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

O

You come upon the carcass of a buffalo in the marshes and you pull out your butchering knife; do you know where the bushcow came from?

When goods get into the hands of the retailer they become objects to haggle about.

In the mouth of a toothless person bean fritters become like bones.

You have not found corn loaf and yet you are readying the vegetable stew.

You made only one trip to Ìjebu and you returned with a calabash of charms.

You quarrel with your wife and you put on a baleful look; do you propose to use evil charm on her?

“Watch out, watch out, for here it comes!” For such a thing one would best prepare a snare.

There is a limit to the protection black stinging ants can offer palmfruits.

There was something the elder ate to line his stomach before he said what “little” is before him will suffice to sate his hunger.

There was something the elder ate to line his stomach before he said his/her suffering is enough food for him/her.

Raising an alarm or calling for help goes only so far to aid someone in a fight.

The longest respite for the pregnant woman is nine months.

You see an adult chicken at the market and you eagerly go for it; if it was of any value would the owner sell it?

You foul the air in my face and I lick my lips, you glance back and I prostrate myself before you, and yet you stretch your hand into the bush; would you tie me up?

You borrow money at home and you refuse to repay it, you arrive on the farm and open the pot containing plantains for inspection, and when you have a baby you name it Adéṣínà; if ṣí-ṣí does not leave you alone, why don't you leave it alone?

You are perched at the lofty neck of the palm-tree and you are bandying words with God.

Innumerable wives, innumerable problems.

A woman who cuts wood in the grove of Orò has cut her last.

(The vagina says its is coyness that caused it to hide below the belly, but if a penis shows up, it will open the way for it.)

The parrot says no one will prescribe it as a sacrifice in its presence; when it sees people consulting the oracle, it will go hide in its closet.

The parrot eyes the cramped house as though it would enter; the big-headed bird ágbìgbò eyes the hole in the tree as though it did not emerged from there.

A chasm is nothing to lean on.

A long foreseen war does not kill a cripple.

What one eats is what one sells; but not like Kerosene.

All things are good or pleasing only to a point.

It is never long before a thing becomes invaluable to the owner.

Nothing ever satisfies a thief.

Everything has its price, but no one knows his/her own worth; bloodshed never has a good cause.

One does not sniff at what one will eventually eat anyway.

That which one should do slowly and carefully one should not do in a hurry; sooner or later everything comes within one's reach.

Whatever one trains one's eyes upon will not get charred.

Whatever one handles gently will not be ruined; it is what one attempts with force that causes one grief.

It is that which one gives to a caretaker to look after that he looks after.

It is always something one does not expect to become a load that eventually becomes a huge task.

It is whatever one can find that one uses to fill gaps in one's roof; that does not apply to a faggot spewing flames.

That which a dog sees and barks at is nothing compared to what the sheep contemplates in silence.

Whatever the invalid craves is what spells his/her death.

Whatever a child crave will not give him/her stomach ache.

It is all of a sudden that one sees a baby in the arms of the colobus monkey.

When people are trapped in a hut by a downpour there is no sense in fighting to get a word in the discussion; after the older person has spoken, the younger person will speak.

The rain is falling, the call of the secret cult is sounding loudly outside; the threading pin that lacks a change of clothing will sleep naked.

The edge of a razor is not a thing to lick.

It is not in the watchful presence of a kite that a chicken strolls to a rock.

The muslim cannot take his mind off liquor, he has a child and named him Ìmórù máhá wá.

The muslim cannot take his mind off liquor, he has a child and named him Lèmámù. [68]

A machete can have only one edge.

It is at the same place that the youth will come up on the elder.

“It takes a great deal of fortitude to set out for Ibadan”; he ties his money around his waist.

The husband of the wife is only being unduly hasty; in time two concubines will inevitably quarrel.

“We might see each other again” who sold his dog for twenty cowries; he said if that is how things are sold, they might well see each other again.

It is in the presence of the cat that the mouse must not saunter.

Eyes that cannot stand lamplight, and that cannot stand sunlight, are not eyes that will last one until the twilight of one's life.

The eyes that will last one until night time will not start oozing matter at the dawn.

Covetousness “is” the father of envy.

He entered through the front door, but it was through a hidden shortcut that he snuck away; it consulted the Ifa oracle for the visitor who has an affair with his host's wife.

Horses sell for only one cowrie in heaven; there is no shortage of people who will go there, but who ever returns from there?

One cowrie makes a miser of one; two cowries make a spendthrift of one.

A huge morsel forces the child's eyes wide open.

Only one morsel kills an elder.

The giant bush rat that has its tail stripped by a trap knows that it is its visit to the fifth-day market that was postponed.

Large bundle, father of all wars; when preparing for war, each person prepares his bundle to take along.

It is a mature and sizeable dog that one sacrifices to Ògún.

A stone thrown in anger does not kill a bird.

The farm is where gbégbé belongs.

A missile that a bird sees will not kill the bird.

The eunuch cannot make fun of the person with gonorrhea.

It is a dead elephant one approaches with a cutlass; who would dare draw a machete to attack an elephant “that is alive”?

It is never long before a ram's tethering rope slips to its horns.

No thief steals a gbẹ̀du drum.

The dozing person does not confess; nothing deceives like sleep.

It is those who worry about their image who die in war.

The facial scarifier does not scarify an albino's face.

The cult priest raises his divining wand and the worshippers proclaim the omen is good; whether it is good or bad they do not know.

Water is the first thing one's foot encounters before it encounters the sand.

Today, my chicken has gone to roost in the wrong place; tomorrow, my chicken has gone to roost in the wrong place; some day soon the errant chicken will disappear permanently.

Today, the patriarch collapsed; tomorrow, the patriarch collapsed; one day death will throw the patriarch.

Today, the horse threw the patriach; tomorrow, the horse threw the patriarch; if the patriarch does not stop riding the horse, one day the horse will throw him to his death.

The hair scrapper is scraping your head and you are feeling your scalp with your hand; what do you expect will be left for you there?

The home owner heads for home and they say the guard is on the run; the guard is not on the run, he is merely heading home.

Today, the antelope falls into a ditch; tomorrow, the antelope falls into the ditch; is there no other animal in the forest?

Always it is the hot-tempered person that finds food for the even-tempered person.

Only the patient person will win the daughter of the Hausa man.

The owner of the yams is the one who knows where the mature yams are.

A favor has turned to mud in Awẹ́ towń the vulture did a favor and went bald.

The benediction is longer than the sermon.

The favor Agbe did in Ọ̀fà town reduced him to begging.

The sort of favor the vulture did and went bald, the sort of favor the ground hornbill did and developed a goitre, one does not do it.

The favor was excessive; it was repaid with wickedness.

The porcupine itself will procure the wood with which it will be roasted.

The head of a snake is nothing to scratch one's nose with.

Singing goes before plotting.

The song that we sang yesterday, without sleep, without respite; we do not resume singing it in the morning.

A small god is not a thing to hang from the rafters.

The young chick does not know the eagle; it is its mother that knows the kite.

Hissing goes before crying; had-one-but-known comes at the conclusion of an unfortunate matter; all the elders in the town assembled but they could find no antidote for had-we-but-known.

Food that one expects to last, one does not eat in huge handfuls.

Money does not live with a thief.

A hush-hush matter; difficult to utter as speech.

One does not count a pregnancy as a child already delivered.

64. The saying is obviously a reference to the reputation the Ìjẹ̀bú have as being versed in powerful charms.  [Back to text]

65. The proverb plays on the word ṣí, which can mean “borrow” or “open.” The name Adéṣínà means “The crown (or king) opens the way.”  [Back to text]

66. The proverb would make better sense if the two balancing phrases were reversed: what one sells is what one eats.  [Back to text]

67. Ìmórù is the Yoruba rendering of the Arabic name Oumar; the Yoruba version would be, written in full, Ì mú orù, meaning, “the taking up of a wine cup”; the máhá wá “mú ahá wá” attached at the end means “bring a wine cup.”  [Back to text]

68. Lèmámù is the Yoruba rendering of Imam; here the suggestion is that the name is Lè-máa-mu, which means “Maintain the ability to drink.”  [Back to text]

69. The road to Ìbàdàn is in this case taken to be full of peril from ambushers. The person involved must be brave indeed, for the amount of money he ties around his waist is considerable.  [Back to text]

70. The formulation is typical of several in which a leading statement describing a situation is followed by the statement, “Ó dÍfá fún” (He consulted the Ifa oracle for), and then followed by a description of the behavior that leads to the condition described at the opening.  [Back to text]

71. Gbégbé is a magical leaf used in making charms to translocate people instantly over great distances.  [Back to text]

72. The drum is too hefty, and, where would the thief play it anyway?  [Back to text]

73. Dákú means “collapse” or “faint,” but it can also be a contraction of dá ikú, meaning “throw death in a wrestling match.”  [Back to text]

74. Awẹ́ is a town near Ọ̀yọ́; the proverb obviously refers to an incident in which someone did a favor and reaped disaster. The reference to the vulture recalls the folktale in which the bird volunteered to carry a sacrifice to heaven to end a draught and got caught in the downpour resulting from his successful mission on its return.  [Back to text]

75. The porcupine's quills are here likened to kindling.  [Back to text]