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694 documents inside 38 sections. Sort am by section, level, how sure e be, or tag.
Yoruba song across work, ritual, nursing, children's play and social comment, with texts, and the problem of translating a song so that it can still be sung.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá rescues a drowning hunter's son on condition of enslaving him, hides him inside a drum that appears to sing by itself, and loses him when he drinks himself unconscious at a dance.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá wins half a palace by provoking a mute king's daughter into speech through a false accusation of theft, recorded by Ellis in 1894.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá delivers an elephant for sacrifice by promising him a kingship, with the Yorùbá text of the riding song as printed by Omolaye from a named informant.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá tastes a fertility medicine prepared for his wife three times and dies of it, with the Yorùbá text of the Alugbinrin pleading song from a named informant.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá abandons his market stall to judge a fight between a shrew rat and a squirrel, takes a side, and loses his nose for it, with the Yorùbá text of the Jómijó song.
An Ọ̀yọ́ variant of the magic yam-rock tale in which the rock opens to a song rather than a command, and Ìjàpá betrays his friend by bringing the whole country to empty the store.
A tale in which Ajá the dog plants the leaves Ìjàpá threw in his face, grows a tree that bears agidi, and repays the insult exactly, with the tortoise killed by a falling stone when he tries the same song.
A drought tale in which every large animal fails to reach the water and the despised tortoise solves it by asking one question, then is trampled by the animals coming to thank him.
A tale in which Ìjàpá roasts a pig in a covered fire-trench and loses the whole carcass to a dog blacksmith who stalls him over a seventh knife, explaining why dogs keep away from tortoises.
A co-wives tale in which a girl short-changed by an ìwin follows him to the land of the dead, passes tests of humility and obedience, and returns rich, while the head wife's daughter repeats the journey dishonestly and is killed.
A co-wives tale in which a bird of prey takes a poor woman's baby and returns it with a fortune, and kills the child the head wife brings to repeat the trick, ending with the head wife executed by the king.
A tale in which a bird left off the king's invitation list sings the cleared bush back into growth three times, and the king's son, who lost an ear over the bird's escape, recaptures him by drumming him into a dance.
The tale of a woman who promises her first child to the spirit of the ìrókò tree in exchange for fertility, cannot pay, and is turned into a bird until her husband carves a wooden child to deceive the tree.
A tale of royal twins hidden from a law requiring their death, one of whom drowns the other for the throne and is exposed when first a fish and then the river itself sing what lies in the water.