Òwe on Death, Mortality and the Ancestors

Ikú is death, and Yorùbá treats it as an agent rather than an event: the ordinary way to report a death is ikú pa á, death killed him, with death as the subject of the verb. This file collects fifty-one proverbs in which death, burial, mourning, or the egúngún masquerade of the ancestors does the work of the argument. Most of them are not about mortality as such. They are proverbs about caution, restraint, kinship and reputation that reach for a corpse, a grave, or a masked ancestor because those images settle a point that nothing milder would settle.

That distinction matters for how this file sits beside owe-death-ancestors-beyond, which reproduces Owomoyela's dedicated section on mortality in full. That file collects the proverbs whose subject is death itself: its certainty, its impartiality, its irreversibility. This file collects the far larger scattered body of proverbs in which death is the instrument rather than the topic, gathered from five other thematic parts of the same collection. No proverb appears in both.

The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations 1 unless another source is named. Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines, and 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.

A note on sources and diacritics

The Yorùbá texts from Owomoyela are reproduced exactly as printed in the digitised Good Person collection, in standard orthography with full tone marking and subdots 1. That collection encodes its diacritics character by character rather than as plain text, and the readings here were recovered from that encoding directly, so Owomoyela's elisions and compressed forms, as in A-ká-ìgbá-tà-á at entry 3 and bẹ́ṣín at entry 31, appear as printed rather than normalised.

Four texts in this file come from sources that print Yorùbá without tone marks: entries 8, 9, 24 and 48, together with the dirge in the closing section, from Osoba's socio-pragmatic study 2 and Ademiluka's article on funeral mourning 3. They are reproduced untoned and flagged in place, because supplying diacritics to an untoned text supplies a reading the source did not give. Neither Osoba nor Ademiluka names a separate translator for the texts they print, so the English in those entries is attributed to the article author.

A note on the ancestors

Twelve proverbs here turn on egúngún, the masked figure understood in Yorùbá practice as an ancestor returned in visible form. The proverbs assume that institution rather than explaining it, and this file follows them: it documents what the proverbs presuppose and does not argue for or against the tradition's account of itself. Three things are worth separating. What the tradition says of itself is that the masker is the returning dead, which is why the greeting at entry 12 is Baba kú àbọ̀, welcome back, father. What the proverbs document as social fact is a masquerade with a cult head, the Alágbaà, an annual festival with a fixed end, a secret grove, and strict rules about what onlookers may say they have seen. What historians and ethnographers document is treated in 06-orisa/24-ancestors-and-the-dead.md and is not repeated here. The proverbs themselves are frequently irreverent about the masker, as entries 13, 14 and 21 show, and that irreverence is part of the record.

Owomoyela's own caution applies throughout. He attaches no informant, date or locality to any proverb, on the grounds that proverbs are communal property 4.

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Death as the measure of a risk

1. Kò sí ikú tí kò rọ adìẹ lọ́rùn.

Literal: Kò sí ikú there-is-no death tí kò rọ adìẹ that does-not suit the-chicken lọ́rùn at-the-neck.

Idiomatic: "There is no manner of death that is inconvenient for the chicken." 1

Meaning: For a creature certain to be killed, the method is not a live question.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One is game for whatever propositions might be made to one" 1

Notes: Lọ́rùn, at the neck, names the actual site of a chicken's death and makes the proverb concrete rather than abstract. The Yorùbá is grimmer than Owomoyela's usage note, which turns a fatalistic observation into a statement of willingness. Both readings are available because the proverb never says whether the chicken's indifference is courage or the absence of any alternative, and that ambiguity is the point.

2. Kàkà kí ilẹ̀ kú, ṣíṣá ni yó ṣàá.

Literal: Kàkà kí ilẹ̀ kú rather-than the-earth dies, ṣíṣá ni yó ṣàá becoming-bare is-what it-will-become.

Idiomatic: "Rather than die, the earth will only become bare." 1

Meaning: The thing attacked will be stripped, not destroyed.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One may be inconvenienced by one's enemies' machinations, but one will not be destroyed by them" 1

Notes: The kàkà kí construction, rather-than, sets up a false alternative and then refuses the larger term, which is a standard Yorùbá way of downgrading a threat without denying it. Choosing the earth as the subject makes the claim close to unarguable, since the ground is the one thing in the landscape that cannot be removed, only uncovered. Compare entries 4 and 35, which use the same frame to reach the opposite conclusion.

3. A-ká-ìgbá-tà-á náwó ikú.

Literal: A-ká-ìgbá-tà-á one-who-plucks-locust-bean-pods-to-sell náwó ikú spends death's-money.

Idiomatic: "He-who-plucks-the-African-locustbean-tree-seeds-to-sell spends death's money." 1

Meaning: Money earned in a lethal trade is death's money, drawn against the earner's life.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever engages in a dangerous venture more than earns his/her pay" 1

Notes: The locust bean tree is tall and the pods grow at the crown, so the harvester climbs beyond safe reach and the danger named is a real occupational one rather than a figure. Náwó ikú, to spend death's money, makes death the creditor and the wages an advance, which is a harder claim than Owomoyela's note allows: it says not that the work is well paid but that the payment is already owed elsewhere. Owomoyela prints the proverb twice, under perspicaciousness and under perseverance, with identical wording and note 1.

4. Ẹní dúró de erín dúró dekú; ẹní dúró dẹfọ̀n-ọ́n dúró dèjà; ẹní dúró de eégún alágangan, ọ̀run ló fẹ́-ẹ́ lọ.

Literal: Ẹní dúró de erín whoever stands waiting-for an-elephant dúró dekú waits for-death; ẹní dúró dẹfọ̀n-ọ́n whoever waits for-a-buffalo dúró dèjà waits for-a-fight; ẹní dúró de eégún alágangan whoever waits for a-fleet-footed masquerader, ọ̀run ló fẹ́-ẹ́ lọ it-is-heaven he wants to-go-to.

Idiomatic: "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." 1

Meaning: Standing your ground in front of certain things is a decision to die.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever sees trouble approaching and does not flee courts disaster" 1

Notes: The three clauses escalate by making the danger progressively less obviously lethal and the consequence progressively more so, which inverts what the listener expects. Putting the masquerader third places an ancestral figure in the same series as an elephant and a buffalo, and the proverb is unembarrassed about it. Ọ̀run here is the destination, the beyond, and lọ sọ́run, to go to heaven, is the standard indirect way of saying to die.

5. Bí èṣù ikú bá ńṣe ìgbín nìgbín ńyẹ́yin.

Literal: Bí èṣù ikú when the-imp-of-death bá ńṣe ìgbín afflicts a-snail nìgbín ńyẹ́yin is-when the-snail lays-eggs.

Idiomatic: "It is when the snail wants to invite death that it lays eggs." 1

Meaning: The act that exposes a creature is the one it performs just before it is taken.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who knows an action will be disastrous but carries it out anyway deserves what he gets" 1

Notes: Èṣù ikú is death's imp or agent, and the phrase makes death an employer with staff rather than a single force. The observation behind it is that a snail laying eggs is stationary and visible, so the reproductive act is also the moment of maximum exposure. Owomoyela's note supplies a moral of culpability that the Yorùbá does not state, since the snail is not described as knowing anything; the text observes a fatal timing and the note converts it into a judgement.

6. Ẹlẹ́dẹ̀ tó kú légbodò ló ní ká fòun jẹyán.

Literal: Ẹlẹ́dẹ̀ tó kú légbodò the-pig that dies at-the-new-yam-season ló ní is-who says ká fòun jẹyán we-should eat-pounded-yam with-it.

Idiomatic: "It is a pig that dies at the time of the harvesting of new yams that asks to be eaten with pounded yam." 1

Meaning: The victim chose the season of its own consumption.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one puts oneself in harm's way one deserves what one gets" 1

Notes: Ẹgbodò is the new yam season, when pounded yam is abundant and meat to accompany it is wanted, so a pig dying then is dying into demand. The joke is grammatical: the pig is made the subject of ló ní, is-who says, so the animal is credited with proposing the menu at its own funeral. Yorùbá proverbs assign agency to victims fairly often, and it is usually, as here, a way of withdrawing sympathy.

7. Ẹní bá pé kí àkàlà má jòkú, ojú-u rẹ̀ lẹyẹ ńkọ́kọ́ yọ jẹ.

Literal: Ẹní bá pé whoever says kí àkàlà má jòkú that-the-ground-hornbill should-not eat-carrion, ojú-u rẹ̀ his-eyes lẹyẹ ńkọ́kọ́ yọ jẹ are-what the-bird will-first pluck-out and-eat.

Idiomatic: "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." 1

Meaning: Forbid a creature its nature and you become the first thing it takes.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever tries to prevent the inevitable will be trampled in the process of its occurring" 1

Notes: The scavenging bird eating the eyes first is an accurate observation of carrion feeding, which is what gives the threat its precision: the objector loses exactly the organ he used to observe the offence. Jòkú, to eat a corpse, is a single compact verb-object in Yorùbá and English needs three words for it. The proverb is a warning against moralising at a process that will continue without your consent.

8. Iku Ogun ni ipa akikanju, Iku odo ni ipa Omuwe. (printed without tone marks)

Literal: Iku Ogun the-death of-war ni ipa akikanju is-what kills the-brave-one, Iku odo the-death of-the-river ni ipa Omuwe is-what kills the-swimmer.

Idiomatic: "A brave man perishes in battle at last, so too, a skilful swimmer often ends his life by drowning in water." 2

Meaning: A person is killed by the element in which he is expert.

Used when: Osoba lists it among proverbs of education and belief rather than giving a situational note 2.

Notes: Osoba prints this without diacritics and it is reproduced in that state. The proverb assigns each death a genitive owner, iku Ogun and iku odo, the death belonging to war and the death belonging to the river, which is a Yorùbá construction that treats deaths as a classified set rather than as one undifferentiated end. Owomoyela's collection uses the same construction at entry 39 of this file. Osoba's English is his own rendering and he names no separate translator.

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The masquerade and the returning dead

9. Bi eegun ban le ni k'ama r'oju, boti nre ara aye be lo nre ara orun. (printed without tone marks)

Literal: Bi eegun ban le ni if a-masquerader chases one k'ama r'oju let-one persevere, boti nre ara aye as it tires the-earth-dweller be lo nre ara orun so it tires the-heaven-dweller.

Idiomatic: "If the masquerade chases one, one should not give up because as human beings can get tied, so an the heavenly beings." 2 The sentence is garbled in the printed source and is reproduced exactly as printed, including "tied" for tired and the incomplete final clause.

Meaning: The pursuer from the other world tires on the same terms as the pursued.

Used when: Osoba groups it under sympathy and advice, among proverbs said to console someone facing hardship 2.

Notes: Osoba prints this untoned and it is reproduced in that state, including the printing errors, which are not corrected here because correcting a source silently is not permitted by this corpus's translation rule. Ará ayé and ará ọ̀run, the people of the world and the people of the beyond, are the standard paired terms for the living and the dead. The claim is theologically striking and the proverb states it flatly: the ancestor in the mask is subject to fatigue, so endurance is a viable strategy against him. Owomoyela prints a fuller and fully toned version of the same proverb, which is used in owe-work-farming-diligence and is therefore not reproduced here.

10. Eégún ju eégún; òrìṣá ju òrìṣà; Pààká lé oníṣàngó wọ̀gbẹ́.

Literal: Eégún ju eégún masquerader surpasses masquerader; òrìṣá ju òrìṣà god surpasses god; Pààká lé oníṣàngó wọ̀gbẹ́ Pààká chases the-Ṣàngó-worshipper into-the-bush.

Idiomatic: "Some masqueraders are greater than others; some gods are greater than others; the masquerader Pààká chases the Ṣàngó worshipper into the bush." 1

Meaning: Rank exists inside the category of sacred beings, and the ranking is demonstrated in public.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Every company has its hierarchy; each person should know his or her place" 1

Notes: Pààká is a named type of egúngún, and Ṣàngó is a major òrìṣà, so the third clause is not a general illustration but a specific claim about which cult gives way to which in the street. The proverb takes for granted that these hierarchies are settled by demonstration rather than doctrine. Its ordinary use is entirely secular, about precedence among people, and no speaker using it is making a theological argument.

11. Eégún ò na obìnrin lágọ̀; obìnrín tú kíjìpá ìdí-i rẹ̀, ó fi na eégún.

Literal: Eégún ò na obìnrin lágọ̀ the-masquerader did-not strike the-woman with-his-shroud; obìnrín tú kíjìpá ìdí-i rẹ̀ the-woman unwraps the-home-woven-cloth at-her-waist, ó fi na eégún and-with-it strikes the-masquerader.

Idiomatic: "The masquerader did not hit a woman with his shroud, but the woman unwraps her home-woven wrapper and hits the masquerader with it." 1

Meaning: Passed over by trouble, she went and started it.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A person is fortunate to have been overlooked by trouble, but he/she goes to deliberately provoke it" 1

Notes: Kíjìpá is the coarse locally woven cloth, the ordinary wrapper rather than a fine one, and the detail matters because the woman is answering a ritual costume with everyday clothing. Striking an egúngún is a serious transgression, so the proverb's comedy sits on top of a real offence. It belongs with the caution proverbs and is used of anyone who converts a near miss into a direct hit.

12. Eégún pẹ́ lóde, ó fètè òkè dáhùn; wọ́n ní, "Baba kú àbọ̀," ó ní, "Hì ìì."

Literal: Eégún pẹ́ lóde the-masquerader stayed-long outdoors, ó fètè òkè dáhùn he answers with-the-upper-lip-only; wọ́n ní they say, "Baba kú àbọ̀" "Father, greetings-on-your-return," ó ní he says, "Hì ìì."

Idiomatic: "The masquerader stayed too long on parade and is reduced to speaking with his upper lip. They said, 'Welcome, father,' and he responded, 'He-e-e-e.'" 1

Meaning: The figure who has overstayed can no longer answer properly, and everyone hears it.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who has disgraced himself speaks softly" 1

Notes: Baba kú àbọ̀ is the formal greeting to the masker as returning ancestor, so the crowd is performing the full ritual address and receiving a grunt. The egúngún voice is conventionally disguised, which is why exhaustion shows in it first. The proverb is a precise piece of observation, that a performer past his limit is exposed by his voice rather than his movement, and it is applied to anyone whose authority has outlasted their capacity to sustain it.

13. Eégún wọlé, ó ní òun ò rí Ejonto; Ejontó ní, "Àkísà ni, àbí kíní wọlé?"

Literal: Eégún wọlé the-masquerader enters-the-house, ó ní òun ò rí Ejonto he says he did-not see Ejonto; Ejontó ní Ejonto says, "Àkísà ni, àbí kíní wọlé?" "Is-it-a-rag, or what-thing entered?"

Idiomatic: "The masquerader enters a house and claims he did not see Ejonto; Ejonto asked, 'Is that a rag that entered the house, or what?'" 1

Meaning: Snub someone and they will name what you actually are.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who disregards one earns one's disregard" 1

Notes: Àkísà, a rag, is the insult, and it is exact rather than crude: the egúngún costume is assembled from strips of cloth, so calling him a rag describes him accurately while stripping the costume of its status. The proverb is a model of Yorùbá insult technique, which prefers a true description delivered at the wrong altitude to an invention. The masker's dignity depends on not being seen as fabric, and Ejonto removes it with a question rather than a claim.

14. Ẹ̀gbẹ̀rì ò mọ̀ pé arẹwà kì í gbé ẹ̀kú; gbogbo ehín kin-kìn-kin lábẹ́ aṣọ.

Literal: Ẹ̀gbẹ̀rì ò mọ̀ pé the-uninitiated does-not know that arẹwà kì í gbé ẹ̀kú a-handsome-person does-not wear the-masquerade-shroud; gbogbo ehín kin-kìn-kin all the-gleaming-white teeth lábẹ́ aṣọ are-beneath the-cloth.

Idiomatic: "The novice does not know that a good-looking person does not wear a masquerade; all his perfectly white teeth are concealed beneath the cloth." 1

Meaning: Whatever is worth showing is covered up by the costume.

Used when: Owomoyela: "It is a foolish person who conceals his or her endowments" 1

Notes: Ẹ̀gbẹ̀rì is the non-initiate, the person outside the cult, and the proverb is explicit that this is knowledge the uninitiated lack, which is a rare instance of a proverb marking its own content as restricted. Kin-kìn-kin is an ideophone for a bright even white. The argument is that the mask wastes whoever wears it, and it is used to tell someone that their position is hiding their ability.

15. Ọ̀pọ̀lọpọ̀ òjò ní ńlé eégún wọlé kẹri-kẹri.

Literal: Ọ̀pọ̀lọpọ̀ òjò a-great-deal-of rain ní ńlé eégún wọlé is-what drives the-masquerader indoors kẹri-kẹri for-good.

Idiomatic: "It is a deluge that chases the eégún masquerader indoors indefinitely." 1

Meaning: Only overwhelming force removes the figure who cannot ordinarily be removed.

Used when: Owomoyela: "When problems become overwhelming one has no choice but to succumb to them" 1

Notes: The masker is otherwise the one who chases and is not chased, which entries 4, 9 and 22 all assume, so making rain the thing that defeats him is a calibrated claim about scale. Kẹri-kẹri is an ideophone for completeness or finality. The costume is cloth and rain ruins it, so the mechanism is practical rather than symbolic, which is characteristic of how these proverbs handle sacred figures.

16. Bí eégún ó bàá wọlẹ̀, orò ni ńṣe.

Literal: Bí eégún ó bàá wọlẹ̀ if a-masquerader is-about-to enter-the-ground, orò ni ńṣe it-is "orò" that-it-cries.

Idiomatic: "If a masquerader wishes to disappear into the ground, it cries 'Orò!'" 1

Meaning: The extraordinary act is announced before it is performed.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A person intending to do something extraordinary should give prior warning" 1

Notes: Wọlẹ̀, to enter the ground, is the vanishing that certain masquerades are held to perform, and orò is the cry associated with it. The proverb's interest is procedural rather than doctrinal: it does not argue about whether the masker vanishes, it reports that there is a required announcement first. Used of anyone about to act drastically without notice.

17. Ẹni tó bá sọ pé ẹsẹ̀ eégún ńhàn ní ńwá abẹ́rẹ́ lọ.

Literal: Ẹni tó bá sọ pé whoever says that ẹsẹ̀ eégún ńhàn the-masquerader's legs are-showing ní ńwá abẹ́rẹ́ lọ is-who goes looking-for a-needle.

Idiomatic: "Whoever announces that the legs of the masquerader are showing is the one who goes in search of a needle." 1

Meaning: Report the flaw and the repair becomes your job.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Some sights the eyes must not acknowledge seeing" 1

Notes: The exposed leg is the failure of the illusion that the masker is not a man, so naming it aloud is a breach of the rule the whole institution runs on. The penalty is beautifully mundane: not punishment but a sewing errand. Owomoyela's note states the underlying convention plainly, that certain things seen must not be said, which governs a great deal of Yorùbá public behaviour beyond the masquerade.

18. Ọ̀kánjúwà alágbaà ní ńgarùn wo eégún.

Literal: Ọ̀kánjúwà alágbaà the-greedy Alágbaà ní ńgarùn wo eégún is-who stretches-the-neck to-watch a-masquerader.

Idiomatic: "It is an insatiable chief of the masqueraders cult that stands on tiptoes to watch a performing masquerader." 1

Meaning: The man who owns the thing is craning to see it with the crowd.

Used when: Owomoyela: "It is unseemly to be too greedy, especially when everything is at one's disposal anyway" 1

Notes: The Alágbaà is the head of the egúngún cult, so he has access to the grove, the costume and the performer, and craning in the street marks him as having no more standing than a spectator. Garùn, to stretch the neck, is the physical tell. The proverb is about the loss of dignity that comes from wanting publicly what you already privately control.

19. Ẹlẹ́mùn-ún ò mú eégún.

Literal: Ẹlẹ́mùn-ún the-apprehender ò mú eégún does-not seize a-masquerader.

Idiomatic: "An apprehender does not apprehend a masquerader." 1

Meaning: Some figures are outside the reach of whoever ordinarily enforces.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Certain people are beyond anyone's control" 1

Notes: Four words, and it states a jurisdictional fact: the officer whose function is seizing has no authority over the masker, because the masker is not, for these purposes, a person. The proverb is used of anyone protected by their position from the ordinary process, and it is descriptive rather than approving. Compare entry 21, where the same immunity is reported with open irreverence.

20. Kí eégún tó dé lAlágbaà-á ti ńfọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀ jẹ̀kọ.

Literal: Kí eégún tó dé before the-masquerader arrived lAlágbaà-á ti ńfọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀ jẹ̀kọ the-Alágbaà was-already eating corn-loaf with-steamed-bean-loaf.

Idiomatic: "Long before the arrival of masqueraders the Alágbaà had been eating corn-meal with steamed bean loaves." 1

Meaning: The office and its meals predate the arrival of whoever thinks he is the occasion.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One got on very well before the other person happened on the scene" 1

Notes: Ẹ̀kọ and ọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀ are ordinary everyday foods, not festival fare, which is precisely the argument: the cult head was eating normally long before the spectacle existed. The proverb is the standard Yorùbá answer to a newcomer claiming to have made a place what it is. It assumes the audience knows the Alágbaà outranks the masker he dresses.

21. Ohun títán lọdún eégún.

Literal: Ohun títán a-thing-that-ends lọdún eégún is-the-annual-masquerade-festival.

Idiomatic: "The annual egúngún festival is not endless." 1

Meaning: Even the great recurring event has a last day.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Every condition ends some time" 1

Notes: Owomoyela records a variant, Ohun títán leégún ọdún, which he renders "The outing of the annual egúngún is something that has an end," and the two orderings carry the same claim 1. The festival is the largest and longest public event in the year, which is what makes it the right example: if that ends, nothing does not. The proverb is used as consolation during a hardship rather than as a remark about ritual.

22. Ẹni tó bá fi ojù àná wòkú, ẹbọra a bọ́ ọ láṣọ.

Literal: Ẹni tó bá fi ojù àná wòkú whoever looks-at-the-dead with-yesterday's-eyes, ẹbọra a bọ́ ọ láṣọ the-spirit will strip him of-clothing.

Idiomatic: "Whoever looks at the dead with yesterday's eyes will be stripped naked by the spirits." 1

Meaning: Treat the transformed thing as the thing it used to be and it will humiliate you.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One behaves towards people according to the heights they have attained, not according to the way they used to be" 1

Notes: Ẹbọra is a spirit or preternatural power, and the penalty, public stripping, is the exact reversal of the masking that made the dead into an egúngún in the first place. The proverb is about status recognition and its ordinary use is entirely social, said of someone still addressing a person by an outgrown familiarity. That it uses the dead as its example says something about how completely Yorùbá thought treats death as a change of standing.

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Burial, mourning and what the living owe

23. Ọlọ́tọ̀ọ́ ní tòun ọ̀tọ̀; ìyá ẹ̀-ẹ́ kú nílé, o gbé e lọ sin sóko.

Literal: Ọlọ́tọ̀ọ́ ní tòun ọ̀tọ̀ Ọlọ́tọ̀ says his-own-way is-separate; ìyá ẹ̀-ẹ́ kú nílé his mother dies at-home, o gbé e lọ sin sóko he carries her away to-bury on-the-farm.

Idiomatic: "Ọlọ́tọ̀ says his ways are different; his mother dies at home and he takes her to the farm for burial." 1

Meaning: The contrarian will break the rule at the one point where breaking it costs most.

Used when: Owomoyela: "The unconventional person will always do things differently" 1

Notes: Burial in or beside the compound is the Yorùbá norm and it is what keeps the dead within the lineage's care, so removing a mother to the farm is not eccentricity but a severing. The name Ọlọ́tọ̀ọ́ is built on ọ̀tọ̀, separate or different, so the man's name predicts his conduct and the proverb is partly a joke about nominal determinism. Owomoyela's note is milder than the text, which reports a real scandal.

24. adie-Irano kii se ajegbe (printed without tone marks)

Literal: adie-Irano the-fare-fowl kii se is-not ajegbe a-thing-eaten-without-return.

Idiomatic: "The fare-fowl is not eaten without reciprocation." 3

Meaning: Whoever eats at this funeral will provide the same at his own.

Used when: Ademiluka gives it as the saying attached to the adie-Irano rite, and explains the custom it refers to: immediately after the death of an old person the first rite was to slay a fowl called adie-Irano, the fare-fowl, whose slaying "was meant to make the road to his ancestors easy for him," and which was "ceremonially eaten by the undertakers." He glosses the saying: "he who partakes of adie-Irano will one day provide the same when he dies" 3

Notes: Ademiluka prints this without tone marks and it is reproduced in that state. He attributes the description of the rite to Awolalu and Dopamu, so the custom is documented at one remove and the English gloss is Ademiluka's own 3. Àjẹgbé is the standing Yorùbá term for something consumed without consequence or return, and the proverb denies that category applies here. What it documents is a funeral economy running on obligation rather than payment: attendance at a burial creates a debt discharged at your own. Whether the rite as described was general Yorùbá practice or local to the communities Awolalu and Dopamu drew on is not settled by this source. Confidence: medium.

25. Ẹlẹ́kún sunkún ó bá tirẹ̀ lọ; aláròpa ìbá sunkún kò dákẹ́.

Literal: Ẹlẹ́kún sunkún the-one-with-cause-to-weep weeps ó bá tirẹ̀ lọ and-goes-on with-his-own; aláròpa the-one-whose-mind-never-leaves-a-matter ìbá sunkún kò dákẹ́ would-weep and never-stop.

Idiomatic: "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." 1

Meaning: Real grief has an end. Rumination does not.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not keep harping on one's injuries" 1

Notes: Ẹlẹ́kún, the owner of weeping, is the person with a legitimate claim to mourn, a category Yorùbá funeral practice recognises formally. Setting him against the aláròpa concedes the grief entirely and objects only to its extension, which is why this is consolation rather than reproof. The proverb is one of the few in the corpus that treats a bounded mourning as evidence of health rather than of coldness.

26. Bí a kò bá lè kú, ìpẹ̀ là ńgbà.

Literal: Bí a kò bá lè kú if one cannot die, ìpẹ̀ là ńgbà consolation is-what one accepts.

Idiomatic: "If one is unable (or unwilling) to die, one accepts consolation." 1 The parenthetical is Owomoyela's.

Meaning: Since you are not going to die of this, be comforted.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Unless one would die of grieving, one should allow oneself to be consoled" 1

Notes: The proverb is spoken to the bereaved and it works by naming the only alternative to accepting comfort, which is dying of grief, and thereby making acceptance the obvious choice. Owomoyela's "(or unwilling)" preserves a real ambiguity in kò lè kú, which covers both incapacity and refusal. Ìpẹ̀ is specifically the consolation offered by others at a death, a formal social act rather than a private feeling, so what is being urged is participation in a ritual.

27. Ọmọ orogún ẹ-ẹ́ kú, o ní ẹní rí ẹ lọ́run ò purọ́; bí tìẹ́ bá kú ńkọ́?

Literal: Ọmọ orogún ẹ-ẹ́ kú your co-wife's child dies, o ní you say ẹní rí ẹ lọ́run ò purọ́ whoever-said-they-saw-you-in-heaven did-not lie; bí tìẹ́ bá kú ńkọ́? what-if your-own dies?

Idiomatic: "The child of your rival-wife dies and you say the person who saw you in heaven did not lie; what if your own child dies?" 1

Meaning: You have spent your whole display of grief on someone else's loss and have nothing left for your own.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not go overboard in sharing other people's sorrow" 1

Notes: Orogún is the co-wife, structurally a rival, so the excessive mourning is suspect from the start and the proverb never says whether it is genuine or performed. Rí ẹ lọ́run, seeing you in heaven, is a claim of extreme prostration in grief, close to having died oneself. The closing question is the whole proverb: it does not accuse, it asks what is held in reserve, and it is used of anyone whose reaction has outrun the occasion.

28. Bí olóde ò kú, òdee rẹ̀ kì í hu gbẹ́gi.

Literal: Bí olóde ò kú if the-owner-of-a-yard does-not die, òdee rẹ̀ kì í hu gbẹ́gi his yard does-not sprout wild-grass.

Idiomatic: "If the owner of a yard does not die, his yard is not overgrown with wild grass." 1

Meaning: An untended compound means the person who tended it is gone.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one does not die one is able to look after one's affairs" 1

Notes: The proverb reasons backwards from evidence to cause, which is why it is usable as an accusation as well as an observation: a neglected yard is either a death or something being reported as one. Yorùbá compounds are swept daily and the state of the ground is public information about the household. Compare entry 22, where the same logic of reading status from surfaces is applied to the dead themselves.

29. Ẹni tí ó mú u lórí ní ó kú, ìwọ tí o mú u lẹ́sẹ̀-ẹ́ ní ó ńjòwèrè.

Literal: Ẹni tí ó mú u lórí the-one holding it by-the-head ní ó kú says it is-dead, ìwọ tí o mú u lẹ́sẹ̀-ẹ́ you who hold it by-the-feet ní ó ńjòwèrè say it is-convulsing.

Idiomatic: "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." 1

Meaning: The man at the head has the information. The man at the feet has an opinion.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Novices should not presume to be more knowledgeable than the experts" 1

Notes: The scene is two men carrying a body or a slaughtered animal, and the argument turns on position: death is verified at the head, and movement at the feet is the residue that anyone can misread. Jòwèrè is the twitching of a dying or freshly killed creature. The proverb is unusually precise about why one witness outranks another, locating authority in access rather than in status, which is not the usual Yorùbá arrangement.

30. Kí a baà lè pẹ́ níbẹ̀, abuké ní bí òún bá kú, kí wọ́n ti ẹ̀hìn tú ìfun òun.

Literal: Kí a baà lè pẹ́ níbẹ̀ just-so-that one may-delay there, abuké ní the-hunchback says bí òún bá kú if he dies, kí wọ́n ti ẹ̀hìn tú ìfun òun they-should from-the-back remove his intestines.

Idiomatic: "Just to delay people deliberately, the humpback says when he dies his intestines should be removed from the back." 1

Meaning: The impossible instruction is designed to hold everyone up.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of people resorting to transparent delaying tactics" 1

Notes: The instruction is a burial instruction, which is what gives it force: funeral directions are ordinarily honoured without argument, so an unworkable one weaponises that obligation. The proverb is at the hunchback's expense and belongs to a class of Yorùbá texts that use physical difference as a comic premise; it is recorded here as part of the documented corpus, not endorsed. Owomoyela prints it without comment on that aspect.

31. Gba-n-gba là ńṣe gbàǹgbà; bẹ́ṣín bá kú, ìta gbangba là ńsin í sí.

Literal: Gba-n-gba là ńṣe gbàǹgbà openly is-how one does open-things; bẹ́ṣín bá kú if-a-horse dies, ìta gbangba là ńsin í sí it-is in-the-open that we bury it.

Idiomatic: "One performs one's great feats in the open; if a horse dies, one buries it in a wide open space." 1

Meaning: A large matter cannot be concluded in private.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not attempt to keep weighty matters under wraps" 1

Notes: The reasoning is physical before it is moral: a horse is too big to bury indoors or in a compound yard, so the openness is forced by the carcass rather than chosen for display. Horses were prestige property in the Yorùbá savannah kingdoms, which makes the dead horse a public loss as well as a logistical problem. The repetition of gbangba, openly, three times in different forms is the proverb's rhythm and English carries none of it.

32. Ẹyẹlé ní òun ò lè bá olúwa òun jẹ, kí òun bá a mu, kí ó di ọjọ́ ikú-u rẹ̀ kí òun yẹrí.

Literal: Ẹyẹlé ní the-pigeon says òun ò lè bá olúwa òun jẹ it cannot eat with its-owner, kí òun bá a mu and drink with-him, kí ó di ọjọ́ ikú-u rẹ̀ and-then when it-becomes his day-of-death kí òun yẹrí it ducks-its-head.

Idiomatic: "The pigeon says it cannot share its owner's food and drink, and then, when the day of his death arrives, duck its head." 1

Meaning: Having shared the man's table, the bird will not withhold itself at his funeral.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one shares the good times with a person, one should be prepared to share the bad times also" 1

Notes: Yẹrí, to duck or withdraw the head, is the gesture of avoiding a sacrifice, and pigeons are standard sacrificial and funeral birds, so the bird is refusing to refuse. The proverb puts the argument in the mouth of the animal that will be killed, which makes loyalty a position the victim adopts rather than a demand made on it. It is the sharpest statement in this file of what attendance at a death is understood to cost.

33. Ẹni tí ó sùn tó ní òún kú, tó bá jí, ta ni yó wìí fún?

Literal: Ẹni tí ó sùn the-person who sleeps tó ní òún kú yet says he-is dead, tó bá jí when he wakes, ta ni yó wìí fún? whom will-he tell-it-to?

Idiomatic: "The person who is asleep but spreads the word that he or she is dead, when he or she awakens whom will he or she tell?" 1

Meaning: Announce your own death and you have removed the audience for your recovery.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one paints oneself into a corner one is truly stuck" 1

Notes: Owomoyela prints this immediately after a related text he renders "Whoever wishes to die a decent death, let him or her live decently," with the gloss "As one lives, so one dies, and so one is remembered" 1 The proverb is about the cost of an exaggerated claim, and it chooses the one claim that cannot be walked back without absurdity. The Yorùbá joke is grammatical, since a dead man has no one to correct the record with.

34. Bí olókùnrùn yó bàá kú, kó má purọ́ mọ́ àlapà; omitooro kì í korò.

Literal: Bí olókùnrùn yó bàá kú if the-invalid is-going-to die, kó má purọ́ mọ́ àlapà let-him not lie against the-melon-seed-loaf; omitooro kì í korò broth is-never bitter.

Idiomatic: "If an invalid is approaching death, he should not lie about the melon-seed loaf; stew is never bitter." 1

Meaning: Blame the right thing. The food was not what was wrong with you.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one must make excuses for one's flaws, one should make them plausible" 1

Notes: The second clause is the refutation and it is a flat statement of fact about cooking, which is what makes the excuse collapse. Àlapà is the steamed melon-seed loaf, ordinary invalid food. The proverb is one of the few in the corpus to catch a dying person in a small lie and to object not to the lie but to its implausibility, which is a distinctly Yorùbá ordering of the offence.

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Death as the closing of an account

35. Onígbèsè èèyàn-án ti kú; a ò tíì sìnkú ẹ̀ ni.

Literal: Onígbèsè èèyàn-án ti kú the-debtor person has-already died; a ò tíì sìnkú ẹ̀ ni it-is-only that we-have-not-yet buried him.

Idiomatic: "The habitual debtor is already dead; except that he has not yet been buried." 1

Meaning: A man living on other people's money is finished, and the burial is a formality.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A habitual debtor is no better than a dead person" 1

Notes: Sìnkú, to perform a burial, is a compound of sin, to escort or accompany, and ikú, death, so a Yorùbá burial is grammatically an escorting of the dead rather than a disposal. The proverb uses that to draw a line between two things ordinarily inseparable, dying and being buried, and puts the debtor between them. It belongs with the debt proverbs in owe-wealth-poverty-money, where indebtedness is treated as a loss of standing rather than a financial state.

36. Ẹní du ara-a rẹ̀ lóyè Apènà: kó tó jẹ ẹran ọ̀fẹ́, ó dọ̀run.

Literal: Ẹní du ara-a rẹ̀ lóyè Apènà whoever deprives himself of-the-title Apènà: kó tó jẹ ẹran ọ̀fẹ́ before he eats free meat, ó dọ̀run he-has-reached heaven.

Idiomatic: "Whoever deprives himself of the title of Apena will wait until he dies before tasting free meat." 1

Meaning: Refuse the office and you will be dead before the benefits reach you.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one does not grab opportunities when they present themselves, one is in for a difficult life" 1

Notes: Apènà is a titled office in the Ogbóni association, and its holders receive shares of sacrificial meat, so ẹran ọ̀fẹ́, free meat, is a specific and countable perquisite rather than a figure of speech. Ó dọ̀run, he has reached the beyond, is the euphemism doing the work: the proverb states a lifetime of exclusion by naming its endpoint. This is a proverb about institutional advantage that presents itself as advice about food.

37. Owó kì í lóye kọ́mọ kú sẹ́rú.

Literal: Owó kì í lóye money is-never so-counted kọ́mọ kú sẹ́rú that-a-child dies in-slavery.

Idiomatic: "If the amount of money is known, a child cannot die in slavery." 1

Meaning: Where a price exists, a redemption exists.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One does not endure adverse conditions when one is capable of the effort to escape them" 1

Notes: The proverb assumes a redemption system in which a pawned or enslaved person could be bought back for a stated sum, which is what makes the argument work: a known price is a solvable problem. Kú sẹ́rú, to die in slavery, names the outcome the family failed to prevent. The text is evidence about the institution as much as about effort, and it treats the failure as a family's rather than an owner's.

38. Owó kì í yéye kọ́mọ ó kú.

Literal: Owó kì í yéye money is-never so-plentiful kọ́mọ ó kú that-a-child dies.

Idiomatic: "If money is available in abundance, a child does not die." 1

Meaning: Where resources exist, a child's death is a failure to spend them.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should spare no expenses to take care of one's children or one's affairs" 1

Notes: Owomoyela records this as a variant of entry 37 1, and the pair is worth keeping because the substitution of yéye, abundant, for lóye, counted, shifts the claim from redemption to medical and material care. Read literally the proverb is false and every Yorùbá speaker knows it, since children of wealthy households died routinely; it functions as a standard for effort rather than as a description of outcomes. Confidence on the force of the claim: medium.

39. Dídán là ńdán ọ̀ràn wò; bí olówó ẹní kú, à lọ ṣúpó.

Literal: Dídán là ńdán ọ̀ràn wò boldly is-how one tries a-matter out; bí olówó ẹní kú if one's creditor dies, à lọ ṣúpó one goes to-inherit-the-widow.

Idiomatic: "One should give everything a try; if one's owner dies one goes to claim his wife." 1

Meaning: Attempt even the claim you have no standing to make.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should attempt even the impossible" 1

Notes: Ṣúpó is the widow-inheritance by which a dead man's wives passed to a member of his lineage, so the audacity is precise: a debtor or dependent has no place in that succession and is proposing himself anyway. The proverb is cheerful about the impudence rather than condemning it. It documents the institution in passing, and the institution, not the impudence, is what dates the text.

40. Jẹ́ kí ọmọ ó ti ọwọ́ ìyá-a ẹ̀ kú wá.

Literal: Jẹ́ kí ọmọ ó ti ọwọ́ ìyá-a ẹ̀ kú wá let the-child die from his-own-mother's hand.

Idiomatic: "Let a child die at his/her own mother's hands." 1

Meaning: Leave the ruin to the person whose business it is.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not become involved in the affairs of a person intent on his/her own ruin" 1

Notes: The proverb is a withdrawal, not an instruction to kill anyone, and its force comes from naming the one intervention nobody would make. Ti ọwọ́ ... wá, to come from the hand of, assigns responsibility without asserting intent, so the mother is the proximate cause rather than the killer. It is spoken by a bystander declining to intervene in a household, and the harshness is the point: at some threshold, helping is interference.

41. Aláìnítìjú lọ kú sílé àna-a rẹ̀.

Literal: Aláìnítìjú the-shameless-one lọ kú sílé àna-a rẹ̀ goes to-die in the-house of-his-in-laws.

Idiomatic: "A shameless person goes to die in his relative-in-laws' house." 1

Meaning: He imposes the one burden that cannot be refused on the household with least claim on him.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should never demean oneself with unbecoming actions" 1

Notes: A death in the house obliges the householder to the whole cost and ritual of a burial, and in-laws are affines rather than lineage, so the obligation falls on people who cannot decline it and were never responsible for it. Ìtìjú is the capacity for shame treated as a faculty, discussed further in owe-shame-reputation-being-seen. The proverb makes dying an act with a location, and therefore something a person can do rudely.

42. Kàkà kí àgbò ké, àgbò a kú.

Literal: Kàkà kí àgbò ké rather-than the-ram cries-out, àgbò a kú the-ram will die.

Idiomatic: "Rather than cry out, the ram will die." 1

Meaning: Silence under the knife is the ram's whole standing, and it will spend its life on it.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A grown man must know how to hide his pain" 1

Notes: Rams are slaughtered without the noise goats make, which is the observation the proverb rests on, and the animal is the standard Yorùbá figure for masculine dignity. The moral is stated by Owomoyela as a requirement on men, and it is worth noting how much of this file's material assigns composure to men and unrestrained mourning to women, as entries 25 and 27 do. That distribution is a fact about the recorded corpus.

43. Bí mo bá torí oko kú ng ó rò fáhéré; bí mo bá torí ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀ kú ng ó rò fódò; bí mo bá torí alábàjà òkíkí kú, ng ó rò fórí-ì mi.

Literal: Bí mo bá torí oko kú if I die on-account-of a-farm ng ó rò fáhéré I-will lay-the-case before-the-farm-hut; bí mo bá torí ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀ kú if I die on-account-of bananas ng ó rò fódò I-will lay-the-case before-the-river; bí mo bá torí alábàjà òkíkí kú if I die on-account-of the-famous-scarified-woman, ng ó rò fórí-ì mi I-will lay-the-case before-my-own-orí.

Idiomatic: "If I die on account of a farm, I will lay my case before the hut; if I die on account of bananas, I will lay my case before the river; if I die on account of the famous woman with facial scarification, I will lay my case before my head." 1

Meaning: Each death has a competent authority to hear the complaint, and for death over a woman the authority is one's own destiny.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Were I to die for a woman, the forces ordering my fortune would know why" 1

Notes: Rò fún, to lay a case before, is the language of formal complaint to an elder or a court, so the proverb imagines death as litigable and then assigns jurisdiction. The escalation is the argument: farm to hut, bananas to river, woman to orí, the inner head that chose the destiny. Naming orí as the last court concedes that this death was chosen before birth and is therefore not anyone else's fault, which is a defence dressed as an itinerary. Alábàjà names a specific pattern of facial scarification.

44. O sá fún ikú, o bọ́ sí àkọ̀ idà.

Literal: O sá fún ikú you fled from death, o bọ́ sí àkọ̀ idà you dropped into a-sword's-scabbard.

Idiomatic: "You run from death and seek refuge in a scabbard." 1

Meaning: The refuge chosen is the sheath of the thing that kills.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of a person who has got himself/herself in a worse predicament from the one he/she was fleeing from" 1

Notes: The image is exact rather than merely ironic: a scabbard is where the blade lives, so the fugitive has climbed into the weapon's house. Bọ́ sí, to drop or slip into, suggests the move was not even deliberate, which makes it worse. This is the tightest of the several proverbs in this file about flight, and it is the one most often quoted.

45. Kàkà ká dọ̀bálẹ̀ fún Gàm̀bàrí, ká rọ́jú ká kú.

Literal: Kàkà ká dọ̀bálẹ̀ fún Gàm̀bàrí rather-than we prostrate ourselves for-a-Hausa-person, ká rọ́jú ká kú let-us set-our-face and die.

Idiomatic: "Rather than prostrate oneself in homage or obeisance to a Hausa person, one should rather die." 1

Meaning: Death is preferable to that particular submission.

Used when: Owomoyela glosses the proverb himself as "an expression of Yoruba superciliousness towards the Hausa" 1

Notes: This is included because Owomoyela records it and labels it, and it is reproduced here as documented ethnic attitude rather than as counsel, consistent with this corpus's practice of reporting the record rather than curating it. Dọ̀bálẹ̀ is the full prostration a Yorùbá man performs to a senior, so the proverb is not about deference in general but about performing the Yorùbá gesture for a non-Yorùbá. Gàm̀bàrí is the Yorùbá term for a Hausa person and carries the disparagement Owomoyela identifies. Compare entry 42, where the same kàkà frame carries no such content.

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Survival, return and what death does not take

46. Odídẹrẹ́ kì í kú sóko ìwájẹ.

Literal: Odídẹrẹ́ the-parrot kì í kú does-not die sóko ìwájẹ in-the-field-of-foraging.

Idiomatic: "The parrot never dies in the grazing field." 1

Meaning: The bird that goes out to feed comes home.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A prayer that just as the parrot always returns home from grazing, the subject of the prayer will return home safely from a business venture away from home" 1

Notes: This is a prayer rather than an observation, which Owomoyela's note makes explicit, and it belongs to the class of Yorùbá utterances that take proverb form to make a wish binding. The grey parrot is a valuable trade bird and a strong flier that returns to roost, so the choice is not arbitrary. Said to someone leaving on a journey or a trading trip.

47. Ẹlẹ́jọ́ kú sílé, aláròyé kú síta gbangba.

Literal: Ẹlẹ́jọ́ kú sílé the-party-to-the-case dies at-home, aláròyé kú síta gbangba the-spokesman dies out in-the-open.

Idiomatic: "The person involved in an affair dies at home; the spokesperson dies out in the open." 1

Meaning: The man whose quarrel it is dies indoors. The one who took it up for him dies in the street.

Used when: Owomoyela: "The busybody's fate is worse than that of the person involved in the affair" 1

Notes: Dying at home is the good death in Yorùbá terms, attended and properly buried, and dying síta gbangba, out in the open, is exposure and disgrace, so the proverb ranks the two deaths without explaining the ranking to anyone who needs it explained. Aláròyé is the person who speaks at length on another's behalf. The proverb is a warning against advocacy, and it is aimed at the volunteer rather than the principal.

48. Iku ti yoo pani b'o ba si ni, ni fila k'ama d'upe. (printed without tone marks)

Literal: Iku ti yoo pani the-death that would kill-one, b'o ba si ni if it merely brushes one, ni fila takes-the-cap, k'ama d'upe let-us give-thanks.

Idiomatic: "The death that should kill us, if it removed our caps, we should be grateful." 2

Meaning: The disaster that could have taken your life took only your hat, so count it as deliverance.

Used when: Osoba lists it under sympathy and advice, and reports it in his body text as the Ifẹ̀ people's way "of sympathizing with and advising themselves" when "a man falls into the hand of thieves and his good are stolen" 2 The quoted wording, including its printing errors, is his.

Notes: Osoba prints this without tone marks and it is reproduced in that state. The proverb measures a loss against the maximum available loss and finds it small, which is the standard Yorùbá consolation move: it does not deny the injury, it reprices it. The cap is well chosen because it is the most visible and most easily snatched item a man wears, so the image is of a robbery that stopped exactly where it could have continued. Osoba names no separate translator and the English is his own.

49. Ọ̀mọ̀rán bèèrè ọ̀ràn wò; Àjàpá ní, "Ẹni tí wọ́n pa lánàá, kàà kú tán?"

Literal: Ọ̀mọ̀rán bèèrè ọ̀ràn wò the-knowledgeable-one asks about-a-matter to-test-it; Àjàpá ní Tortoise says, "Ẹni tí wọ́n pa lánàá "the-person they killed yesterday, kàà kú tán?" is-he-not completely dead?"

Idiomatic: "The sage asks for information; Àjàpá the trickster asks, 'About the person who was killed yesterday, is he already dead?'" 1

Meaning: There is a difference between a question that seeks information and one that performs it.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If you know the answer to a question already, don't ask it" 1

Notes: Àjàpá the tortoise is the Yorùbá trickster, treated at length in owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster, and his question is characteristic: technically legitimate, socially intolerable. Kú tán, to have finished dying, is the completive that makes the question absurd, since killing yesterday settles the matter. The proverb distinguishes enquiry from mockery and is used when someone asks a question whose answer is standing in front of them.

50. Ẹní bá na Ọ̀yẹ̀kú á ríjà Ogbè.

Literal: Ẹní bá na Ọ̀yẹ̀kú whoever whips Ọ̀yẹ̀kú á ríjà Ogbè will find the-quarrel of-Ogbè.

Idiomatic: "Whoever whips Ọ̀yẹ̀kú will have Ogbè to answer to." 1

Meaning: Strike the protected party and you have summoned the protector.

Used when: Owomoyela: "If one assaults a protected person one should be prepared to answer to his/her protector" 1

Notes: Ogbè and Ọ̀yẹ̀kú are the first two odù, the sixteen principal figures of Ifá divination, and they are conventionally paired, so the proverb assumes a listener who knows that touching one brings the other. Ọ̀yẹ̀kú is the odù most associated with death and darkness in Ifá literature, which is why the proverb belongs in this file, though the text itself makes no explicit statement about death. The odù are treated as personified agents here rather than as configurations, which is ordinary in proverb usage. Ifá's divinatory system is documented in owe-ifa-babalawo-divination.

51. Adìẹ ò lè ti ìwòyí sunkún ehín.

Literal: Adìẹ ò lè a-chicken cannot ti ìwòyí at-this-hour sunkún ehín weep-for teeth.

Idiomatic: "Chicken cannot at this late date bemoan its lack of teeth." 1

Meaning: The time to have wanted the thing was before you were made without it.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Everything at its proper time" 1

Notes: Sunkún, to weep, is the verb of mourning throughout this file, and applying it to a permanent condition rather than a loss is what makes the proverb absurd: the chicken is grieving something it never had and could not have lost. Ìwòyí is this hour or this stage, and it locates the complaint too late in a sequence rather than simply wrong. The proverb is used to refuse a grievance on the grounds of timing, and it sits with entry 25, which refuses a grief on the grounds of duration.

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Reading this set

Four things are visible across these fifty-one proverbs that are not visible in any one of them.

Death is mostly a tool here, not a topic. Only a handful of these texts are trying to say something about mortality. The rest reach for a corpse, a grave, a burial or a masker because those images close an argument that nothing else closes: entry 35 makes a debtor dead to settle a question about credit, entry 41 makes a death rude to settle a question about imposition, entry 44 makes a scabbard fatal to settle a question about flight. Owomoyela's own arrangement is the evidence, since every proverb in this file was filed by him under humility, wisdom, caution, perseverance or honesty rather than under mortality. A collection that gathers all the death-imagery proverbs into a chapter called "death" produces a false impression of what Yorùbá speakers are talking about when they use them.

The masquerade proverbs are irreverent, and that is not a contradiction. Twelve proverbs here turn on egúngún, and they show the masker exhausted (12), called a rag (13), craned at by his own cult head (18), driven indoors by rain (15), and with his legs showing (17). None of this reads as scepticism about the institution. The same set assumes without argument that he cannot be arrested (19), that waiting for him is a way of dying (4), and that he must announce himself before vanishing (16). What the proverbs record is a tradition that could joke about the mechanics of its sacred figures without doubting them, and reading the jokes as evidence of disbelief imports a distinction the texts do not make.

Burial is an obligation with a named owner, and the proverbs are exact about who it falls on. The dead are escorted, not disposed of, which is what sìnkú literally says at entry 35. Kin do the escorting, which is why entry 41 identifies dying in an in-law's house as shameless and why the adie-Irano saying at entry 24 makes eating at a funeral a debt payable at your own. Owomoyela's fuller text on kinship, quoted in owe-family-lineage-compound, makes the same point positively: it is one's own kin who bury one. The proverbs treat a funeral as a transaction with identifiable parties rather than as a rite performed by the community at large.

Grief is expected to be bounded, and the boundary is enforced by proverb. Entry 25 grants the weeper his weeping and objects only when it will not stop. Entry 26 offers consolation by pointing out that the alternative is dying. Entry 27 asks what the excessive mourner has left for her own child. Entry 42 requires a man to die silently. Taken together they describe a mourning culture with formal permission to grieve and formal pressure to finish, and the pressure is applied through exactly these texts. That the composure proverbs name men and the excess proverbs name women is a pattern in the recorded corpus rather than a claim this file can settle, and it matches the asymmetry noted in owe-iwa-character.

A dirge, for contrast

The following is not an òwe. It is a funeral dirge, a different oral genre with different rules, and it is included here because it shows what the proverbs above leave out: the proverbs never console at length, and the dirge does almost nothing else.

Original (printed without tone marks) 3:

Baba lo gbere a ko rii mo / Erin wo, erin lo / Ajanaku subu ko le g'oke / Eni rere lo s'ajule orun / O d'arinako, o d'oju ala / K'a to tun f'oju ganni ara wa / Ma j'okun, ma j'ekolo / Ohun won nje l'ajule orun ni k'o je / Sun're, eni rere, orun re o.

Literal gloss:

Baba lo gbere father has-gone forever a ko rii mo we do-not see-him anymore / Erin wo elephant collapses, erin lo elephant goes / Ajanaku subu elephant falls ko le g'oke it cannot climb-up / Eni rere good person lo s'ajule orun goes to-the-realm-of heaven / O d'arinako it becomes meeting-on-the-road, o d'oju ala it becomes face-of a-dream / K'a to tun f'oju ganni ara wa before we again see each-other with-eyes / Ma j'okun do-not eat millipede, ma j'ekolo do-not eat earthworm / Ohun won nje l'ajule orun the-thing they eat in-the-realm-of heaven ni k'o je is-what you-must eat / Sun're sleep-well, eni rere good person, orun re o heaven is-good o.

Idiomatic English:

"Father has gone forever, we see him no more / The elephant has fallen, the elephant is gone / The elephant has fallen, cannot get up / The good person has gone to heaven / It is on the road, in the dream / That we see again / Don't eat the millipede or the earthworm / Eat whatever they eat in heaven / Sleep in peace, good person; farewell!"

Translator: S. O. Ademiluka

Notes: Ademiluka prints the text without tone marks, attributing it to Daramola and Jeje, and it is reproduced here in that state 3. He describes it as a popular Yorùbá dirge sung at interment, at the compound gathering when a death is announced, and through the feasting that follows, and notes that dirges narrate "the good deeds of the departed, his genealogy, his praise names, and his farewell" 3 The elephant is the standard oríkì figure for a great person, and Ajanaku is a praise-name for the elephant, so lines two and three are praise poetry embedded in the lament. The instruction not to eat millipedes or earthworms is an instruction not to eat as the buried dead eat, which asks the deceased to take his place among the ancestors rather than remain in the ground. The proverbs in this file assume this world; the dirge addresses it directly, and the two genres are doing different work.