Part 3: On cageyness, caution, moderation, patience, and prudence

I

At the beginning of one's penury one seems like the child of most prosperous parents.

It is from the time one makes one's boasts that one should begin to mind one's charms (or juju).

The ladder always rests on a propitious spot.

One should limit the depth of one's involvement in cattle trading to the extent of one's astuteness.

Just as one cares for the sick, one should also care for oneself.

One should keep one's eyes on where one is going, not where one stumbled.

Wherever the jackal lurks, the chicken must give the place a wide berth.

The cooking pot must never harbor a grudge to the same extent that the sieve does; if the pot does so, the corn-meal trader will have nothing to sell.

Where it stops, there one designates “child.”

Anger “is the” father of hopelessness.

It is in anger that the king draws his sword; it is shame that makes him go through with the beheading.

Anger accomplishes nothing; forebearance is the father of character traits; an elder who has forebearance has everything.

Anger does not know that its owner has no legs to stand on.

A ram's stepping backwards is not indicative of cowardice.

Whether a gun has a trigger or not, who would calmly permit the gun to be pointed at him/her?

It is the incessant chattering of the Pataguenon monkey that causes people to belabor it with sticks; it is the annoying sounds of the ògbìgbì bird that causes people to throw stones at it; it is indiscriminate feeding that causes the bat to ingest food and excrete with the same mouth.

It is excessive love that induces the goat to grow a beard in sympathy with her mate.

Citing comparable things and recalling similar occurrences “in the past” makes ending a quarrel impossible.

Wariness is the elders' most efficacious juju.

“Protruding twig, do not poke me in the eye”; one must keep one's eyes on the twig from a distance.

Whatever tree engages in a contest of threats with Ṣàngó will suffer the fate of drying up.

The vulture conceals a lot of wisdom in itself.

It is when there is a surfeit of flesh on the body that one cuts some of it for sale.

That a calabash faces downwards is no antisocial sign; the calabash is only acting according to its nature.

It is only when one pleads with the Ègùn person (from Porto Novo or Àjàṣẹ́ in present-day Benin Republic)that he draws his knife.

Just as the talk turns to the partridge it shows up to raid the farm

It is the broken calabash that has iron staples driven into its edges; it is the cracked pot that has its neck tied with a rope.

The snail sets out on a journey and makes a load of its house.

A snail that forages at the base of the African breadfruit tree and never leaves the base of the African breadfruit tree will be taken home wrapped in the leaf of the African breadfruit tree.

It is only at the end that the person with a blunt cutlass realizes his error.

Empty boasts ruin a person's reputation.

Yesterday's food find so delighted the hare; the hare went to the spot of yesterday's feeding and never returned.

The brown monkey vows it will not run from a dog, only because the dog has not caught a glimpse of it.

Unrestrained dancing is what causes the masquerader's penis to become exposed.

Haste and patience end up the same.

Ikekere (type of fish) is treating a deadly thing as something to laugh about.

Carrying dust is taboo in Ifẹ́ no dog dares bark in the shadow of the leopard.

Yams cook in a pot and nobody knows, but when the yams get into the mortar alarms sound.

The newborn child who thrusts his/her hand into ashes will find out for himself/herself if it is hot.

Death stalks Dẹdẹ, and Dẹdẹ stalks death.

The squirrel is eating a banana and the squirrel is wagging its tail; the squirrel does not know that it is what is sweet that kills.

Excessive envy of others causes one to take on witching, and makes one become a wizard.

It is from the home that the Ìjèṣà person takes fire to the farm.

Fire does not enter into a stream and yet have the opportunity to live.

Fire is not something one conceals under one's clothing.

The baboon does not send an ultimatum to the leopard.

It is inside oneself that the name one will name one's child resides.

Too much good will towards others engenders suspicion and attracts insults.

The occiput does not recognize contempt; a turned back does not see a disdainful gesture.

One throws back the head first before throwing corn into the mouth.

Misfortune does not kill; it is indulgent happiness that kills.

Safe keeping is what is appropriate for a needle.

Close investigation keeps the affairs of the town in order.

Today's behavior “causes” tomorrow's problem.

One would be wiser to insult “another person's” mother; if one insults the father a fight would certainly ensue.

A famine rages and the grasshopper grows fat; the famine subsides and the grasshopper grows lean.

The wife was the one made love to, but it is the husband who got pregnant.

The bride does not speak, and she is also blind.

One single room will not do for two invalids.

Alalantori watches a hole without a visible opening, how much more a squirrel's burrow.

The thief is exposed on the ninth day; the woman who sleeps around is exposed on the seventeenth day.

A task one was not asked to do usually travels in the company of punishment.

The saliva one has spat out of one's mouth does not return to one's mouth.

Next year's pounded yam will still find some stew.

46. In a sense both the pot that cooks the corn-meal (from the starch) and the strainer used to separate the starch from the eèrí (bran) are containers. But while the pot holds the material put into it, the strainer permits it to escape. That action is here represented as a manifestation of anger. If the pot were to behave like the strainer there would be no food left.  [Back to text]

47. This is obviously a play on the words “mọ” (which indicates “limit” or “extent” and “ọmọ” (which means “child”).  [Back to text]

48. The Ègùn serve the Yoruba as favourite butts of jokes.  [Back to text]

49. Dẹ is “stalk,” and the proverb plays on that word, redoubling as the name of the subject.  [Back to text]

50. People who had been caught stealing were exposed to the public every nine days, and women who had been caught in illicit relationships were exposed every seventeenth day.  [Back to text]