Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

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Like a chip in the pottage pot, doth neither good nor harm.

Like arming a hog in the snout with a ploughshare, that can tear up the ground without it.Tamil.

Like box-makers, more noise than work.French.

Like driving away dogs till break of day, because he had lent his door to a neighbor.Tamil.

Like putting one’s hand in a water-pot in search of a missing elephant.Tamil.

Like the strange missile the Australian throws,
Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose.

Like the hidalgo’s dinner, very little meat and a great deal of table-cloth.Spanish Student.

Like the old sow: you have to pull her ears off to get her to the trough, and her tail off to get her away.

Like the squire of Guadalaxara who knew nothing in the morning of what he said at night.Spanish.

Like the tailor who sewed for nothing and found the thread himself.

Like the wife that never cries for the ladle until the pot runs over.