473. Ekanĩsya kĩmbu na mũsũũ. Leave the chameleon with the pigeon pea plant.

The evergreen pea plant is home to insects that attract chameleons. Harvesters usually never bother chameleons. The axiom was said about someone in an inappropriate romantic relationship who will not heed admonitions to end it. Counsellors said this in despair: leave it to fate. The proverb dates to the introduction of the pea plant in Ũkambanĩ.

474. Kĩmbu kĩemaa kwĩkalaata nĩ kũlea kũingwa. The chameleon fails to run because it is never driven.

Emerging during the Vascon era this proverb and its variations speaks about those who are slow and in need of prodding. People need mentors, custodians, and peers to cheer them up.

475. Ũko wa kĩmbu ndũaa mĩngũkũ. The chameleon lineage lacks no scales.

The back of a chameleon is scaly and all chameleons conform to that appearance. This is to say that family character traits are inherited and circulate within the family. This statement has a negative connotation of bad traits: a thief will most likely bear a thief.

476. Ĩtaa yĩĩyaa nguu nzaa. A python eats a tortoise due to starvation.

This is a good instance of nineteenth-century ecological events in Ũkamba. A series of severe droughts during the first half-century depressed the population of herbivores. Predators depressed the remainder so severely that some species could find no prey – causing pythons, for instance, to invade villages in search of domestic animals. Failing to find prey in the villages they turned to anything they could find and began to attack tortoises, whose shells were not only hard to swallow but also impossible to digest. The proverb, which emerged in the 1850s and 1860s, therefore talks about doing the unthinkable for survival.

477. Mwathĩnzĩlwa mwongonĩ ta nzana. They flayed your back like a monitor lizard.

This alludes to the practice of skinning monitor lizards from the back. The skin of these reptiles was valuable for covering dance-drums. The proverb means you are decisively defeated.

478. Mũthĩnzi wa nzana e moo, nũndũ ndĩthĩnzawa ta na nyamũ iingĩ. The skinner of the monitor lizard is rare, because it is not skinned like other creatures.

The history and practice of skinning the monitor lizard is encoded in multiple proverbs. These emerged in antiquity when Kamba dances began using drums requiring tough skin covering that only this reptile could provide.