Bùjẹ̀ the Slender
An aetiological tale of the buje dye-shrub, in which a woman who refused every suitor is assaulted by the tortoise and flees into the bush, and which Ellis used to adjudicate a competing published version.
Dis na origin tori wey dey explain how di bùjẹ̀ plant take come be, wey di soft part inside di fruit dey turn black when breeze touch am and dem dey use am draw design for skin. One woman wey dem dey call Bùjẹ̀, wey don reject all di men wey come toast am including di oba, Ìjàpá rape am after e trick am make she carry am for back, and after e go tell di whole town open-open, she cover her head, run enter bush, and she come turn to di plant. A. B. Ellis record am for English for 1894 .
Di central point for di tori na rape. Dem bring am here sake of say e dey inside wetin dem write down put for record, say na under am Ellis put di biggest criticism about different-different versions of tori for im folklore chapter, and say if dem comot am, e no go show wetin really dey inside di nineteenth-century Ìjàpá material. Dem summary am, dem no act am like drama, and dis collection no reduce wetin di source talk say happen.
Di tori
Di person wey tell Ellis di tori start say: "My alo na about one young lady wey dem dey call Buje, di slender one" .
One young lady dey wey dem dey call Bùjẹ̀ di slender one, wey all di men want. Rich people want am, e refuse. Chiefs want am, e refuse. Di oba want am, e still refuse.
Ìjàpá come meet di oba, e talk say: dis person wey una all want wey una no fit get, me I go get am. I must get am, me. And di oba talk say: if you fit succeed get am, I go divide my palace into two half and give you one half.
Di bet na di same one wey Ìjàpá bet for alo-ijapa-and-the-dumb-princess, with di same prize, half palace, wey oba promise to give person for access to woman wey refuse am.
One day Bùjẹ̀ carry clay pot go fetch water. Ìjàpá see am, take im hoe go clear di path wey lead go di stream. E see one snake inside grass, kill am, and e come put di dead snake for middle of di road.
When Bùjẹ̀ don fill im pot dey come back, e see di snake for road, come shout make somebody come help am kill am. Ìjàpá run come with cutlass, cut di snake, and e wound imself for leg. Na so e start to cry, and di song of lament na di main performance inside di tori:
Dem no provide di Yorùbá. Ellis write di lament only for English .
No Yorùbá source text dey preserved for inside di record .
Idiomatic English (Ellis's rendering, as printed) Translator: A. B. Ellis
Buje, di slender one, don kill me. I dey cut bush, I dey clear road for am. E call me make I come kill snake, and I sharp-sharp come. Buje, di slender one, Buje, di slender one, I don kill di snake, but I wound myself for leg. Oh, Buje, di slender one, Buje, di slender one, carry me for your back like pikin. Carry me for your back and hold me tight.
No Yorùbá remain, and dem no reconstruct anything. Di structure wey still remain na how di name repeat five times for short passage, like song wey dem dey chant take beg person, no be like normal talk. Ellis record say Ìjàpá "shout dis one many times" , so when dem dey perform am, na chorus. Di work note say dem arrange di lament like list of work wey person do, bush wey e cut, path wey e clear, snake wey e kill, wound wey e get, and say every single thing inside na lie: na im put di snake there by imself and wound imself on purpose. Na way to force obligation from debt wey no exist at all.
For last Bùjẹ̀ carry am for back, and e rape am.
Next day, as everywhere just dey bright, Ìjàpá go meet di oba talk say: I no tell you say I go get Bùjẹ̀ di slender one? Call all di people for town make dem gather on di fifth day, and you go hear wetin I get to talk.
On di fifth day di oba send im town crier and di people come, and Ìjàpá shout: everybody want Bùjẹ̀ di slender one, and Bùjẹ̀ refuse everybody, but me I don get am.
Di oba send messenger with im staff make e go call am. When e come, di oba ask: we hear say Ìjàpá na your husband; e true?
Bùjẹ̀ shame, e no fit answer. E cover im head with im wrapper run enter bush. And na there e take turn to di plant wey dem dey call bùjẹ̀.
Ellis note say di soft part of di fruit of bùjẹ̀ shrub dey turn black when breeze touch am, and dem dey use am draw for skin make e resemble tattoo mark, e dey leave mark like lamp-black . E record di same transformation for another place inside im chapter on beliefs about transformation, where e list "di shrub buje, wey dem dey use di fruit take draw for skin make e resemble tattoo marks" as one Yorùbá fine girl wey get dat name wey turn to plant .
Wetin di tori dey do
Di pattern na public accusation wey di victim no fit answer, and di tori clear about where di wound land. Di assault wey Ìjàpá do na private act; wetin destroy Bùjẹ̀ na di gathering on di fifth day. E no need make di woman agree, or make di oba believe am: wetin e need na make dem gather di whole town and make e talk di matter loud. Her transformation no follow di assault, na di question wey dem ask am for public, and di tori talk exactly wetin e do with im body for dat moment, e cover im head with im wrapper.
Di collection understand dis one, as analysis, like tori about how shame dey work, no be tori about trick wey succeed. owe-shame-reputation-being-seen gather all di proverbs about when eye see person, and di main point there na say reputation na wetin belong to public: wetin town people know about person na different thing from wetin be di truth. Ìjàpá change violence wey happen for corner turn am to public matter, and dat public matter na wetin she no fit survive.
The way the ending no take side on moral mata na wetin we suppose talk clearly instead of trying to smooth am. Dem no punish Ìjàpá. E be like say na him still keep the half palace. The king, wey wan get the woman for himself and fund the whole plan, dem no criticize am. The person wey commot for the community na the woman, and na she commot herself. Ellis no add any comment. Compare am with alo-ijapa-and-the-dumb-princess, where similar bet on woman body and voice end with the plain line "that is how Tortoise succeeds in everything." These two story together na the strongest evidence for this section for the argument wey dey yoruba-alo, say the Ìjàpá story cycle no be moral system wey dey make sure everybody get wetin dem deserve, and say if person read am only as moral lesson for children, e only explain small part of wetin dey inside.
Whether the people wey dey tell the story understand am say e dey support Ìjàpá, or say na explanation for one plant, or warning to young women about wetin dey happen if dem reject suitors, or say na completely different thing, the record wey we check no talk. Ellis no report any comment from the people wey tell am story on top any of him six tortoise tale. The corpus record this silence instead of trying to fill am.
Ellis on the competing version
This story carry the most solid part of source criticism for Ellis folklore chapter, and e make sense to bring am out because na rare documented example where nineteenth-century collector judge between different published version and report wetin the people wey tell am story talk about the disagreement.
Ellis write say one version of this story dey circulate "among the English and Americans" where deformed man violate Bùjẹ̀ instead of the tortoise, and e link am to T. J. Bowen, one American missionary, inside Central Africa (Charleston, 1857), work wey Ellis talk say himself never see. Then e report say:
All native people agree say this version no correct, and na Tortoise violate the person .
The explanation wey e suggest border on language: say Bowen learn the story from Yorùbá speaker wey dey use French, and say dem confuse la tortue, the tortoise, with le tortu, the person wey bend or get deformity. E add say person wey hear am wey never hear about the Tortoise wey dey act like human being before, go think say e no fit possible make tortoise violate Bùjẹ̀, so the person go naturally reason say na le tortu the narrator mean .
Three things dey inside this wey make sense to separate, according to the corpus rule on how to distinguish different kind of claim.
Wetin the tradition talk about itself. Ellis report say him Yorùbá informants agree together say Bowen version wrong and na the tortoise be the correct actor. That na reported native judgement on top one variant, and na the most valuable part of the footnote.
Wetin the collector document. Ellis record difference between two published source and talk say e never read one of them. That na honest thing and na the standard wey corpus suppose want.
Wetin the collector speculates. The la tortue / le tortu explanation na Ellis conjecture, wey e bring out with "the only probable explanation seems to be." E no provide any evidence say Bowen informant speak French, and this compiler never verify Bowen text. Na clever guess and dem present am here as guess.
The main point still stand whether the etymology correct or not: the assumption wey European reader get say tortoise no fit be the actor for this story na the exact assumption wey the Yorùbá anthropomorphic Ìjàpá dey scatter. Both yoruba-alo and owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster show say Ìjàpá na person rather than just animal, and this footnote na the clearest nineteenth-century evidence of wetin dey go wrong when reader forget that point.
Variants
Apart from Bowen version wey Ellis report, this compiler no see any other collection of this story, and no Yorùbá-language text dey. The record wey we check no talk anything about regional variation.
Performance context
Na evening dem dey tell am, as dem explain for yoruba-alo. Ellis record say dem cry the lament "many times," wey make am the part of the story wey dey repeat. Based on wetin dey inside the story, nothing for the sources wey we check show which kind audience dem tell the story to, and this compiler no go assume say na young children dem tell am just because na so dem dey do for most àlọ́.