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Vineyard flu

And all drinking cultures have inventive expressions for the horrors of the morning after:

avoir la gueule de bois (French) to have a wooden mouth

babalasi (Venda, South Africa) a trembling hangover

futsukayoi (Japanese) a hangover (literally, second day drunk)

winderdgriep (Afrikaans) a hangover (literally, vineyard flu)

einen Kater haben (German) to have a hangover (literally, to have a tomcat)

scimmia (Italian) to have a hangover (literally, a monkey)

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

Don’t cry over spilt milk

paid â chodi pais ar ôl piso (Welsh) don’t lift a petticoat after peeing

kusat sebe lokti (Russian) to bite one’s elbows

nasi sudah menjadi bubur (Indonesian) the rice has become porridge

eső után köpönyeg (Hungarian) coat after rain

16.

All in a Day’s Work

yesli khochetsya rabotat’ lyag pospi i vsyo proydyot (Russian)

if you feel an urge to work take a nap and it will pass

Pounce and decoy

Time was when going out to work meant leaving the cave or hut to forage for food:

mbwandira (Chichewa, Malawi) to catch a small animal like a bird or mouse by pouncing on top of it

puyugaktuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) to approach a sea mammal by crawling

tamigata (Yamana, Chile) to form together in a continuous line in order to drive birds up into a creek and then hemming them round to cut off their retreat to the open water

kanghanzila (Mambwe, Zambia) he who stands behind the game and imitates the lion’s roar so as to drive the game into the nets

sendula (Mambwe, Zambia) to find accidentally a dead animal in the forest (and be excited at the thought that a lion or leopard could be still around)

walakatla (Tsonga, South Africa) to fling down in disgust, as a hunter does with his spears when returning empty-handed

Point blank

In our rapidly developing world, this is obviously less and less the case, as age-old skills are replaced by a more up-to-date weapon:

paltik (Kapampangan, Philippines) a home-made gun

otselask (Estonian) a point-blank shot

tsikinika (Oshindonga, Namibia) to shoot something at close range

Dodo

Even if the matching cunning of animals remains much the same:

debideboo (Mandinka, West Africa) a bird which pretends not to be able to fly but slips away any time an attempt is made to catch it

kavraq (Iñupiat, Inuit) a wounded caribou that runs away unobserved

ugutur-kona-ina (Yamana, Chile) to go about on the water evading sight; to hide as ducklings or goslings do to evade the hunter

vulwa-vulwa-vulwa (Tsonga, South Africa) to run a little, stop and look round before proceeding, like a buck anxious not to be seen

Spear hurling

Out on the seas and oceans, however, the traditional tools of hook and net have not been seriously superseded; nor have the associated skills:

zekumuna (Luvale, Zambia) to pull out a fish which flies off the hook and falls onto the ground

alatkaqtuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) to scan the landscape from an elevated point, to look into water for signs of fish

ukomona (Yamana, Chile) to hurl the spear at fish, but at no special one, hoping to spear one among the shoal

wasswa (Ojibway, North America) spearing fish at night by the light of a torch

Eel dribbling

In the countless islands of the Pacific, such techniques have been carefully honed:

kikamu (Hawaiian) the gathering of fish about a hook that they hesitate to bite

atua tapa (Rapanui, Easter Island) the orientation point for fishermen, which is not in front of the boat, but on the side

hakakau (Hawaiian) to stand with precarious footing, as on the edge of a canoe looking for squid

’ea’ea (Hawaiian) to cover the eyebrows, as a fisherman shading the eyes while looking into deep water for fish

ka ro’iro’i i te koreha (Rapanui, Easter Island) to dribble on the eel, to drop your spittle, mixed with chewed bait, into the water to attract the eel

Sea women

In Japan, abalone fishing is often done in husband and wife teams. The women, who are thought to be better at holding their breath and withstanding the cold for long periods,