Part 2: On perspicaciousness (good judgment, perceptiveness), reasonableness, sagacity, savoir-faire, wisdom, and worldly wisdom

A

A child lacks wisdom, and some say that what is important is that the child does not die; what kills more surely than lack of wisdom?

A sacrifice was prescribed for the vulture, but it refused to sacrifice; a sacrifice was prescribed for the ground-hornbill, but it declined to sacrifice; a sacrifice was prescribed for the pigeon, and it gathered the prescribed materials and made the sacrifice.

We grab a dog with the hands and it escapes; thereafter we beckon it with two fingers.

You are given some stew and you add water; you must be wiser than the cook.

One does not enter into the water and then run from the cold.

One does not engage in a dyeing trade in Ìṣokùń people there wear only white.

One does not weigh the head down with a load that belongs to the belly.

One does not fight to save another person's head only to have a kite carry one's own away.

One does not compete with another for a chieftaincy title and also show the way to the king's house to the competitor.

One does not shave a head in the absence of the owner.

One does not leave one elder sitting to walk another elder part of his way.

One does not dive under water without knowing how to swim.

One does not use oneself as an ingredient in a medicine requiring that the ingredients be pulverized.

One does not leave cloth in a bundle while bargaining over it.

One does not go to bed while a snake is on the roof.

One does not smear blood (from a woman's deflowering) on a Muslim charm; a de-virgined woman does not give birth to a “female” child.

One does not ignore leprosy to treat a rash.

One does not brush off antelope meat with squirrel meat.

One does not use a sword to kill a snail.

One does not throw a snail at a god.

One does not go to bed while there is a fire on one's roof.

One does not because of shyness expose oneself to a disease.

One does not as a joke say one's mother has collapsed.

One does not tease a warrior by saying there is a war (or an invasion.)

One does not hide something in one's hand and yet swear [that one knows nothing about it].

One does not make a gift of someone else's property when it is not one's own.

One does not hide the farm from the pawned worker.

One does not position the commander of the army at the rear of the column.

One does not leave the person one has a quarrel with and face his lackey.

One does not rely on money to contest a chieftaincy reserved for the strong.

One does not consume salt according to one's greatness.

One does not show the throat the way to the stomach.

One does not show the squirrel the way to the river.

One does not ignore one matter to attend to another matter.

One does not grab hold of a person who has pulled a knife.

One does not carry elephant meat on one's head and dig cricket holes with one's big toe.

One does not sit by a river and argue whether the soap will foam or will not foam.

One does not throw a toad away and inquire after its young.

One does not carve a tall statue without resting its hand on something.

One should not expect flight from the flightless chicken; one should not expect striding from a chameleon.

One does not deliver a verdict after hearing only one side.

One does not eat “I almost” in a stew.

One does not list vultures among edible meats.

One does not count a god's grove as part of the town.

One does not count a fetus among living children.

One does not enumerate children for the parents.

One does not so resent having a child that one names it What-is-this-that-has-happened?

One does not chase two rats and avoid coming up with nothing.

One does not have children at one's rear and yet refuse food.

One does not acknowledge the husband for one's child and also acknowledge her illicit lover.

One does not hold a gun carelessly.

One does not opt to work on the farm and also opt to go argue one's case and avoid neglecting one or the other.

One does not chain the child of a person who offers too low a price for one's wares.

One does not take a child destined for poverty to Ìlọ́rọ̀.

One does not devote oneself to the home and devote oneself to the farm and not wind up neglecting one of them.

One does not have a thousand cowries (or six pence) at home and go chasing abroad for a thousand cowries.

One does not kill the imbecile within one's home, because of the day when the one from outside might visit one.

One does not kill the vulture; one does not eat the vulture; one does not offer the vulture as a sacrifice to one's head.

One does not dare a wicked person to do his worst.

One does not suffer the reputation of being a thief and yet go seeking to dance with kids (baby goats).

One does not send a shirker to go see what the morning looks like outside.

One does not collect water from a spring to dump in the deep.

One does not see chickens about and throw one's corn to the dog.

No one ever sees the leavings of the god Orò.

One does not see a bàtá drum on the ground and use one's mouth to mimic its sound.

One does not see leaves lying about and scoop up feces with one's bare hand.

One does not find helpers willing to help with one's load and yet sprout a hump on one's back “from carrying too heavy a load”.

One does not see the look on a leopard's face and then taunt the leopard.

One does not run from the herald of the masquerader and collide with the masquerader himself.

One does not walk one's secret lover across a river; the causes of huge disasters are usually insignificant in themselves.

One does not tell an Ọ̀yọ́ person that his knife is sharp, for only then will he say he has not even honed it yet.

One does not discuss secret matters in the presence of a tattler.

One cannot be asleep and also be able to vouch for one's anus.

One does not flaunt one's ability to make a fist in the face of a leper's child.

One does not drool in jest in the presence of the child of an epileptic.

One does not do a favor and then camp by it.

One does not engage in two trades without having one consumed by goats.

One does not wait until the heat of the battle to start looking for palm-leaf midrib.

One does not count the fingers of a person who has only nine in his/her presence.

One should not be too embarrassed to eat a jackal with one's host; as he helps himself, one also helps oneself.

One should not look for a white-clad person in the stall of palm-oil sellers.

One does not wallow in poverty and yet kill an elephant for public distribution.

One does not complain about being looked at and be vindicated.

One does not praise a child in his presence; only backsliding results.

We kneel and sacrifice a ram, and the bàtá drummer shows reluctance to take his leave. Does he wish to inherit a wife?

One chases conspiracy away, as though one would have it disappear into the bush.

One spreads a mat with the right hand while removing one's pants with the left hand; yet the woman complains that one is not helping her quest for a child.

One struggles to save the chick from certain death, and it complains that one is preventing it from foraging at the dump.

We fight in defence of Ọ̀jà, and Ọ̀jà asks who is fighting in his backyard.

One curses a child that ìrókò will kill him, and he glances at his rear; does the curse take effect immediately?

The invalid is asked to say, “Tó,” and he complains that he cannot keep saying, “Tó, tò, tó.”

We strive to keep a child from dying, and you say he resembles neither the father nor the mother.

“We are driven by envy of them” is a bad case to make; a quarrel spawned by jealousy is not easy to settle.

We recite someone's praise names, we intone his attributes, and a person says he does not know who died; we say, “He of the two hundred granaries, he whose yams are plentiful on the farm, he whose corn is abundant in the fields,” and the person asks, “Is the dead person a hunter, or a trader?”

We recite someone's praise names, we intone his attributes, and a person says he does not know who died; he hears, “Death takes a renowned man, a titled man, whose yams spread like petals, who possesses barns of corn, whose fields are a bounty for birds,” and he asks, “Is the dead man a farmer or a trader?”
(This is a variant of the preceding entry.)

We are discussing pumpkins, a woman asks what we are discussing, and we respond that it is men's talk; after we have gathered the pumpkins, who will cook them?

We speak of women and someone suggests that we hedge our words and go plant water melon by the stream; who will help in harvesting it?

One can tell by looking, and one can tell by taste; a soap seller does not lick her fingers.

We sell guinea-corn, and with the copper coins we redeem the old man.

We sell guinea-corn, and with the guinea-corn money we buy guinea corn.

The gods heed what chameleon proposes.

Plans do not automatically bear fruit; only the faint-hearted do not make plans.

Attempts result in achievement; it is faint-heartedness that keeps one from making an effort.

Unfinished abandoned wall: unable to master it, one befriends it.

A treacherous person is not someone to tell profound matters to.

A needle cannot be used to make pounded yams.

A needle that drops into the ocean defies finding.

Nursing mother, make the herbal decoction in good time; the day is waning.

A nursing mother does not venture away from home without a cup.

The nursing mother lies against her child to secure food.

A nursing mother cups her palm to strike her child.

Spare-time work is no profession; it is an assignment from one's father that takes all of one's day.

The world accepts only adding on.

He who disappoints one teaches one to be more resourceful.

A leper must not wait for a bearer of abrasive leaves (eépín [16] ).

The leper says that he trusts his relatives on a certain matter; he says when he goes on a journey, they would not dare use his sponge to wash themselves.

It is the votive herald-chicken that precedes a dead person.

Chicken cannot at this late date bemoan its lack of teeth.

A chicken has no knees for cases.

The chicken sees the snuff seller and enfolds its wings.

Water fowl is no good as a sacrifice to ìpọ̀nrí.

Could the small gourd save itself, before we put charms into it?

He-who-carries-live-coals-in-his-palm does not tarry.

He-who-would-collect-rain-water-in-a-sieve deceives himself.

The wind is making life difficult for the seller of liquid corn starch; corn flour seller, you had better watch out!

There is no disappearing trick better than the availability of a dense forest to disappear into; there is no sacrifice more efficacious than having many people on one's side; there is no “The gods have elevated me” that is higher than the back of a horse.

He-who-neglects-his-own-affairs-to-care-for-others'-affairs, it is in the middle of the night that his burial is carried out.

The creeper is destroying itself, but it thinks it is destroying its host.

Padlocks do not share their secrets with one another.

A sheep does not wake in the morning and droop its mouth.

A wicked elder sows suffering for his children.

Elder, do a favor and remove your eyes from it.

A foster child does not become one's own child.

The maize plant is not a human being; who ever saw children on the back of elephant grass?

It is completely and securely that a mother (bearing her child on her back) supports the child with a strip of cloth.

An elder shows a smooth belly to the world; but what he will do is known to him.

Òfé, dweller-in-the-corridor, forward as oódẹ́ a sacrifice was prescribed for òfé, but he did not offer it; agánrán went ahead and offered the sacrifice; in the end òfé became a citizen of Ọyọ, while agánrán became a dweller in the bush; and people thought òfé was foolish.

Pumpkin is never bitter in a big household.

Àgbìgbò, fly warily, for the hunter has arrived in the forest; any àgbìgbò that does not fly warily will wind up in the hunter's bag.

The black ram crosses the river and becomes white.

It is with full voice volume that one recites divination verses for the deaf.

Coconut is no food for birds.

Tortoise meat is delicious, but there is not enough of it to make a meal.

Tortoise embarks on a journey and takes his house with it.

Tortoise has entered into a narrow-necked pot; now, getting out is a problem.

Foolishness will be the death of Iṣikań he is told that his mother has died, and he says that when he heard the news he sorely lamented the tragedy; if one's mother dies is it lamentation that is called for?

Lack-of-wisdom-in-youth is imbecility in adulthood.

It is ineptitude-in-setting-it-down that makes the wine a spoil for the eégún (i.e., that causes the wine to be spilled).

Not-knowing-how-to-wash-one's-hands is not-eating-with-elders; a person who knows how to wash his hands will eat with elders.

Neglect to say, “Here is your's” is what incites the earth's anger.

Not-going-to-the-farm, not-going-to-the-river that claps for masqueraders to dance.

It is abstention from speaking that makes the mouth smell.

A dog born a year ago does not know how to hunt.

One should rather commend the dog; the cat does not kill meat for one to eat.

A dog without ears is no good for stalking prey.

It is a dog in whose speed one has faith that one sics at a hare.

A dog that swipes salt, what will it do with it?

It is a swift dog that one sends after a Kobe antelope.

The person who eats large helpings does not care that there is a famine.

A-person-who-rises-in-the-morning-without-washing-his-face, one who sees things with yesterday's eyes.

The elephant is not among the ranks of animals one lies in ambush for.

The elephant is impossible to carry.

Tortoise says there is nothing quite like what one knows how to do; it says when it walks through a peanut farm, peanuts keep popping one by one into its mouth.

Tortoise says that since the day it learned the trick of saying yes its neck has ceased to shrink.

The tortoise struts on the farm, the senseless person says it resembles a duck.

Croaking-in-relays is the mark of frogs.

Leaving-remnants is the indicator of satiation.

It is the leavings from his table that the farmer sells.

Long-standing debt, that makes twelve hundred cowries insufficient to spend.

The task one takes on waking in the morning does not flounder.

The journey is never so pleasant that the parrot does not return to Ìwó.

The journey is never so pleasant that the traveler does not return home.

A stranger has eyes, but they do not see.

Sitting-without-leaning-the-back-against-something is like standing.

A cornered leopard poses problems.

A rag is what one uses as a carrying pad.

Àko hit the ground and cried out with its whole body.

He-who-plucks-the-African-locustbean-tree-seeds-to-sell spends death's money.

The palm-wine tapper of Ijaye: instead of looking to his own affairs says Agboroode has been destroyed by invaders.

The wielder of the incantation rattle lifts it, and you respond, “May it be so!”; do you know if he has invoked good or evil?

A washerman does enter harbor a grudge with the river.

The person with the cross-bow thinks that the monkey is not clever; the monkey is clever, but it is following its own strategy.

It is the owner of rags who makes sure that needle and thread are available.

When the spider wants to engage an enemy, it spins its web around it.

The spider has woven its web in the sauce-pan; the spoon takes a holiday.

The porter cannot carry a horse.

A wastrel “who” uses a dog to stalk fish.

It is a visitor like a giant rat to whom one offers palm-nuts.

A stranger who asks the way will not get lost.

The woodcock has but one statement: “Ó dilé” (meaning “Time to head for home”) is the cry of the touraco.

Disaster-causing legs that drag weeds into town.

The person who knew the way last year does not necessarily know the way this year.

People who-know-the-answer-yet-ask-the-question, natives of Ọ̀yọ́, if they see you carrying a water-pot they ask whether you are on your way to the farm or the stream.

A wastrel farmer that plants cocoyams.

A wastrel does not know that what is plentiful can be used up.

The wastrel puts all ten fingers into his mouth; wastrel, a-person-who-eats-with-abandon.

The-person-who-kills-and-eats-dogs claims to be afraid of chickens.

A-shiftless-person-who-knows-not-what-things-cost rides a horse on rocks.

A person who waits patiently for a long time before eating will not eat unwholesome food.

It is in furtherance of one's own fortune that one calls the name Temidire.

When a bachelor becomes old, he makes his own cooking fire.

A little bit of it is a little bit of it: the policeman's short pants.

If one has the wherewithal to live a life of ease, one does not gather firewood for sale.

One cannot be so much at ease, or so much in pain, that one cannot wake early to consult the oracle.

Natives of heaven do not sew their hems.

The Ààrẹ summons you and you consult the oracle; what if the oracle says all will be well and the Ààrẹ decrees otherwise?

One-who-saunters-in-front-of-detractors, one-who-struts-before-abusers, those who abuse one have no money at home, only their mouths.

The person who walks casually is the one who will bear a title home; the person who runs fast has no title to show for his efforts.

Wrapping-from-waist-to-the-floor is the style of the queen's wrapper; digging-down-to-the-deepest-bottom is the requirement of the dry moat, yàrà.

The old person who incurs debt, he says how much of it will he be around to pay?

He-who-hurries-after-riches is on his way to battle; He-who-has-in-abundance is off on his travels; Sooner-or-later-I-will-be-rich is back in his hut, eating roasted yams.

Burying-the-dead-without-sharing-in-the-inheritance leads one to poverty.

The imbecile said he would torch the house; he was asked not to torch the house; he said he certainly would torch the house; he was told that if he torched the house he would be thrown in it; he said, “That casts the matter in a different light.”

One-who-throws-stones-at-two-hundred-chickens will be engaged in stone throwing until nightfall.

One-who-turns-play-into-a-fight is always guilty.

Roughhousing keeps the young of the cane rat from learning wisdom.

He-who-frustrates-one, Segba's slave; he broke a gourd and went to Ọ̀yọ́town to hire a calabash stitcher; and a stitcher's fee is six pence.

What-is-put-aside is what-is-there-to-find; he who puts excrement aside will return to find flies.

One taste of wine and the belt snaps; what would happen in the event of drunkenness?

It is an imbecile who is soaked in the rain in the middle of a town.

Only an imbecile gets into a fight in defence of his town.

Difficult-to-fight as the fight of the market place; the self-conscious person will not run, and the person beating him up will not stop.

A trader in soap does not make big money.

A-person-who-does-a-favor-and-squats-by-it is like a-person-who-has-done-no-favor.

White cloth and stains are not friends.

Cloth fashioned from the bark of the ìrókò tree cannot be wrapped around one's body.

Whatever cloth one finds on the vulture belongs to it.

He-who-spies-on-others-from-behind-their-walls upsets himself; one does as one pleases in one's home.

If one's head was a pot and one gave it to an enemy to inspect, he would say it was irretrievably broken.

The wind is impossible to carry.

The palm of the hand is not good for stoking fires.

Atipo does not recognize beans, he says, “Father, I saw white leaves on the farm.”

All-day-long is no match for since-yesterday.

The-seeker-of-all-things-from-God does not yield to impatience.

He-who-alerts-one-before-he-throws-one is a past master of wrestling.

He-who-will-not-listen-to-talk, he-who-will-not-listen-to-counsel, who drinks water with the bare hand.

Previous-instruction enables a child to understand coded speech; a child does not naturally understand codes.

It is another person's divination that one does not repeat.

The hawk in the sky eyes the snail-shell slyly; what will it do with a snail.

The elephant's hide cannot be used to fashion a gángan drum.

The hide of a pig is no use for making the gbẹ̀du drum.

The skin of the mouth cannot be used to fashion a drum.

The Colobus monkey jumps to the ground; it runs for home.

The Colobus monkey is wily, but so is Ogungbẹ́ as Ogungbẹ crouches, so the monkey tiptoes.

The àyàn tree does not accept an axe.

Dry smoked fish is delicious, but what is one to eat before the fish is smoked?

The world goes forth, and we follow.

The world is not a thing to exchange threats with; it can inflict disaster on one.

The world does not deserve to be trusted; if you have a store of wisdom, keep it in you.

1. The Yoruba name for pigeon, ẹyẹlé, means 'house bird.' The domestication of the pigeon gives it a higher status than that enjoyed by other birds.  [Back to text]

2. Muslims are understandably squeamish about blood from the deflowering of a woman. Alákoto here refers to a promiscuous woman, whose child one cannot expect to be well behaved. A “female” child is well behaved, while a “male” child is not.  [Back to text]

3. The quote is short for “I almost hit the prey I was aiming at.”  [Back to text]

4. Ìlọ́rọ̀ is an Ìjèṣà township. The name translates as “Town of Riches.”  [Back to text]

5. A sleeping person cannot be sure whether he farted or did not.  [Back to text]

6. Palm-leaf midrib is the material out of which arrows are made.  [Back to text]

7. A jackal is apparently no enticing food.  [Back to text]

8. The kneeling and sacrificing described here are the final activities in funeral obsequies. Thereafter the immediate survivors of the deceased turn to practical matters, like distributing the dead man's wives among themselves for support. Hired drummers are certainly not welcome in such matters. The greeting, ojú ò fẹ́rakù, meaning, literally, “the eyes do not “have not” miss“ed” one another,” is spoken on leave taking, but it suggests that the person departing is really still present in spirit.  [Back to text]

9. The woman in question obviously has severe difficulty in reading intentions, and is unappreciative to boot.  [Back to text]

10. Note the play on the syllable, jà, which as a word means “fight,” and which forms the main part of the name Ọ̀jà, which can be taken to means “a person who fights.”  [Back to text]

11. The sound tó suggests something that requires minimal effort, especially in diction.  [Back to text]

12. The proverb features a play on the word bàrà, which is both the word for water melon and an adjective describing an evasive course.  [Back to text]

13. The saying is more a play on the syllables ba-ba (both with regard to the different tones it can bear, and taking advantage of its different meanings) than a real proverb. Bàbà means guinea-corn, and owó-o-baba (literally “guinea-corn money”) means copper coin, because guinea-corn is copper-colored.  [Back to text]

14. In Yoruba tradition the chameleon is a trusted servant of the gods. In the myth of creation it was the chameleon that was sent down to the newly formed earth to determine if it was firm enough yet for habitation.  [Back to text]

15. Ahá is a cup cut out of a small calabash, and it is used in force-feeding babies.  [Back to text]

16. Ficus Asperifolia (See Abraham, 161).  [Back to text]

17. As part of Yoruba funerary rites, a chicken is sacrificed to clear evil forces off the way of the deceased's spirit.  [Back to text]

18. It is customary for litigants in Yoruba courts to state their cases on their knees. The proverb builds on the fact that chickens have no knees, and, therefore, cannot state cases kneeling.  [Back to text]

19. Snuff sellers use chicken feathers to sweep the snuff from the grindstone.  [Back to text]

20. Ìpọ̀nrí is a god for which the appropriate sacrifice is a chicken.  [Back to text]

21. Àdó is a tiny gourd in which people keep charms, often serving as talismans.  [Back to text]

22. Before the advent of matches, people who wished to start a fire took live coals from an established fire to start their own.  [Back to text]

23. When the maize plant develops fruits the Yoruba say,“Ó yọ ọmọ” literally, “It has sprouted a child.” The expression does not, however, mean that the people believe that the plant is human. Elephant grass is almost identical to maize in size and looks, even though it bears no fruit.  [Back to text]

24. After a mother has strapped her child to her back, she prevents the child from sliding down by passing a trip of cloth, ọ̀já, under the child's buttocks and around to the mother's front, there tying it snuggly.  [Back to text]

25. The proverb derives from the fact that inú means both “mind” and “stomach.” The expression, mọ inú, means “to know (someone's) mind.” Thus, to see a person's stomach is not to know the person's mind.  [Back to text]

26. Òfé, oódẹ́ (odídẹ, odídẹrẹ́) and agánrán are all types of parrots. Because agánrán is considered favored by the gods it is usually sacrificed to them, while òfé, which is not so favored, is spared that fate.  [Back to text]

27. The size of the household, and the need to feed the many mouths, make even the pumpkin with its slightly bitter taste acceptable food.  [Back to text]

28. This is also a riddle whose solution is soap. The traditional soap is blackish in color.  [Back to text]

29. The observation suggests that the animal is so concerned about its possessions that it must carry its house along on every journey.  [Back to text]

30. The Yoruba expression, “Eégún gbà á,” meaning literally, “Eégún (the incarnated spirit of the ancestors) has appropriated it,” is a way of saying, “It is lost to people.” Compare, Kélé gbé e, and Orò-ó gbé e.  [Back to text]

31. Washing one's hands before meals is both a health requirement and a mark of social grace. It is a minimum requirement for the privilege of joining the elders at meals.  [Back to text]

32. This belief is reflected in the practice of paying homage to ayé (meaning literally “the world,” but in fact the people of the world) before embarking on any venture; the gesture, people believe, will safeguard their venture from ill will.  [Back to text]

33. The point in this as in the next proverb is that there is really not trick to what Tortoise does, only the expected; what is important is that he knows how to do it.  [Back to text]

34. The explanation is that Tortoise one was in the company of more powerful animals. Whenever those animals had heavy loads to carry they sent for Tortoise, but the animal always refused to oblige, whereupon they gave it powerful blows on the head. At times, in order to avoid such blows Tortoise would carry the loads at the expense of its weak neck. Finally it learned to say “Yes” to every request but escape when the animals were not looking. The moral is that one may agree to every request, but one does not have to follow through.  [Back to text]

35. Parrots are associated with Ìwó, a town to which they faithfully return after their seasonal migrations-a relationship that recalls that of the swallows of Capistrano.  [Back to text]

36. Àko is the dry leaf-stem of a palm-like tree, which makes a resonant clatter when it hits the ground.  [Back to text]

37. Cocoyams, Colocasia Esculentum (Araceae), also known as taro, is a variety of yams that the Yoruba eat only for want of something better. Farmers would rather plant the more favored variety of yams.  [Back to text]

38. The name Tèmídire means “My affairs have prospered.” Although the name indicates that the bearer is the fortunate one, the person who calls the name says “My . . .,” thereby invoking good fortune on him/herself.  [Back to text]

39. Colonial policemen wore notoriously short pants as part of their uniform, giving rise to the suggestion or speculation that they were made out of remnants.  [Back to text]

40. This is a reference to incumbency of daily consultation of Ifá on the priests.  [Back to text]

41. Ará ọ̀run is the designation for masqueraders who are supposed to be the incarnated spirits of dead ancestors. Their costume is cloth shrouds, usually variegated strips that they do not bother to hem.  [Back to text]

42. The proverb came into being in the days of Kurunmí the Ààrẹ (military ruler) of Ìjaye in the 1820s. He was so powerful and so feared that people believed that even oracles could not deflect him from any course he chose to follow. See also, Àgbàlagbà ti ò kí Ààrẹ . . .  [Back to text]

43. The name Ségbá (sé igbá) here means “Calabash stitcher,” literally “Stitch Calabash.”  [Back to text]

44. The reference here is obviously to the cheeks.  [Back to text]

45. The àyàn tree is used for house-posts and for carving drums, while the àyán tree is used for axe and hoe handles.  [Back to text]

46. “The world” here stands, of course, for people at large.  [Back to text]