Why Women Have Long Hair
An aetiological comedy in which a woman digs a pit to trap her enemy, falls into it herself, is pulled out by hair that stretches as they pull, and is envied into starting a fashion.
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 this is not evidence of absence. At this length the tale is a single sustained joke with a repeated physical action, women being hauled out of a pit by the hair, which a teller can extend as long as the room keeps laughing.
El cuento en breve
This is a short aetiological comedy explaining why women have long hair. A woman digs a pit at night in the path her enemy takes to the well, falls into it herself the next morning, and is hauled out by her hair, which stretches as her friends pull. She is ashamed, then proud, then jeered at the short-haired women until they were all jumping into the pit to have their hair pulled too. Recorded in English by M. I. Ogumefu in 1929.
El cuento
Two women quarrelled, and one of them went out secretly at night and dug a deep pit in the middle of the path leading from her enemy's house to the village well. Early next morning, when all were going to the well for water with jars balanced on their heads, this woman fell into the pit and cried loudly for help. Her friends ran to her and, seizing her by the hair, began to pull her out of the pit. To their surprise, her hair stretched as they pulled, and by the time she was safely on the path, her hair was as long as a man's arm. This made her very much ashamed, and she ran away and hid herself. But after a while she realised that her long hair was beautiful, and then she felt very proud and scorned all the short-haired women, jeering at them. When they saw this, they were consumed with jealousy, and began to be ashamed of their short hair. > We have men's hair, they said to one another. How beautiful it would be to have long hair! So one by one they jumped into the pit, and their friends pulled them out by the hair. And in this way they, and all women after them, had long hair.
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.