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

B

“Help me catch a chicken” does not scrape his knees.

The man of the house died and they put an invalid in his place; weeping climbs upon weeping.

“The patriarch of the compound called me but I did not respond” dies of anxiety.

Counsel with your inside, do not counsel with people; “good” people are no longer to be found; the world has turned false.

If one takes a bite of a cricket, one should put a little in one's pocket.

If one insults a king and denies doing so, the king leaves one in peace.

If one insults the king, one denies doing so; if one insults the chief minister, one denies doing so.

If one keeps silent, what is in one's body keeps silent with one.

If one drags a sheep to present to a masquerader, one lets go of its leash.

If one loves one's friend beyond reason, when that friend bumps his/her head a fight results.

If one scratches an itch as long as the sensation is pleasant, one will scratch down to the bone.

If one approaches a dried-up tree as one would a green one, it is liable to crash on one and crush one to death.

If one takes three years to prepare for one's madness, when will one start biting people?

If one spends three years flapping one's arms, how many years will one take to fly?

If one gives a girl away in marriage with one hand, ten hands will not suffice to take her back.

If one chases a person and does not catch up with the person, one should moderate one's hatred of the person.

If one attempts to cut a tree, one will cut people.

If one wishes to clean one's plate of dry bean grits, one does not keep scraping the remnants from one's fingers onto the plate.

Even though we are quarrelling, should we wish each other dead?

If one expects a loss, one should make a gift of what one has.

If one talks of the dog, one should also talk of the pot one will use to cook it.

When one sees women one boasts of war; when one sees women one talks of battle; when one gets to battle, one lies low.

If one has been told that a bird will eat one's eyes, when one sees the tiniest of birds, one takes to one's heels.

If one throws a stone into the market place, it hits someone from one's household.

Whatever one says to a talebearer one says to a basket that has lost its bottom.

If one exposes one's anus to view, people will fill it with hot water.

If one speaks it sounds as though one was speaking in proverbs; if one does not speak it seems as though one was picking a fight.

If one's stomach is not immune to nausea, one does not eat roaches.

If one is unable (or unwilling) to die, one accepts consolation.

If one is no match for the husband, one does not hit the wife.

If one has no money for lamp oil, one eats in the daytime, and one sweeps the house and goes to sleep in good time.

If one does not have twelve hundred cowries in savings, one does not purchase yams worth fourteen hundred cowries.

If one cannot find the official gate keeper one dares not enter the king's palace.

If one cannot find a vulture, one sacrifices a hornbill.

If one has done nothing for Earth, one does not swear by it.

If one has no money to buy a slave, one gives one's chicken a name.

How it will be accomplished will reveal itself.

If a chicken always keeps to the ground, it becomes flightless.

If an elephant is not sure of its anus, it does not swallow whole coconuts.

When a witch has drunk oil, she calms down.

If a powerful person mistreats you, burst into laughter.

When the chameleon wishes to go by, the black ants refrain from stinging.

When night falls, the leper walks and struts.

If the kite is displaying anger, the best response for the trader is patience.

It is according to the flight pattern of the standardwinged nightjar [17] that one throws stones at it.

As the initiate of mysteries drums, so the initiate of mysteries dances.

If the bàtá drum sounds too loudly, it tears.

If a worm makes a heap, it is itself that it will plant in it.

It is when the snail wants to invite death that it lays eggs.

If fish sleeps, fish will devour fish.

If the owner of the backyard does not sleep, one stays in the backyard for a long time, sooner or later the owner of the house will fall asleep.

If the person involved in a case acknowledges his or her guilt, he or she does not last long on his or her knees.

If anyone defies the Orò mystery, it does away with him or her.

If a person does what no one has ever done before, his eyes will see what no one has ever seen before.

If the wolf does not have faith in its anus it does not swallow bones.

As though he were stumbling on treasures, thus a youth brings trouble into the household.

(When one is unobserved, one does as one pleases.)

If a drum makes too much noise, it breaks.

If one is on fire and one's child is on fire, one douses one's fire first.

If one's yam is white, one eats it furtively.

If the owner of the job is absent the job does not progress; if the person who engaged the help is absent no help is given; when the back of the person who engaged help is turned, one lifts one's hands from the job.

If you wish to buy okro, buy okro; if you wish to receive a gratuity do so; a child does not come to a tiger hunt and catch rats.

If a woman enters the ritual grove of the orò cult no one will ever see her return.

If one does not trust one's cudgel, one does not try it on one's own head.

If the monkey is not certain about a tree, it does not climb it.

If the face of the person who farted is baleful, one does not make a big fuss about the fart.

When a cat kills a mouse, it uses the tail as a sentry.

When a cat begins to kill guinea pigs, one knows it is ready to go.

If the butt of a proverb recognizes it but does not acknowledge it, he is afraid of a fight.

As today is, tomorrow will not be, hence the diviner consults the oracle every five days.

If the owner of the yams cuts them for porridge, the person who gleans what sticks to the peelings is at a loss for what to do.

If goodness is excessive, it becomes evil.

If a proverb does not apply to a situation, one does not use it.

If one's daughter is beautiful, one may acknowledge that she is beautiful, but one may not make her one's wife.

If a child strikes his head against the mahogany bean tree the tree will kill him; if he strikes his head against the ìrókò tree, the tree will accost him on his way.

If a child has not seen the leavings of a lion in the forest he prays that he might be killed by an animal like the leopard.

When a trail comes to a rock, it ends.

If a matter is dark, one peeps at it under cover.

If a problem is not over, one stays in place; it is the over-eager person who comes to grief.

If wine fills the stomach it intoxicates a child; if there is too much sun it makes a child go insane; if one has too much authority one goes mad; spinach grew in too great abundance by the stream and became ordinary weed.

If one has not laid one's hand on the hilt of the sword, one does not ask what death killed one's father.

One asks a river before one enters it.

Excessive devotion to fashion leads one to pawn oneself.

The dandy is the enemy of the town; it is the finicky person that the king kills.

15. Wọlé-wọ̀de, literally “enter-come out,” is another designation for the ẹmẹsẹ̀ or ẹmẹ̀wà, the king's chief messenger.  [Back to text]

16. Ọlọ́jà, which literally means “the owner of the merchandise” or “the owner of the market,” is also used as a designation for a king, inasmuch as he owns the main market, which is usually sited outside the palace.  [Back to text]

17. A bird characterized by erratic flight.  [Back to text]

18. Snails supposedly die after laying eggs.  [Back to text]

19. Women are forbidden from having anything to do with the Orò cult and ritual.  [Back to text]

20. Guinea pigs are kept as pets.  [Back to text]

21. Olówe (Owner of the proverb) in this instance means the person to whom the proverb is applied.  [Back to text]

22. Yams cut for porridge leave no remnants sticking to the peels.  [Back to text]

23. The trees are reputed to be homes for fearful spirits.  [Back to text]

24. The idea is that the dandy knows his place, even if he incites envy, whereas the finicky person who is afraid of death refuses to show respect for the king in the usual way-prostrating himself before the king-and loses his head therefore.  [Back to text]