[Ads-l] antedating "When the elephants fight..."

[James Eric Lawson]

Thirty-three years earlier, and said to have been collected by Fallon 
between 1870 and 1880, this is purportedly a Hindustani proverb:

1886  S. W. Fallon *A dictionary of Hindustani proverbs, including many 
Marwari, Panjabi, Maggah, Bhojpuri and Tirhuti proverbs, sayings, 
emblems, aphorisms, maxims and similes* (HathiTrust) 115   When 
buffaloes fight the plantation is ruined.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2846929&seq=131&q1=when+buffaloes+fight

On 10/12/23 18:04, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Oxford dictionary of proverbs has this from 1936, suggesting an origin in
> the Belgian Congo.
> 
> 1919 Colorado Springs Gazette (Feb. 2) 2: A native [of German East Africa]
> recalled a tribal proverb: "When elephants fight, it is the grass that
> suffers."
> 
> 1920 Vancouver Daily World (Sept. 9) 8: Four years of war, during which the
> natives ["of East Africa"] were badly used. "In their own language," said
> the major, "'when the elephants fight, the grass is trampled.'"
> 
> 1953 William Manchester, in The Sun (Baltimore, Md.) (Nov. 24)  1: The
> Burmese have a saying: When two buffaloes fight, the victim is the grass
> beneath them.
> 
> 1959 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Oct. 11)  3H: some of the Laotian sayings
> carry a good bit of folk wisdom....[E.g.,] "When the buffaloes fight, it is
> the grass that suffers."
> 
> 1962 Rockford [Ill.] Register-Republic (March 28) 2B:   "When elephants
> fight, it's wise for ants to step aside," Cambodians told him.
> 
> 1968 Akron Beacon Journal (March 3) A2: The Vietnamese have their own words
> for it: "When the buffaloes fight, the mosquitos die."
> 
> IIRC, the version I heard in the '80s was "When the buffaloes fight, the
> ants are trampled."

-- 
James Eric Lawson

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