Thirty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the blacksmith and his trade, the forge and its tools, iron as material, and Ògún as the power standing behind the craft, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
The alágbẹ̀dẹ is the blacksmith, and in Yorùbá thought his trade is not one craft among others. Iron is what makes farming, hunting, war, surgery and carving possible, and the smith is the man who shapes it, which places him at the origin of nearly every other occupation. Standing behind him is Ògún, the òrìṣà of iron and the forge, who is also the òrìṣà of the oath sworn on iron and of the road opened by cutting. A file on the blacksmith is therefore unavoidably also a file on Ògún, and the proverbs move between the workshop and the shrine without marking the transition.
What the corpus says about the smith is admiring and slightly wary. He is the man who can do what no one else can, whose product does not recognise his own head, who has no time for relatives, and who does not want the wars to end. Thirty-two proverbs are given here in four groups: the smith's competence and its limits, the forge and its tools, iron as material, and Ògún.
The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations . Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines; where the wording of a note is his, it is quoted. Anything marked as the compiler's is this corpus's own and carries lower confidence.
Owomoyela prints full standard orthography with tone marks and subdots, and his texts are reproduced here as printed . He attaches no informant to any proverb, holding that proverbs are communal property . Several proverbs in this file name specific quarters, towns and nineteenth-century figures, and those are noted where they occur.
Literal: Kò sí òrìṣà there-is-no òrìṣà tó lè ṣe bí Ògún that can do as Ògún lágbẹ̀dẹ at-the-smithy.
Idiomatic: "There is no òrìṣà that can do as Ògún, [god of metals and the forge], can do at the smithy."
Meaning: In that particular place, no other power is a competitor.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No one else can attempt the feats that the person referred to can accomplish"
Notes: The claim is carefully bounded by lágbẹ̀dẹ, at the smithy: it does not say Ògún is the greatest òrìṣà, it says nobody matches him at the forge. Compare entry 2, which drops the qualification and is correspondingly more contentious. Owomoyela's bracketed identification of Ògún is his.
Literal: Òrìṣà bí Ògún ò sí an-òrìṣà like Ògún does-not exist; ojú lásán ni gbogbo wọn ń yá it-is mere impudence all-of-them are-showing.
Idiomatic: "A god to rival Ògún does not exist; all the others are only being impudent."
Meaning: The others' claims to comparable standing are effrontery.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A certain person is without peer among humans, just as Ògún is without equal among the gods"
Notes: This is a partisan proverb, spoken from inside Ògún devotion rather than from a neutral position, and it should be read as what the tradition says of itself in one of its voices. Yá ojú is to be impudent or to show effrontery. The corpus contains comparable claims for other òrìṣà, and the collection does not adjudicate between them.
Literal: Àpèjúwe from-a-description lalágbẹ̀dẹ ń rọ is-what the-blacksmith forges.
Idiomatic: "The blacksmith manufactures from a description."
Meaning: He can make anything, provided you can say what you want.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Unless a person speaks his or her mind, others cannot know what the person has in it"
Notes: Rọ is the specific verb for forging metal by hammering, distinct from the general verb for making. The proverb is used far from the smithy, as a demand that someone state their requirement plainly, and its force comes from the smith's competence being taken for granted: the limiting factor is never his skill, only your description.
Literal: Pátápátá alágbẹ̀dẹ the-blacksmith's utmost ò ju ilé àrọ lọ does-not exceed the-house of-the-forge.
Idiomatic: "The most one can expect of the blacksmith is confined to the smithy."
Meaning: His authority is real and it stops at the door.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is a limit to a person's bragging"
Notes: Ilé àrọ is the forge-house, and the proverb is the exact counterweight to entries 1 to 3: the smith is unmatched in his own place and ordinary outside it. This is a general Yorùbá position about specialist authority and it recurs at entry 5.
Literal: Ẹni tó mọ ìhín one-who knows here ò mọ ọ̀hún does-not know there; alágbẹ̀dẹ ò ro oko the-blacksmith does-not till a-farm.
Idiomatic: "The person who is familiar with this place is not familiar with the other place; the blacksmith does not till a farm."
Meaning: Expertise is local and does not transfer.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No one person can know it all, or do it all"
Notes: The second clause is not decoration: it supplies the concrete case that makes the abstract first clause arguable, which is the two-part structure noted at entry 2 of owe-iwa-character. Set against entry 6, where the smith makes the hoes the farmer needs, the pair describes an actual division of labour rather than a limitation.
Literal: Ògún ò rọ ike Ògún does-not forge ivory; àgbẹ̀dẹ ò rọ bàtà the-smith does-not forge shoes; oko ò ṣòro-óro were-farming not difficult, àgbẹ̀dẹ ò pa ọkọ́ tà the-smith would-not make hoes for-sale.
Idiomatic: "Ògún [god of metals] does not fashion ivory; the blacksmith does not make shoes; were farming not a difficult pursuit, the blacksmith would not manufacture hoes for sale."
Meaning: Each trade works its own material, and one trade exists because another one is hard.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "One should appreciate people for their effort ..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: The third clause is the interesting one: it explains the smith's market by the farmer's difficulty, which makes the crafts economically interdependent rather than merely distinct. Ivory belongs to the carver, treated in owe-carver-potter-maker, and leather to another trade again.
Literal: Ẹ̀là ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ a-split bead ò lójú àtokùn bọ̀ has-no hole for-the-thread; alágbẹ̀dẹ ò rójú ará the-blacksmith has-no time for-relatives.
Idiomatic: "A split bead lacks a hole for a thread; the blacksmith has no time for relatives."
Meaning: Some occupations consume the whole person and leave nothing for the obligations everyone else observes.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Some occupations leave no room for the observance of courtesies"
Notes: The proverb is descriptive rather than condemning, which matters: Yorùbá social life runs on visiting, greeting and kin obligation, so a trade that excuses a man from them is being granted a serious exemption. Rójú, to find time or to find space, literally to find an eye, is the same ojú that gives the bead its hole in the first clause, so the two halves share a word.
Literal: Ṣẹ́kẹ́-ṣẹkẹ̀-ẹ́ dára handcuffs are-fine, ṣùgbọ́n alágbẹ̀dẹ ò rọ ọ́ fún ọmọ ẹ̀ but the-blacksmith does-not forge them for his child.
Idiomatic: "Handcuffs are pretty, but the blacksmith does not fashion them for his own child."
Meaning: He makes the instrument and intends it for other people's children.
Used when: Owomoyela: "When trouble is being distributed, one always wishes to exempt one's own people"
Notes: Ṣẹ́kẹ́-ṣẹkẹ̀ is an ideophone naming the fetter by the sound it makes. Conceding that handcuffs are dára, fine or well-made, is craftsman's language, and the proverb's cold edge comes from the smith admiring his own work while knowing exactly what it is for. Compare entry 30, where he does not want the wars to end.
Literal: "Tèmi ò ṣòro" "Mine is not urgent," tí kì í jẹ́ kọ́mọ alágbẹ̀dẹ ní idà which does-not let the-blacksmith's child own a-sword.
Idiomatic: "'Mine is not urgent' prevents the son of the blacksmith from owning a sword."
Meaning: The child of the man who makes swords has none, because his order is always the one deferred.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The person who always yields to others will never get anywhere"
Notes: The proverb names the excuse as though it were a person, the oríkì-style device discussed at entry 13 of owe-war-warrior-battlefield. It is the Yorùbá form of the observation that the specialist's household goes without, and it should be read beside entry 8: the smith exempts his child from handcuffs and forgets to arm him.
Literal: Bí alágbẹ̀dẹ-ẹ́ bá ń lu irin lójú kan if the-blacksmith keeps striking the-iron at-one place, ojú àmì ló wà níbẹ̀ it-is a-marked spot that is there.
Idiomatic: "If a blacksmith keeps hitting the iron on the same spot, it is because there is a mark or blemish there."
Meaning: Repeated attention indicates a defect, not obsession.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is a reason for every action"
Notes: The proverb is the standard Yorùbá defence of someone accused of harping on a subject: the repetition is diagnostic. It assumes the smith's competence, so that his behaviour is evidence about the iron rather than about him, and this trust in the craftsman's judgement runs through the file.
Literal: Bí yó ti rí ni yó rí as it will be so it-will-be; alágbẹ̀dẹ ò lè gbé ọmọ owú mì the-blacksmith cannot swallow his hammer.
Idiomatic: "Whatever threatens to happen will have to happen; the blacksmith cannot swallow his hammer."
Meaning: There are limits to what a man will do to avert an outcome.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Come what may, one will not do what one has no intention of doing"
Notes: Ọmọ owú is the hammer, literally the child of the anvil, the same naming pattern that makes the pestle the child of the mortar at entry 8 of owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability. The absurdity of the image is the point: it names an impossible concession in order to refuse an unreasonable demand.
Literal: Ìwàniyì Good-character-is-worth, alágbẹ̀dẹ Ifọ̀kọ̀ blacksmith of-Ifọ̀kọ̀; wọ́n fún un nírin they gave him iron, ó lájá gbé e jẹ he said a-dog ate it; ajá a máa jẹ irin bí do dogs eat iron?
Idiomatic: "Ìwàniyì [Good character brings good regard], blacksmith of Ifọ̀kọ̀ quarters [in Ibadan], was given an iron rod, and he claimed a dog ate it up; do dogs eat iron?"
Meaning: The excuse is refuted by the nature of the material.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "If you wish others to think well of you ..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: The joke is in the smith's name, which means good character is honour, set against his behaviour, and Owomoyela's bracketed gloss of the name is necessary for an English reader to see it. Ifọ̀kọ̀ is a named quarter of Ibadan, which localises this proverb more precisely than almost anything else in the corpus. The closing rhetorical question is the refutation, and it works because everyone knows what iron is.
Literal: Ẹwìrì the-bellows ní ń fẹ́ ná lágbẹ̀dẹ is-what fans the-fire at-the-smithy.
Idiomatic: "It is the bellows that fans the furnace at the smithy."
Meaning: The job requires the instrument built for it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Difficult tasks demand the proper tools"
Notes: The Yorùbá bellows is a paired skin-and-pot device worked by hand, and without it the charcoal will not reach forging heat, so the claim is technical rather than figurative. This proverb is the natural companion to owe-tools-use-misuse, and it states the positive case that entry 16 of owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability states negatively through the blunt machete.
Literal: "Fín ná fún mi" "Blow the fire for me!" "Ng ò fín ná fún ọ" "I will not blow the fire for you!" ni ń dá jà sílẹ̀ lárọ is-what starts a-fight at-the-forge.
Idiomatic: "'Blow the furnace for me!' 'I will not blow the furnace for you!' results in a fight at the forge."
Meaning: Undefined division of labour produces quarrels.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If responsibilities are not clearly specified among friends, quarrels result"
Notes: The proverb is built entirely from two quoted lines with no narration, which is a Yorùbá device that gives the hearer a scene rather than a statement, noted at entry 40 of yoruba-owe-proverbs. Working the bellows is hot, unskilled and continuous, which is exactly why it is the task nobody claims.
Literal: Ọ̀gbá gbá wọlẹ̀ the-iron-stake has-driven into-the-ground, ó ku àti yọ there-remains the-pulling-out.
Idiomatic: "The iron stake has been driven into the ground; the problem now is how to pull it out."
Meaning: The easy half is done and the hard half is what is left.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Some ventures that are easy at the start prove mightily intractable down the line"
Notes: The construction ó ku X, "X remains," is the courteous Yorùbá way of naming an unsettled account, discussed at entry 10 of owe-iwa-character. Compare entry 16, which uses the same image for something so well established it cannot be dislodged, a difference of application rather than of picture.
Literal: Ẹkàn gba rigidí wọlẹ̀ an-enormous root has-bored into-the-ground; ọ̀gbá gára wọlé the-heated iron-borer has-entered, ó ku àti yọ there-remains the-pulling-out.
Idiomatic: "An enormous root has bored into the ground; the heated iron borer has entered [the trunk], and pulling it out becomes a problem."
Meaning: Both the root and the tool sent after it are now stuck.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person, or thing, is so well established that there is no dislodging him, her, or it"
Notes: The proverb describes a real failure mode: a hot iron driven into green wood binds as the wood contracts. Read with entry 15 the pair shows the corpus using the same physical fact to say two different things, that a job is half done and that a situation is permanent.
Literal: Igbá tó fọ́ the-calabash that cracked ní ń gba kasẹ létí is-what receives staples at-the-rim; ìkòkò tó fọ́ the-pot that cracked ní ń gba okùn lọ́rùn is-what receives rope at-the-neck.
Idiomatic: "It is the broken calabash that has iron staples driven into its edges; it is the cracked pot that has its neck tied with a rope."
Meaning: The repair is the visible record of the damage.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is the person who makes trouble who is visited with repercussions"
Notes: Stapling a cracked calabash with iron is a real Yorùbá repair, and it is the file's clearest instance of ironwork serving other crafts. Owomoyela's gloss turns the proverb into a statement about deserved consequences, which is harsher than the text, since a cracked calabash has not done anything wrong. Confidence on the gloss: medium.
Literal: Abẹ́rẹ́ já dìí the-needle's eye broke, àkísà ń yọ̀ ṣẹ̀ṣẹ̀ the-rag rejoices greatly; ó ro pé òyìnbó ò gún mọ́ it thinks the-white-man makes no-more.
Idiomatic: "The needle's eye breaks, and the cloth rejoices; it thinks the white man has ceased making needles."
Meaning: The instrument that constrains you has broken and the factory has not.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Do not rejoice at your formidable adversary's temporary discomfiture"
Notes: The proverb dates itself: imported European needles displaced local production, and òyìnbó names the source, which places the saying in the trade era. It is also a proverb about the difference between an instrument and its supply, and the rag's error is a failure to understand manufacturing.
Literal: Ọlọ́gbọ́n ò tẹ ara ẹ̀ nÍfá the-wise-one does-not consult Ifá for-himself; ọ̀mọ̀ràn ò fi ara ẹ̀ joyè the-knowledgeable-one does-not install himself in-title; abẹ tó mú a-sharp razor ò lè gbẹ́ èkù ara ẹ̀ cannot carve its-own handle.
Idiomatic: "The wise person does not consult the Ifá oracle for himself; the knowledgeable person does not install himself as chief; the sharp knife does not carve its own handle."
Meaning: No capacity, however great, can be turned on itself.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The strongest and wisest of men still would need the service of other people at some time"
Notes: The third clause is the one that makes the argument physical, and it is exact: a blade cannot be applied to the handle it is mounted in. The proverb belongs equally with owe-ifa-babalawo-divination and owe-king-chief-throne, and it states in three parallel clauses what entry 17 of yoruba-owe-proverbs says about kingship alone.
Literal: Agada ò mọ orí alágbẹ̀dẹ the-sword does-not know the-blacksmith's head.
Idiomatic: "The sword cannot tell the smith's head from others."
Meaning: The maker has no standing with the thing he made.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Natural justice does not play favorites"
Notes: This proverb also appears at entry 15 of owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability, read there for what it says about weapons turning on their owners. Placed here it says something harder about the craft: the smith's mastery, established in entries 1 to 3, ends at the moment the object leaves the forge. Agada is the curved sword associated with northern cavalry traditions.
Literal: Ẹni tí a sọ òkò lù ú the-one we struck with-a-stone ní kí á sọ ìdàrọ says let-us throw iron-dross.
Idiomatic: "The person at whom one throws stones urges one to throw iron dross."
Meaning: He tells his attackers to use something heavier, and so refuses them the satisfaction.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The target of one's punishment, rather than being impressed, urges one to do one's worst"
Notes: Ìdàrọ is the slag left from smelting, a waste product of the forge and heavier than a stone, so the escalation the victim proposes is precise and locally available. This is defiance of the same kind as entry 24 of owe-stomach-appetite-inner-person, where a man shames his own boils.
Literal: Òwò àdá the-machete's trade kì í pa àdá does-not kill the-machete; òwò ọkọ́ the-hoe's trade kì í yọ ọkọ́ lẹ́nu does-not trouble the-hoe.
Idiomatic: "A machete's trade does not kill the machete; a hoe's trade does not cause problems for the hoe."
Meaning: An implement is not harmed by the work it was made for.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person's forte does not constitute a problem for him or her"
Notes: Also given at entry 34 of owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability. Both objects named are the smith's products, which is why it belongs here too: the proverb is a claim about the fitness of manufacture, and the smith is the person it credits.
Literal: Ẹ̀gún ògún ọmọ lẹ́sẹ̀ a-thorn pierced a-child in-the-foot ká yọ ọ́ lẹ́sẹ̀ ẹrú that-we should remove-it from-a-slave's foot.
Idiomatic: "When a thorn lodges in the foot of a child, one does not remove it from a slave's foot."
Meaning: The remedy has to be applied where the injury is.
Used when: Owomoyela: "However privileged one might be, there are certain things one must do oneself"
Notes: The proverb assumes a household containing both children and slaves and is therefore evidence about the domestic slavery treated in owe-slavery-freedom-bondage. Its logic is the same as entry 8 of owe-stomach-appetite-inner-person, that a burden cannot be transferred to the wrong part, and the thorn is removed with an iron implement, which is why it sits in this file.
Literal: Ẹni tó bá bọ Ògún whoever will sacrifice-to Ògún, yó ra ọjà-a tirẹ̀ lọ́tọ̀ will buy his goods separately.
Idiomatic: "The person who will worship Ògún will keep his or her market purchases separate from those of others."
Meaning: A distinct obligation requires distinct provision.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one's priorities are incompatible with those of others, one parts company with them"
Notes: Sacrificial materials must not be mixed with ordinary purchases, so the proverb records a real ritual requirement and then generalises it. It belongs with owe-sacrifice-offering-exchange and with owe-taboo-pollution-forbidden, where the logic of separation is treated at length.
Literal: Ẹní yára the-swift-one lÒgún ń gbè is-whom Ògún supports.
Idiomatic: "Ògún is on the side of the swift."
Meaning: The power backs whoever moves first.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The swift are justified in taking advantage of the tardy"
Notes: Owomoyela's gloss goes further than the text by adding justification, and the addition is worth noting: the Yorùbá says only that Ògún supports the quick. The proverb is quoted to license speed rather than to praise it, and it fits an òrìṣà associated with the cutting edge and the sudden act.
Literal: Ajá tó rí mọ́tò tó dúró a-dog that sees a-motor-vehicle and stands fi ara-a rẹ̀ bọ Ògún offers itself as-sacrifice to-Ògún.
Idiomatic: "A dog that sees a motor vehicle and stands in its way makes itself a sacrifice to Ògún."
Meaning: Standing in front of the thing that will kill you is a sacrifice you have performed on yourself.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who needlessly endangers himself or herself deserves his or her fate"
Notes: This proverb is datable and its logic is exact. The dog is the animal properly sacrificed to Ògún, as entry 27 states; Ògún's domain extends to iron and therefore to the motor vehicle, and lorry drivers are among his notable modern devotees. So the dog killed by a lorry has been offered to Ògún in the correct form by accident. The reference to motor transport places the saying in the twentieth century, making it one of the more recent texts in the collection.
Literal: Òkì pa ajá a-sizeable killed dog la fi ḿbọ Ògún is-what we use to-sacrifice-to Ògún.
Idiomatic: "It is a mature and sizable dog that one sacrifices to Ògún."
Meaning: The offering has to be of the specified kind and standard.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should use material proper for the occasion"
Notes: The dog is the characteristic offering to Ògún, and the proverb's insistence on size is about adequacy rather than extravagance. Read with entry 26 the two proverbs describe the correct sacrifice and its accidental performance. The corpus does not describe what is initiate-held in Ògún practice, because that material is not public.
Literal: Àwòrò ṣàṣà only-the-select priest ní ń jẹ ajá Ògún is-who eats Ògún's dog.
Idiomatic: "Only the most powerful of priests eats dogs sacrificed to Ògún."
Meaning: What is offered may only be consumed by someone with the standing to absorb it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Only a select few can perform formidable tasks"
Notes: Àwòrò is a priest of an òrìṣà cult. The proverb records a graded access to sacrificial food that is a real feature of practice, and it is used more widely for any task requiring qualification. Compare entry 27 of owe-ears-hearing-mouth, where the vulture may not be offered to the head at all.
Literal: Àìdé ikú death-not-having-come là ḿbọ Ògún is-when we sacrifice-to Ògún; àìdé ikú là ḿbọ òrìṣà death-not-having-come is-when we sacrifice-to the-òrìṣà; bí kú bá dé if death arrives ikú ò gbẹ́bọ death does-not accept sacrifice.
Idiomatic: "It is when death has not called that one sacrifices to Ògún; it is when death has not called that one sacrifices to gods; when death comes calling, death does not heed sacrifices."
Meaning: Sacrifice operates before the event and has no purchase after it.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "There is no medicine or sacrifice to ..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: This is a significant doctrinal statement and it is made from inside the practice rather than against it: sacrifice is preventive, and death is the one power outside the economy of exchange. It belongs with owe-death-ancestors-beyond and owe-sacrifice-offering-exchange, and it should be read alongside entry 21 of owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability, where no charm keeps the day from dawning.
Literal: Alágbẹ̀dẹ́ ò fẹ́ the-blacksmith does-not want kí ogun tán láyé that war should-end in-the-world.
Idiomatic: "The blacksmith [who makes weapons] does not wish for an end of wars on earth."
Meaning: His living depends on the thing everyone else wants stopped.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Self-interest is paramount"
Notes: The proverb is a clear-eyed statement about the arms trade and it does not moralise: it reports an interest. Read with the nineteenth-century context set out in owe-war-warrior-battlefield, where warfare was continuous and professionalised, this is an observation about a real economy rather than a general remark about greed.
Literal: Orí pọ̀ ní Mògún heads are-many at the-Ògún-grove; ìpín àìṣẹ̀ the-portion of-the-guiltless ló pọ̀ níbẹ̀ is-what is-most-numerous there.
Idiomatic: "There are heads aplenty in the grove where Ògún receives sacrifice; most numerous are those of innocent people."
Meaning: Among those who were executed there, the innocent outnumber the rest.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Even innocence does not always guarantee safety or justice"
Notes: This is the darkest proverb in the file and it is a plain criticism from within the tradition: the grove where oaths are sworn and executions carried out is said to be full of the wrongly killed. It belongs with owe-justice-judgement-court and owe-punishment-mercy-consequence, and it is useful evidence that Yorùbá political thought contained explicit doubt about the justice of its own procedures.
Literal: À ń pa ẹ̀kukù we keep killing ẹ̀kukù, ẹ̀kukù ń rúwé it sprouts leaves; à ń yan nínú aṣẹro we tread on aṣẹro, aṣẹro ń dàgbà it grows; à ń ké bò sí Ògún we cry-out against Ògún, ara Ògún ń le Ògún's body grows strong.
Idiomatic: "The more one weeds ẹ̀kukù, the more it sprouts leaves; the more one tramples aṣẹro, the more it grows; the more one rails against Ògún, the more he thrives."
Meaning: Opposition feeds him.
Used when: Owomoyela's note explains that the two plants are hardy and virtually indestructible ; in use the proverb is said of a person or power that grows under attack.
Notes: The two plants supply the evidence and Ògún supplies the conclusion, which is the corpus's habit of arguing from the visible to the unseen. The proverb closes this file appropriately: the òrìṣà of iron is characterised by resistance to being got rid of, which is also the property of the metal.
Three observations across these thirty-two proverbs.
The smith's authority is absolute inside the forge and stops at its door. Entries 1 through 3 make him and his òrìṣà unmatched, and entries 4, 5 and 7 immediately confine that mastery to the smithy and note what it costs him elsewhere: no farming, no time for relatives. The corpus admires specialisation and is precise about its price, which is the same treatment it gives the hunter and the diviner elsewhere in the craft files.
The maker has no privileged relationship with what he makes. Entry 20 says the sword cannot pick out the smith's head, entry 8 has him forging fetters he intends for other people's children, entry 9 leaves his own son unarmed, and entry 30 has him hoping the wars continue. Taken together these deny the sentimental idea that a craftsman's products belong to him in any moral sense. They leave the forge and become part of the world's ordinary supply of danger.
Ògún proverbs carry the tradition's own scepticism, not only its devotion. Entries 25 to 28 are spoken from inside the practice and assume its efficacy and its rules. Entry 29 then says sacrifice does nothing once death has arrived, and entry 31 says the grove is full of the heads of the innocent. Both are recorded by Owomoyela without qualification. Anyone using this material as evidence about Yorùbá religion should note that the criticism is internal and is preserved in the same corpus as the praise.
Twenty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the sword, the arrow and the cudgel as objects, and on the exposed or unprepared state that a weapon exists to answer, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Twenty-two Yorùbá proverbs in which òrìṣà appear as the vehicle of an argument about human affairs, showing how ordinary speech treats the gods as present, particular, and sometimes named individually.
Forty Yorùbá proverbs on war as an institution, the warrior's obligations, cowardice and boasting, and what battle exposes about a person, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Thirty-four Yorùbá proverbs on carving wood, working clay, and the calabash and pot as made objects, on what a maker can and cannot do, and on the work that outlasts the worker, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Twenty Yorùbá proverbs on ogún (inheritance) and claim to patrimony, drawn largely from Owomoyela's dedicated section "On the right to one's patrimony and to property," focused on land, farm, throne, and territorial claim rather than movable wealth.
Fifty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on character, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.