Ìsọ̀kun and the Baby
A childless queen who has been refused by every god steals a newborn from a sleeping woman by the roadside, and is exposed when the hungry baby quiets instantly at its real mother's breast.
Recopilador
La fuente consultada no nombra a ningún recopilador.
Cómo se representaba
Evening telling, treated in `yoruba-alo`. No song is recorded, and Ogumefu's stated removal of songs (`alo-ogumefu-1929-as-a-source`) means the absence is not evidence. The tale's climax is a sound rather than a speech, a baby crying through a celebration and then stopping, which in performance is a moment for a teller to hold.
El cuento en breve
This is a tale about Ìsọ̀kun, the childless wife of King Dekun, who disappears from the palace for weeks, travels to the shrines of all the gods asking for a child, is refused by every one of them, and on the way home steals a two-day-old baby from a woman asleep by the roadside. She presents it as her own. The deception is undone by the baby's hunger. Recorded in English by M. I. Ogumefu in 1929.
El cuento
A certain King Dekun had a wife named Ìsọ̀kun who bore him no children, on which account there was great unhappiness in the palace. One day Ìsọ̀kun disappeared and was absent for many weeks, and though search was made, no trace of her could be found. The truth was that she had set out to visit the shrines of all the gods, in the hope that one of them would promise her a child. But though she travelled far and wide, the gods of all the trees and streams and rocks refused her prayer. When she was at last nearing home again, she came upon a poor woman asleep by the wayside with her baby two days old. Ìsọ̀kun stole the baby and hastened to the palace, where she informed the king that she had disappeared in order to give him the joyous surprise of his little son. There were great rejoicings in the palace, sacrifices were made, and the drums beat loudly. Meanwhile the real mother awoke and discovered that her baby had been stolen. She ran into the town distracted and insisted on searching in every house, but without success. At last she came to the palace and insisted on entering there also, which was possible at that moment because all were celebrating the arrival of the king's heir. All this time the baby cried with hunger, and as Ìsọ̀kun could not feed him, she invented other reasons for the crying and sought in vain to pacify him without arousing suspicion. Drawn by the cries, the mother entered and snatched the baby to her breast, where it was at once contented. In a few moments the deception was made clear, the mother departed with her child, and Ìsọ̀kun, ashamed and fearing the anger of the king, fled from the palace and never returned.
Variantes
No Yorùbá-language version and no second collection of this tale were located by this compiler. The record consulted is silent on variation and on any song. The motif of a disputed infant resolved by a test is widely distributed internationally, most familiarly in the judgement attributed to Solomon. This compiler notes the resemblance and asserts no relationship: there is no judge here, no threat to the child, and no choice offered to the claimants. The test is not administered by anyone.