“Throw a rock into a pack of dogs, and the one that yells is the one that got hit.”
I heard this expression for the first time many years ago.
My friend Aggie told me that her Grandmother used to say it to her and her brothers when she was trying to determine who to punish for starting a fight.
“I say it to myself in Spanish, because that’s how Grandma said it, but it pretty much translates to, “If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yells is the one that got hit”, Aggie told me.
“She would look down her finger, wagging it back and forth at us as she said it. We all knew she would find out who started the fighting, and so the best thing to do was just to confess.” Aggie laughed as she remembered, “It was always my brother who started the fights, so we just waited, and he always fessed up.”
Now that she had her own daughter, the mystery of Grandma’s ability to divine the truth seemed less mysterious, but I could see her give a little shiver.
It took me a while to fully understand the expression, as I had to get past the idea of throwing rocks at dogs, or that Aggie’s Grandma would have used an expression so harsh as to imply that any of her grandchildren might be one of those deserving dogs.
I understand it now. The expression embodies the notion that ” a guilty mind needs no accuser”, or “the lady doth protest too much, methinks”.
I have also heard a more colloquial translation of, “He who smelt it, dealt it.”
I find myself thinking of this “rock in a pack of dogs” expression more than a bit lately, because of all the political finger pointing, denying, and buck passing that’s been going on.
So if you’re not guilty, just be quiet, and let the dogs that got hit, yell.
Leslie
P.S. Aggie, I still have the gold Cross pen you gave to me. Thank you.
