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

K

Rather than die, the earth will only become bare.

When a duty comes to one's turn one does not duck it.

If we go to the river and sleep there, what will the people left at home drink?

Hiding the hoe in the loft and contriving to shirk work; the shin ate its fill and developed a stomach at its back.

To be sent on an errand is nothing compared to knowing how to carry it out.

Before the child was born, one had someone as a playmate.

Long before the arrival of masqueraders the Alágbaà had been eating corn-meal with steamed bean loaves.

The porcupine may tire, but never the quills at its rear.

The calabash of camwood is never so empty that one does not find enough in it to rub on a baby.

What was the masquerader looking at that he did not take advantage of the morning to dance?

What is there in the grave to frighten a corpse?

What will a nestling do for its mother other than becoming mature and flying away?

Long before the white man came we were wearing clothes.

When the dog dies I will not lick the stew made with it; alive I will not send it on an errand.

A lion does not face peril from a leopard.

It fears not death: the pigeon that forages among hawks.

There is no butcher who slaughters the vulture for sale.

No matter how knotty the bush might be, the elephant will find a way through it.

There is no profit in “Take this money and count it “for me”.”

There is no danger on the farm except for the sudden noise of partridges taking to the air.

There is no one to whom God has not been generous, only those who will say he has not been generous enough.

There is no place where a fool is not welcome; the world rejects only shiftless people.

There is no place an elephant's trunk cannot reach.

There is no manner of death that is inconvenient for the chicken.

There is nothing dropping from above that the earth cannot withstand.

There is no food that nourishes one's body like that one puts in one's own mouth.

“May it crash! May it crash!” The silk-cotton tree does not crash; the ìrókò tree is shamed.

The sieve says despite all that has been done to it it still manages to sift yam-flour.

Early dawn does not wake one twice; early dawn is the morning; deep darkness is night.

The labẹ́labẹ́ [46] plant did not come to the river looking for a fight; the crow did not come to the farm in search of corn gruel.

The labẹ́labẹ́ plant is not afraid of a fight.

The cattle egret borrows wonders to perform, and performs enough for itself and others.

It is directly in the eyes that one looks at the subject of the praise poem one is performing.

Place not your hopes in inheritance; the product of one's hand labor is what sustains one.

“Pass me not by, dear Redeemer” is not a song one sings on one's knees.

Palm fronds do not consult with one another before they sprout.

Palm fronds look up to no one except God.

I have become an aged hunter reduced to gathering mushrooms; I have become an old hunter good only for digging palm-weevils; I have become an aged monkey that snatches the gun from the hunter's grip.

“I have perished!” is the cry of the hare in the bush; “I have destroyed things worth a lot of money!” is the cry of the partridge in the guinea-corn field.

“I have completed the job” is what deserves praise; one does not thank people who leave a job only half done.

High potency upon high potency: the okro that lacks high potency cannot fruit; the bitter tomato that lacks high potency cannot achieve the blood-red complexion.

“I will leave you, I will leave you!” is the threat a woman flings at a man; “If you have a mind to leave, go ahead and leave!” is the retort a man throws at a woman.

In the midst of thorns, in the midst of crooked twigs, the ayò seeds remain smooth.

Despite being blown hither and tither in the gale, the fruits of the sausage tree survive to maturity.

It is out of one's stock of cotton that one takes some for makeweight.

It is on the day of festivities that the lazy person is miserable; instead of going inside his room and emerging again “in other words, fetching gifts for the revelers” he leans his arms against a tree and hisses incessantly.

Erratically, with almost imperceptible forward movement, just so Ṣàngó danced until he was at the market.

42. Alágbaà is the title of the chief of the eégún (masqueraders), who are supposed to be partial to ọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀, steamed bean-loaf.  [Back to text]

43. As the day waxes and the sun rises the masquerader's shroud would become uncomfortably hot, and strenuous exertions would become that much more of a trial.  [Back to text]

44. Both trees are huge, and there is supposedly some rivalry between them.  [Back to text]

45. The sieve's complaint would be either that it is incessantly agitated, or that it had been made full of holes.  [Back to text]

46. A sharp prickly plant found near rivers. It is presumed to be ever ready to attack.  [Back to text]

47. Ayò is a game played with the smooth hard seeds of the Heloptelea Grandis (ulmaceae) tree. See Abraham 84.  [Back to text]

48. The proverb refers to the sometimes sedate or erratic dancing of the cultists of the god Ṣàngó.  [Back to text]