I’m on my way to New York for a Society of Animal Artists board meeting, so I’m taking a break from the story of my 2011 trip to Mongolia.

Instead, I thought I would share a few proverbs from a book that I found in Ulaanbaatar called, appropriately enough, Mongolian Proverbs. They were collected by Janice Raymond and the book published in 2010 by Alethinos Books, San Diego.

You will have four nights
Taking a short cut

That’s one we all know….the short cut that ends up taking much longer than the original route.

Fox will starve to death
While waiting under an ox

This one describes trying to do something impossible since the fox will never be able to eat the ox

Calf is not grown
But he thinks he can make bull’s dung

A good description of someone who talks big, but can’t deliver

One finger short
Of being crazy

This one doesn’t really require an explanation, but is interesting because of how it resembles similar American sayings