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

N

In a town that does not welcome pigeons, chickens will be very scarce there.

In a town that does not tolerate pigeons and does not tolerate chickens, what sort of bird will awaken them from sleep?

It is within Ifá that one finds Fátúmọ̀.

“Where is it?” is a great insult to the leopard.

It is when the hands have not learned wisdom that the eyes ooze matter.

It is for the benefit of deaf people that rain clouds gather; it is for the benefit of the blind that thunder rumbles.

It is on account of people that one has a right hand; one could do with only a left hand otherwise.

It is so that one would have a means of lifting it that one carves breasts [handles] on the mortar.

83. The logic is that chickens are far easier to care for than pigeons.  [Back to text]

84. Fátúmọ̀ is a proper name that means “Ifá “the Oracle” interprets.”  [Back to text]

85. The leopard is so self-important that it will take offence if anybody should ask where it was, or which it was, among other animals.  [Back to text]

86. People eat with the right hand and therefore use the left hand for dirty jobs. The left hand has consequently come to be associated with filthiness, disrespect, and so forth. One would not, for example, offer something with the left hand to a person one respects.  [Back to text]