Part 4: On perseverance, industry, resilience, self-confidence, self-reliance, resourcefulness, daring, fortitude, and invulnerability

I

Fear of the snake keeps one from stepping on the young of the snake.

Every place is hospitable and comfortable for the dove.

Every place deserves to be treated with respect and reverence.

The spot one cautions the gbégbé plant not to inhabit, there it will surely inhabit.

Wherever one orders wild spinach not to step on, there it will surely trample.

How much distance exists between the nose and the mouth? How much distance exists between Làǹlátẹ̀ and Èrúwà?

The sword never departs without returning.

Ease has nothing to do with age.

A tree does not snap in the forest and kill a person at home.

The vulture rushes at the chicken, but it cannot carry it off.

Two hundred flies will not lie in ambush for a broom.

Two hundred animals will not lie in ambush for a leopard.

Is it just morning now? The old man is striving to make two hundred heaps a day.

Is it just morning now? The old person is grooming himself/herself.

The strategy one adopts in acquiring a wife will not do with regard to money.

The cry “What shall I eat for supper?” is what kills the lazy person.

The snail will not fasten unto a tree and fail to climb it.

The snail rejects the fate of being swallowed by a snake.

Fighting knows not who is the elder; it makes a hero of the younger.

Competition and reward are the inducements for a child to work hard.

The Ìjèṣà (person) does not need matches; it is from the home that the scion of Ọwa takes burning faggots to the farm.

Careless eating does not kill the worm ahanrandi.

The termite can have no adverse effect on a wall.

The pot that wishes to eat pepper (stew) will first endure a scalded bottom.

A snare never catches a snake in the leg.

It is the messenger who does not know how to deliver a message properly that delivers it seven times over.

The okro plant is never so much taller than the harvester that he/she cannot bend it to harvest.

A house one is in a position to burn, one does not conceal the torch to set it ablaze.

A house one has the right to sleep in during the day, one does not wait for the cover of night to go sleep in it.

The chicken's boasts are unavailing before the kite.

Beads remain on the display tray and from there attract the admiration of the feckless person.

Frogs' eggs do not attract the attention of the thief.

The Ilorin person has no god;; his/her mouth is his/her god.

Firefly with its rear ablaze; the firefly has never kindled a fire, but it carries fire with it wherever it goes.

Fire does not rage and cause a wall to flee.

A fire does not rage and enter the home of the crab.

Our attempt to kill the oṣè tree only makes it fatter.

The sap of the violet tree is what the bachelor uses for soap.

The beginning of wealth is chock-full of filth.

A farmer's suffering will not last longer than a year.

A child's learning of Ifá is full of privations, but the outcome is a life of ease.

The good my hand cannot reach, I will pull down with a hooked stick.

The sugar-cane came with its sweetness from heaven.

Evil sights do not make the eyes go blind.

Four hundred buffaloes with eight hundred horns, twenty Fulbe men and forty shoes; Ògídíolú did not look back until he had chased Adalo into the bush.

Shirking work “is the” father of laziness.

An ìrókò stick with sixteen edges is nothing for an elephant to swallow, much less the melon fruit with a smooth body.

Worrying about the wolf is what will kill the dog.

Perseverance is everything; one gets tired daily.

The dregs of wealth is filthy.

Nine days wash the face, thirteen days wash the feet.

Gainful employment is tough, as tough as a supple pole.

Destitution is not something to treat with levity; misery is nothing to joke about.

Work is the antidote for destitution.

Destitution grips you and you sit scowling; who will give you the antidote?

Destitution proposes to trade its services for money; suffering proposes to pawn itself for money; wretchedness proposes to stand surety for them; which of them has anything going for it?

Destitution does not yield to tears; hunger has a claim on the shiftless.

The lazy person knows how to do only things that call for little effort; he/she never seeks out work that demands strength.

The poverty that has plagued a child for twenty years, the suffering that has been the fate of a child for thirty months, if it does not kill the child it should leave the child in peace.

Gainful-work-does-not-keep-to-the-shade; his/her child is named First-up-at-dawn.

The yam one does not stop speaking about will not get burnt; the corn-meal one speaks constantly about does not become too well-done; a chicken that is the subject of constant caution does not get snatched up by a hawk.

One's yam will not because one is only a youth refuse to grow to maturity.

The yam is in your hand, and the knife is in your hand.

The lazy person's character fills him/her with fear; the lazy person loses all and complains that the world hates him/her.

“By this time last year my father's water-yam had grown huge”; that is nothing good to reminisce about.

The malaise that afflicts the lazy person is not trifling; one-who-has-arms-that-will-not-work.

One simply makes an effort; if one does not make an effort one seems like a shiftless person; one copes with weariness daily.

Nimble hands and nimble feet make it possible for a dog to kill a rabbit; the leopard attacks its prey with lightning speed.

33. It is also used in the context of a prayer to wish that wherever the addressee goes he/she will always find ease and comfort.  [Back to text]

34. The proverb is often used in a sort of incantation or prayer to wish (or assert) that a person would never be vulnerable to his/her enemies. The verb tẹ̀ means “to step” as on a spot; it is used here in a play of words, because the name for wild spinach seems to be a reduplication of the verb.  [Back to text]

35. Làǹlátẹ̀ and Èrúwà are neighboring villages in the Ìbàdàn orbit. The proverb suggests they are as close as the mouth is to the nose, and a person sent on an errand from one to the other should not complain.  [Back to text]

36. A broom is a favorite weapon for killing flies.  [Back to text]

37. Before the white man came with his matches people knew how to make fire. This is obviously a proverb coined in Iléṣà, home of the Ìjèṣà, whose king is the Ọwá. The nídìí (ní ìdí) translates literally as “have a reason for,” but it is a play on the English “need.”  [Back to text]

38. This is used in the context of prayers.  [Back to text]

39. The annual ripening of the harvest will end the suffering.  [Back to text]

40. The formulation applies the belief that heaven is where all things were created to the sugar-cane plant.  [Back to text]

41. Ọpa, translated here as “supple pole,” can also refer to a masquerade in the Ìjẹ̀bú area; carrying it is no easy task either.  [Back to text]