the cross," I. 6, ii. 33, 47, a proverb only too applicable to Spain. In English we say, " The nearer the church, the farther from God."
" Par las faldas del vicario, Sube el Diablo al campanario," —translated by Longfellow, in the "Spanish Student," "It is by the vicar's skirts that the Devil climbs into the belfry."
" Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there.
—DEFOE'S Trueborn Englishmen, Part I.
See also Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,' Part II., section 1, M. 1 ; and George Herbert's Jacula Prudentium.'" Mr. Burke has executed his task with real relish, and no little scholarship. A more amusing book of proverbs, whether as illustrating Spanish character or popular sagacity, we have never taken up.
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