Part 5: On consistency; honesty, openness, plain speaking, reliability

B

(If one catches a penis in a woman's vagina she will argue that it is only corn-cob.)

If one engages secretly in treachery, secret disasters befall one.

Like a needle, like a needle, one compiles falsehood; the day it is as big as the hoe one uses on a farm, that is the day it kills one.

If the mouth has eaten, the eyes shut down.

When the snail crawls, its shell follows.

If the wicked person states a case, it is not the wicked person that will judge it.

If you hide wickedness inside you and display a kindly disposition, God above will laugh hard at you.

If you have a great deal of medicine and you are false, it will not work; one's head works better than any herb; one's destiny is far more effective than any medicine.

If you saw it you would say you did not; your husband gave you money and your lover spends it.

However long it takes, a truthful person will not wind up in the bed made for the wicked.

When a woman wishes to engage in mischief, she wears dark clothing.

If eyes no longer see eyes, let the voice not miss the voice.

If an invalid is approaching death, he should not lie about the melon-seed loaf; stew is never bitter.

Longing for night-time, longing for night-time is the tendency of the person in dark clothing.

When an elder has exhausted all his wisdom, he turns to another wisdom.

If a youth knows two-hundred-becomes-one-hundred-and-forty, he cannot know traders-refuse-to-come-to-the-market.

When a child sees honey, he throws away bean fritters.

11. For the Yoruba, orí (literally, “head”) is the guardian of one's destiny.  [Back to text]