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

Edot

One can only remonstrate with a wicked person to urge him or her to improve his or her town.

A little sacrifice, a little medicine, is what keeps the one who does not die alive.

It is a sacrifice on behalf of only one person that demands only one person as offering.

The teasing involves pounded yams; the corn-loaf is unwrapped, and the father of the household asks, “Did someone call me?”

The teasing involves pounded yam; even if you throw me on the ground I will eat with you.

One does not upon failing to find suitable company in this world go looking in heaven.

One may complain about a person who courts one's wife, but one does not complain about a person who courts one's daughter.

One gets bitten by a snake only once.

An overly loquacious person is someone to flee from.

The pig says since the day it learned to reply to every statement with a grunt it has not got into any trouble.

The person with complaints selects the most pressing ones to press.

One does not complain that a corpse one will have to bury stinks.

The person invited to take a look at the palace stateroom: he exclaims, “What a maze of apartments!”

The person people have gathered to watch should not himself or herself be a spectator.

Whoever people speak to should listen; whoever people instruct should accept instruction; the one who does not listen will be covered by the earth.

People killed by folly are innumerable; people killed by wisdom are few.

Whoever sees mucus in the nose of the king is the one who cleans it.

One appeals only to those capable of helping one.

Whoever deprives himself of the title of Apena will wait until he dies before tasting free meat.

It is someone wiser than one who consults the oracle for one.

Whoever chases after two rats will catch neither.

Whoever wishes to raise an alarm will have to murder his father.

Whoever offers a sacrifice to a deity must also offer a sacrifice to humans in order for the sacrifice to be efficacious.

The person on whose head a coconut is broken will not share in eating it.

One pays attention to the person with whom one is bargaining, not to the commotion of the market place.

Let the person one advises heed one; the heedless person places himself at risk.

It is the person with a thorn in his foot who limps to the person with a needle.

Only the unwise hungers while fasting.

It is a person who does not know how to carry out instructions that is forced to repeat his or her efforts.

Only a person who does not know the king trifles with the king.

It is the incorrigible fighter who has to remain on his or her knees until nightfall.

The person who will worship Ògun will keep his or her market purchases separate from those of others.

The person who will leap must first crouch.

Whoever wishes to eat steaming corn pap will play with the child of the seller.

The person who wishes to eat free corn pap will play with the seller's child.

Whoever chooses concubinage as a practice must provide herself with a sleeping mat; whoever chooses Ṣàngò's trade (one to do with metal) must purchase his magical rattle.

The person who will lend one money and will not keep pestering one for repayment: one can tell from the tone of his or her voice.

Whoever throws water ahead will step on cool earth.

Whoever looks at the dead with yesterday's eyes will be stripped naked by the spirits.

If one must eat a toad one should eat one with eggs.

Whoever will smite a secret-cult priest had better smite an important one; for a lowly one twelve hundred cowries in fines, and for an important one twelve hundred cowries.

Whoever wishes to catch a monkey must act like a monkey.

It is a person who has prior knowledge of the facts of a matter that can foil a devious person's attempts to skirt them.

If one must use a tree-climbing rope and it breaks, one must pause to repair it.

Whoever prolongs his or her defecating will be visited by a host of flies.

Whoever remembers Efuji should show no kindness to any horse.

Those who gratefully remember past favors extend compassion to the survivors of the deceased; who would rather show compassion to the child of a masquerader?

Whoever announces that the legs of the masquerader are showing is the one who goes in search of a needle.

Whoever hires a pawn for only sixpence will join the pawn in grinding pepper.

The person who remains prone has perfected the charm for wrestling.

Whoever plays around with his or her black hair will serve others with his or her white hair.

Whoever paid his or her own money for a horse will not let it be sacrificed for a good-luck charm.

The dandy who does not know how to extend greetings to people is no different from a boor.

Whoever wishes to lay a dead toad in state will have to build his own cult shrine separately.

If a person offers to lend one a dress, one should consider what he or she has on.

The person who shakes a tree stump shakes himself.

It is someone who knows the duiker intimately who can recite its praise, “spindle-legged duiker.”

The person who claps for a mad person to dance to is no different from the mad person.

The person who kills the donkey will carry a heavy burden.

Whoever sends for Orò is contracting for sleeplessness.

Whoever goes to Ibadan and does not visit Oluyọle's house merely went wood gathering.

The person who makes a sacrifice but does not follow the prescribed taboos is just like someone who throws away the money for the sacrifice.

The person who throws palm-nuts at a pig gives food to it.

Whoever because of cold weather uses the pestle as kindling to warm him/herself must not expect to eat pounded yams.

A mouth that will not stay shut, lips that will not stay closed, are what bring trouble to the cheeks.

A rabbit's mouth does not accept a leash.

The cheeks are the home of laughter.

It is fear that makes one call witches the good people.

“I agree” is not a load that causes one's neck to shrink.

The ridiculing of the person with gonorrhea does not belong with the eunuch.

The bird of the forest does not know how to fly in the grassland.

A bird is preparing for flight, and people throw stones at it.

60. The kọ̀bì is an extension of the palace used as a stateroom, or as a verandah; its approaches are necessarily mazelike, a fact that is to be taken for granted.  [Back to text]

61. Apènà is the title of the second-ranking member of the powerful Ògbóni cult. The holder leads the procession in funerary rites, and is free to enter and eat in any house.  [Back to text]

62. People brought before a tribunal usually state their case on their knees.  [Back to text]

63. The dead are believed to acquire powers beyond those possessed by the living; one would earn a dead person's displeasure, therefore, if one continued to regard him or her as though still among the living.  [Back to text]

64. Efuji is a legendary Ẹ̀gbá woman who died from being thrown by a horse. (Bascom's note.)  [Back to text]

65. It is taboo for any part of a masquerader's body to show. If one notices any part showing, one would be wise to keep the fact to oneself.  [Back to text]

66. Ìwọ̀fà (pawn) is a person whose services one acquires in return for a loan of money.  [Back to text]

67. It is one of the expectations of the hunting profession that hunters know the praises of the animals they encounter in their trade. The cited phrase comes from the hunters' praise for the duiker. See Babalọla: 88-91; Abraham: 199.  [Back to text]

68. Orò is a secret and much feared cult forbidden to women, and fearful for all.  [Back to text]

69. Olúyọ̀lé was an illustrious king of Ìbàdàn in the 1830s.  [Back to text]