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andare a picco (Italian) to sink (to be wanted by the police)

cizyatiko (Mambwe, Zambia) to make a man believe that he is safe so as to make time for others to arrest him

panier à salade (French) a salad shaker (a police van)

annussāveti (Pali, India) to proclaim aloud the guilt of a criminal

Pig box

All except the perpetrator are happy to see that anyone taking the immoral shortcut to personal enrichment ends up in a very bad place:

obez’ yannik (Russian) a detention ward in a police station (literally, monkey house)

butabako (Japanese) the cooler, clink (literally, pig box)

bufala (Italian) a meat ration distributed in jail (literally, shebuffalo – so called because of its toughness)

Into the pit

And society may exact its just deserts:

gbaa ose (Igbo, Nigeria) to rub in pepper by way of punishment or torture

kitti (Tamil) a kind of torture in which the hands, ears or noses of culprits are pressed between two sticks

dhautī (Sanskrit) a kind of penance (consisting of washing a strip of white cloth, swallowing it and then drawing it out of the mouth)

ráhu-mukhaya (Sinhala, Sri Lanka) a punishment inflicted on criminals in which the tongue is forced out and wrapped in cloth soaked in oil and set on fire

barathrum (Ancient Greek) a deep pit into which condemned criminals were thrown to die

tu-tù (Vietnamese) a prisoner ready for the electric chair

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

As thick as thieves

aralarindan su sizmaz (Turkish) not even water can pass between them

entendre comme cul et chemise (French) to get along like one’s buttocks and shirt

uni comme les doigts de la main (French) tied like the fingers of a hand

una y carne ser como (Spanish)/como una y mugre (Mexican Spanish) to be fingernail and flesh/like a fingernail and its dirt

sange paye ghazwin (Persian) as thick as volcanic stone

22.

Realpolitik

em rio que tem piranha, jacaré nada de costas (Brazilian Portuguese)

in a piranha-infested river, alligators do backstroke

Pipe and sunshade

Once upon a time life was straightforward: the chief ran the show and everyone fell in behind:

pfhatla-pfhatla (Tsonga, South Africa) to make a present to the chief to abate his anger

tarriqu-zan (Persian) an officer who clears the road for a prince

chātra (Pali, India) one who carries his master’s sunshade

vwatika (Mambwe, Zambia) to place the pipe in the mouth of the chief

kapita mwene (Mambwe, Zambia) the time of the stroll taken by the chief (between 9 and 10 p.m., when everyone had retired, the chief would go about quietly, eavesdropping to find out those talking about him)

magani (Mindanao, Philippines) the custom of obtaining leadership and the right to wear red clothes through killing a certain number of people

tirai (Tamil) a tribute paid by one king to another more powerful

ramanga (Betsileo, Madagascar) a group of men whose business is to eat all the nail-parings and to lick up all the spilt blood of the nobles (literally, blue blood)

mangkat (Indonesian) to die for one’s king or queen

A gift

Things weren’t so great for those at the bottom of the pile, however interesting their duties:

ravey (Manobo, Philippines) to enslave someone because he didn’t obey a command

dapa (Malay) a slave-messenger sent as a gift with a proposal of marriage

dayo (Bikol, Philippines) a slave who stands guard over the grave of a leading member of the community so that the body will not be disinterred by sorcerers

pachal (Malay) a slave of a slave

golamkhana (Bengali) a factory for imbuing people with a slave mentality

False friends

tank (Tocharic, Turkey) to interfere

tilts (Latvian) bridge

Transparent (German) banner, placard

bingo (Kapampangan, Philippines) chip in a blade

doshman (Romani) enemy

exito (Spanish) success

Parole (German) motto, slogan

Changing shirts

Democracy freed us from the old hierarchies and gave us the power to choose our own destinies …

valboskap (Swedish) ignorant voters (who vote as they are told)

qualunquismo