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

Edot

You killed Ayejenku and killed Iyalode Aniwura; but when you killed Iyapọ you forgot about wars.

The Tortoise's guilt is not long in becoming that of his parent-in-law's.

A trap does not kill an ant that is cautious; it's one's mouth that turns out to be one's death.

It is a trap that the giant rat disdains that wrenches its testicles backwards.

The Ẹgba know the secrets of Ọba town; whoever throws a person has the ability to kill the person.

Fish swim in a school of their own kind; birds fly in a flock of their own kind.

It is after the demise of the elephant that one brandishes a cudgel; who dares draw a scimitar in the face of an elephant?

It is the back of the man with a blunt cutlass that suffers.

It is when a child sneezes only once that one wishes the child “sneeze and grow old, sneeze and live long.”

It is corn-loaf that has no leaf wrapping that the elder takes.

A leopard does not strut and be answered by strutting from a dog.

It is a pig that dies at the time of the harvesting of new yams that asks to be eaten with pounded yam.

The person involved in an affair dies at home; the spokesperson dies out in the open.

The person with a cause to cry cries and departs; if it were a person whose mind never leaves a problem he or she would never have stopped crying.

The owner of the load must first lift it before one lends one's encouragement.

Larkheeled Cuckoo, it was you that got yourself drenched in the rain.

The person for whom the journey has not been profitable should prepare to return home.

Whoever takes great care in killing an ant will see its innards.

Whoever marries a humpbacked woman will carry her child on his back until the child is weaned.

The last spouse of an old person will bury him or her.

Whoever knows what makes for a good life never climbs coconut palms.

Whoever knows how to enjoy life does not enter into a fight.

Whoever knows how to eat Akee Apple must know how to remove its deadly raphe.

Whoever whips Ọ̀yẹ̀kú will have Ogbè to answer to.

Whoever talks a lot will misspeak.

Whoever says the ground-hornbill should not eat carrion, he or she will be the first to lose his or her eyes to the bird.

Whoever pleads with one makes one lose face.

Whoever forgives one defuses the dispute.

Whoever waits in a charging elephant's path waits for death; whoever waits in a buffalo's path waits for an attack; whoever tarries before a fleet-footed masquerader hankers for a trip to heaven.

Whoever gathers palm fruits in desperation will gather unripe ones; whoever states his or her case in desperation will be adjudged at fault by the king; whoever digs a hole in desperation will dig out an iguana lizard.

A person who has made pounded yams must pay homage to the stew.

Whoever steals a poor person's chicken steals from an incessant complainer.

Whoever is in a hurry to enjoy life will go to heaven in a hurry.

Two people do not hold a grudge and refuse reconciliation.

It is the person the white man likes that the white man incarcerates.

Whoever provokes an Ijẹbu person, his or her ears will hear gunshot.

The person being lent a hand does not malinger; if Providence favors one, one is not easily disgraced.

The person to whom a bride is being brought does not strain his neck (to see her from a distance.)

A person who has been seen has no further need of hiding.

A person being eyed for barbecuing does not baste himself with oil and sit by the fire.

A person is hit with a cudgel six times and then urged to learn forbearance; what other option does he or she have?

One does not lie in ambush for an adversary one is no match for.

An adversary over whom one cannot prevail, one leaves to God's judgement.

The person who runs about in the bush courts the danger of falling into a ditch.

It is the person who enters a river who is terrified, not the river.

The person who falls into a ditch teaches others a lesson.

Whoever follows the river without turning back will come face to face with Oluwẹri. [37]

Whoever drinks forty cowries worth of wine will talk twenty cowries worth of talk.

The person who borrows twelve hundred cowries and does not pay them back blocks the path of fourteen hundred cowries.

Whoever ruins his or her father's bequest robs the dead, and becomes a person of reproach.

The person holding it by the head says it is dead; you who are holding it by the feet say it is going through death throes.

A man who goes with a woman to her house will sleep in fear.

A person who does not wish to wear rags should not engage in rough play with a dog.

A person who is not strong enough to beat one up should not adopt a threatening pose towards one.

The person who will be the sacrificial victim of orò is joining in the revelry on the eve of the sacrifice.

No one eats yams with a lost knife.

The bird's mouth is its death; the green fruit pigeon's mouth is its death; the pigeon hatches six chicks and boasts that its house is bursting at the seams.

The mouth of the louse is its death; the mouth of the nit is its death.

With its own mouth the partridge invites its own ruin; it cries, “Nothing but fat, nothing but fat!” [41]

The squirrel's mouth summons its death; the squirrel has two children, takes them to the edge of the path, and says, “My children are hale and well indeed.”

The same mouth with which the snail insults the god is the one on which it crawls to the god.

It is not from my mouth that people will learn that the king's mother is a witch.

The mud on the plains will teach a lesson to the person whose loincloth has a train sweeping the ground.

It is not out of fear that the palm-tree pleads to be allowed to stand; it is on account of tomorrow's palm-wine.

The leading horse is the one by which the followers set their pace.

Slowly, slowly is the way to eat soup that is scalding hot.

Disgrace is the reward of excess.

What sort of bird do you hope to kill that you use a cock in the birdlime charm?

Words are eggs; when they drop on the floor they shatter into pieces.

A chicken egg should not strike its head against a rock.

30. The references are to real events and real people in Ibadan history in the 1870s. The three named persons are notables, Ìyálóde “Ẹfúnsetán” Aníwúrà being the leader of the women in the community, Ayéjẹnkú a person of worth, and Ìyápọ̀ apparently a great warrior whose demise places the community at risk.  [Back to text]

31. Àgbà (elder) should not be taken literally here; the proverb plays on the syllable gbà (take from), the sense being that what-takes (construed here as a-gbà) only takes what is unprotected.  [Back to text]

32. Iṣin, Akee Apple, is a fruit whose fleshy part is eaten raw or cooked. Its raphe is deadly and must be carefully removed before the flesh is consumed. (See Abraham, 323.)  [Back to text]

33. Ogbè is the chief of the chapters comprising the Ifá divination corpus, while Ọ̀yẹ̀kú is one of the junior chapters. These chapters are regarded as spirits.  [Back to text]

34. The idea is that whatever one's justification might be and however great the beseecher's unworthiness, one is liable to appear heartless if one refuses his or her plea.  [Back to text]

35. The digging of holes in this case would normally be for the purpose of finding something edible, a crab, for instance. An iguana lizard is not only unsuitable as food, it is also considered dangerous.  [Back to text]

37. Said to be a river goddess.  [Back to text]

38. Cowries were the medium of exchange in traditional Yoruba society.  [Back to text]

39. Once a knife is lost, no one will admit that he or she used it last.  [Back to text]

40. If lice and nits did not bite, no one would know of their presence and crush them.  [Back to text]

41. The proverb is based on the call of the partridge, which is here suggested to be what attracts the attention of the hunter to where it is. Ọ̀rá is fat, but it can also mean “being eliminated.”  [Back to text]

42. Snails are used as sacrifices to some gods. The suggestion is that the reason why snails crawl mouth down is because a snail once insulted a god.  [Back to text]

43. Palm-wine is collected from the top of the palm-tree; it is a milky juice that oozes out of an incision and ferments as it collects in a gourd or bottle.  [Back to text]