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	---> MORE Thai Proverbs: _________________________________ Keeping your head down Standing the World on its Head Beware of Appearances Keeping Your Head Down When the Cat's Away You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise Measuring Someone's Footprint Be compliant! Snake Snake Fish Fish Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth The Menacing Tiger Little birds nest according to their size Keeping Your Head Down The Chameleon That Lost Its Head Out of Pride Wisdom come from Stupidity Follow the old, and the dogs won't bite you LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER Measuring Someone's Footprint One drop of honey Keeping Your Head Down Avoiding Victory Blame and Responsibility Beware of Appearances When the cat’s away, the mice play Water, water everywhere…

One of the closest fits between a Thai and a Western proverb happens to be one of the commonest to both cultures - When the cat’s away, the mice play (or the mice become lively in the Thai version). And both are used in identical situations - superiors absent, the subordinates have fun. But what’s less well known is that there’s an interesting second line to Thai proverb that carries the situation to its logical conclusion. The whole Thai proverb goes like this:

Maeo mai yu, nu ra-rerng: When the cat’s away, the mice play/become lively;

Maeo ma, lanka boerng. When the cat comes back, the roof breaks.

The metaphorical meaning’s clear enough, of course. When the superior’s away, the subordinates play, but when the boss comes back, there’s hell to pay. But for the Westerner, there’s not much logic in the figure of speech used. After all, cats can’t cause roofs to break, can they?

Well, in the traditional Thai setting, perhaps that’s precisely what does happen. Even now in Chiang Mai you can still see the odd house with a roof made of either nipa thatch or leaves. And of course, a generation back, a majority of the roofs were made of those materials. Perfect place for rats to take up residence during the rainy season, and when the cat got up there after them, the damage caused by the rats trying to escape, and the cats trying to hold onto them, could be considerable.

And just how well the proverb describes the Thai reality has been proved over and over in the editor’s own domestic experience. He lives in a fairly ordinary house - two storey, tiled roof, and with a space between ceiling and roof that’s just perfect for rats to make their homes in during the rainy season. Well, live and let live is the family motto, but the rats that come in are a rowdy, heavy-footed lot, given to playing what sounds uncommonly like touch rugby first thing in the morning: literally scampering backwards and forwards, and squealing at the same time. Just a little too noisy for comfort. But what can we do? We’ve talked about getting the neighbours’ cat and putting it in there to clear the rats out…no problem where the roof and ceiling are concerned, of course, but once in, how would we get the cat out again? It would be a little like - what’s the saying? Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - or as the Thais would put it, khi chang jap dtakaden - Riding an elephant to chase a grasshopper. Much better to leave things as they are.