The French saying “les chiens aboient et la caravane passe” translates literally as “the dogs bark and the caravan passes.” What it really means is “your insults don’t reach me,” or “I am sure of myself and you cannot prove otherwise.”

The saying is originally of Arabic origin. In the Middle East and in North Africa, nomadic camps had large dog populations whose job it was to bark loudly, to warn the nomads of approaching strangers. When a caravan, which was a large group of people travelling across the desert, often on camels, approached the nomadic camp, the dogs would bark. The camels, however, being much larger than the dogs, would just ignore them.

Equivalent English expressions include “like water off a duck’s back,” “sticks and stones may break my bones,” and “there is always a critic.”