A cautionary tale in which a beautiful woman who refuses every suitor marries a stranger assembled from borrowed limbs, and escapes his house by stuffing the watchman's alarm horn with oiled bean cakes.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dis na one warning tori about Adun, one fine woman wey reject every man wey come toast am, come later agree to marry one fine stranger for market. As dem dey go di stranger country, di people wey lend am body parts come collect everytin back one by one, sotey na only ordinary head remain. She escape because she follow di advice of one babaláwo, come pack bean cake (ekuru) put inside di alarm horn of di tortoise wey dem set make e watch am. A. B. Ellis record am inside English for 1894 .
Ellis put dis tori inside im Tortoise Stories, but na small role Ìjàpá play inside di tori, no be im be di main character, and di tori belong to di class of warning tori dem about marrying strangers. Na one half of di pair of variants wey dem document pass for dis section: another collector record di same kind tori 35 years later as alo-the-head-who-borrowed-a-body, with different ending.
Di person wey tell Ellis di tori start say: "My alo na about one woman wey im name na Adun" .
Adun fine well well, and all di men want am. Dem dey always beg am, but she dey always reject dem.
One market day, one person borrow legs from one man, arms from another person, and body from third person. E join all of dem together come go market. E want Adun, and e must get am.
As Adun see am, di guy appearance sweet am, and dem follow each other talk. Even though say di man come from far place, she agree make she follow am go. She carry am go house go show am to her mothers, and her mothers say: e good, follow am go.
Ellis explain "her mothers" as di wives inside di household , wey be di normal Yorùbá way dem dey use am, where di senior women for compound na collectively mothers to di pikin. Di corpus explain how household structure be for owe-family-lineage-compound. Dis detail dey important for di warning wey di tori dey give: di marriage no be just di girl own personal foolishness, na di women wey get di duty to judge suitor approve am.
Dem waka go. For road, di master of di legs take back di legs, di master of di arms take back di arms, and di master of di body take back di body. Nothing remain except di head. And di head continue to dey waka go, dey go, while fear nearly kill Adun, wey no fit run away.
Dem reach di house of di head.
Di next morning, before e go work for im farm, di head tell di tortoise say: if Adun try to run away, blow di horn make you warn me.
Di head never even commot for sight well when Adun carry her load begin run. Na dat time di tortoise blow di horn, dey shout:
Head, head, Adun dey go o. She don tie her calabash dem, she don pack her plate dem.
Di head run come, open im eyes round like ball. Where you dey go, e ask. I wan go toilet, Adun talk. Ellis put footnote for here say dis na "di normal excuse of native person wey no get any pretext ready" . Na run you dey run, di head talk.
Every day Adun try to run away, and every day she fail. Den she go ask babaláwo wetin she suppose do.
Di babaláwo say: go buy some ekuru. Buy plenty of am. Soak dem inside red oil, den pack dem chook inside tortoise horn. Very good, Adun talk.
Ellis explain ekuru as cake wey dem make from flour of one white bean wey dem dey call ere, and e add say e dey very dry, and say one proverb about visitor wey dey stress person talk say "E dey chook me for throat like ekuru" .
She do wetin dem tell am. Den she carry her load, begin waka. Tortoise carry di horn make e blow am. Di ekuru come enter im mouth. E chop, chop, chop, and Adun run commot.
Di mechanism here na say dem defeat di watchman through di exact tool of im work. Di horn na di only function wey Ìjàpá get, and di solution wey di babaláwo give no spoil am, no steal am, and no bypass am: e just pack food fill am. As di tortoise raise di horn make e do im work, to do di work put di cakes for im mouth, so di alarm and di bribe come reach im hand with di same action. Ellis footnote about long throat, wey dem quote complete for alo-ijapa-and-the-rock-of-yams, mention dis tori as one of im examples: "for di fourth tori, where e dey so busy dey chop di ekuru wey dem put inside di horn, sotey e forget to blow am" .
Di choice of ekuru no just happen by chance, and di footnote show us di reason. E dry well well, and di proverb about visitor wey dey stress person say "e dey chook me for throat like ekuru." Once dem soak dry cake inside red oil, e dey easy to chop; when e dry, na di proverbial thing wey dey block mouth. Di babaláwo prescribe food wey dem choose specifically for di exact quality wey di plan need, wey be fine craft inside how dem take build di tori.
Di warning wey di tori carry na about di suitor, and di mechanism wey dey there na how dem take dismantle am. Di stranger fine precisely because dem join different things from other men take make am, and every single part wey win Adun heart na borrowed property. Di tori come show how dem take collect everytin back as dem dey waka slowly, one piece at a time, while Adun dey im side unable to run. Di corpus note for analysis say di scary thing here no be say di husband na monster, but say na combination of ordinary men, and say wetin she choose for market na just display, no be real person. owe-marriage-husbands-wives gather all di proverb material on top how to choose spouse, and owe-beauty-ugliness-appearance carry di material about physical appearance and whether person fit trust am.
Look who solve di problem sef. No be di woman family people, wey approve di marriage and dey far away, and no be her own sense: na one babaláwo, wey she go consult after she don fail many times. Di pattern follow wetin dey inside alo-the-tortoise-helps-the-animals, where di answer to hard problem na still to go do proper consultation. ifa-ese-verses discuss di divination system.
The Head (Ogumefu, 1929). M. I. Ogumefu record di same type of tori but di frame and di ending dey very different. For dat one, dem tell di tori of how e borrow body parts from di Head own point of view, for one country where everybody na only head without body; e borrow body from one old woman, borrow hand from one young man wey dey sleep under tree "since e be like say e no dey use dem," and e borrow leg from one fisherman wey sit down dey mend net. E win bride wen e throw all im kobo give am for dance. As dem dey go back, e return di parts one by one in reverse order, and wen di bride see say im husband na just ordinary Head, e run, and since di Head no get body, hand or leg, e no fit follow am and e lose am forever . Dem tell di full tori for alo-the-head-who-borrowed-a-body.
E dey important to state di differences clearly, because dis two tori na di clearest evidence of variant transmission wey dey inside dis section:
Two different collectors, 35 years apart, wey record di same special plot style with different resolutions, na good evidence say dis tori of suitor wey borrow body na genuine and widespread Yorùbá tale-type, no be just wetin one tori teller make up. Di corpus present di two and e no treat any of dem as di correct version.
Dem dey tell am for evening, as dem treat am for yoruba-alo. Song no dey inside dis tori. Di alarm cry wey tortoise dey shout, "Head, head, Adun is going. She has tied up her calabashes, she has gathered her dishes," na chant announcement instead of song chorus, and na im be di element wey dey repeat: e dey happen again every day wey Adun try to escape, so di tori teller go deliver am several times with comedy wey dey increase before di day wey e no come.
The evening storytelling tradition, the call-and-response frame that opens it, riddles as a separate discipline, and the Ìjàpá cycle read as a body of ethical and comic literature.
A tale from a country where the inhabitants are heads without bodies, in which one Head borrows a body, arms and legs to win a bride, and loses her when he returns them on the way home.
A famine tale in which Ìjàpá wheedles the secret of a magic yam-store out of the lizard, loads himself too heavily to leave, forgets the opening words, and is smashed and mended by insects.
What A. B. Ellis's 1894 collection contains, why its tale texts are usable, and exactly where its colonial framing has to be refused.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about courtship, the bond between husband and wife, and the frictions and duties of the polygynous marriage itself.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on the duties of host and visitor, the structural vulnerability of the stranger in a Yorùbá town, and the reciprocal etiquette that hospitality is built on.