Many mystries surround the presence of proverbs in most of the literature of the world, past and present. In some cultures they are a rich part of every day life, spoken trippingly and immediately understood. yet among other peoples they are rarity. Their origin is obscure , often reaching far into the past, often seeming to derive from story or a historical event, and some times apparently growing out of simple unrehearsed happening. And even more curious is the existence , in widely different cultures and periods, of proverbs with identical meanings. This phenomenon has led to the intriguing suggestion that there may be everywhere an underlying universal wisdom, some elemental area common to all human thoughts. Proverbs have been called the molecules of popular literature, for they provide the ingredients for the myths, the folk tales, the epics and folk poetry that express cultural identity .

 

This is especially true of the thousands of popular expressions that flow from the lips of the Pakhtuns. Some proverbs are the embryonic "punch lines" found in folk tales. Others teach and perpetuate customs and traditions that are an integral part of the pakhtun way of life. Many more simply offer a mundane and often humorous observation on a fact of life. Nothing in the entire Pakhtun culture has escaped the province of the proverb.