An Ọ̀yọ́ aetiological tale in which a tiny rat's three enormous sons are each driven off by a farm-robbing bird, until the ram fights him into the ground and the noise of that fight becomes thunder.
Machine na im translate dis page and no person don check am. The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, the meanings and the citations dey exactly as the original. Everything else fit wrong.
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 aetiological story wey dey explain how thonda take start. Elírí, one very small rat, get three big-big sons: elephant, buffalo, and ram. One bird wey dem dey call Irogun go tief for dia farm and flog dia mama, and chase elephant and buffalo commot one after di oda. Ram fight am, and di noise of dat fight na him be di first thonda. John Parkinson collect am from Ọ̀yọ́ informants and publish am for 1909 .
Na one of di clearest documented example for dis section of story wey get marked audience chorus, and Parkinson editor talk di convention clearly .
Parkinson print di word "(Chorus.)" four times for dis story, for every point wey di mama repeat her curse . Di editor put footnote to explain wetin dat mean:
Wetin dis mean na say di audience go pick up dis words and repeat am togeda as chorus .
Dis na di àlọ́ àpagbè mechanism wey dem describe for yoruba-alo, wey dem document as e dey happen. Dem no print di curse itself, weda for Yorùbá or for English, pass di description say di mama dey "cursing the man that stole, praying that he would not die well." So di corpus get one story wey dem mark di audience participation for four exact points, but di words wey dem talk don lost. E make sense to record dat kind absence as e dey: di chorus na di part of àlọ́ wey hard pass to survive enter print, because collector wey dey write down story dey write down di story.
One small, small rat, Elírí, born three sons: elephant, buffalo, and ram .
Dem do farm, wey elephant plant okro, buffalo plant osun, and ram plant igba . Di three sons tell dia mama say make she dey go dia farm when she need somtin and pick wetin she want from wetin dey dia.
Di first time wey Elírí come, she take okro and igba . Di second time, she see say person don reach dia before her, and she curse di pesin wey tief, pray say make e no die well. (Chorus.)
Den Irogun di bird come commot from bush and talk say: Me, Irogun, I come dis farm, I pluck elephant okro, buffalo osun, and ram igba .
And di bird Irogun carry koboko flog di mama .
When she reach house, she tell her son elephant say she go farm, see say dem tief things, and say as she dey curse di tief, Irogun come commot from bush, gree say na him tief am, and join am flog her on top.
Di elephant reply say him never see pesin wey go get mind flog him mama like dat, and say him go follow am go di farm. So Elírí and her son elephant come, and di mama repeat di curse. (Chorus.)
Den Irogun come outside and chase elephant and di mama commot.
For house, Elírí repeat di story to her son buffalo, dey talk how dem take flog her and how Irogun take chase her and elephant commot togeda. Di buffalo talk say e no fit possible say pesin go fit flog elephant like dat, but say him go go see with him own eye. So di mama and buffalo go, and as e be before, di mama curse. (Chorus.) Irogun show face again, and as e flog both mama and son, e chase dem commot.
Meanwhile ram don go market. Him mama meet am for road and tell am wetin happen. Den ram put down di load wey e dey carry and talk say him go like see di pesin wey fit get mind flog him mama Elírí, di small, small rat.
Den di mama and her son ram go di farm, and ram tell him mama make she repeat di curse. She do so. (Chorus.) And di bird Irogun show face again, and repeat wetin e tell elephant and buffalo give ram, say na him be di pesin wey tief from di farm.
Den ram wrestle with Irogun di bird, sotey him horn break and di claws of Irogun break too. Den dem pause, and ram send pesin go house go bring ten new horns, and di bird Irogun send pesin bring ten new claws.
Di ram send him wife sheep; di bird send him wife female dog. Meanwhile Elírí carry one fat piece of beef, roast am, and as she go di bird house, she hang am just above di level wey female dog fit reach.
Di sheep collect di ten horns and bring dem come back give ram. But di claws for Irogun never come, because as di female dog reach house, she see di fat wey dey drop from di beef for up and stop to lick am; den di fat drop again, and as she look up, she see di beef. And as she see di beef, she forget di message.
When ram get him new horns, e talk say: now we go fight again. But Irogun talk say: I no get claws, make we wait. And ram talk say e good, we go wait small time.
Den Irogun look round and see di female dog far away, as she still dey try reach di beef, and e shout give am: carry my message go. But di female dog, wey dey think only about di fat wey dey drop, no listen.
And so when di time wey ram give don pass, ram talk say: no be my fault if you no get claws. And dem fight. Irogun fall enter knee, den him body touch ground, and finally e fall down completely.
From dat day, when thonda sound, ram dey dig ground with him leg and talk say:
One day we go fight again, di fight never finish, one day we go fight again.
And since dat time, di bird Irogun dey live inside ground and no be on top tree again like before. But di noise of di fight between Irogun and ram na him be di noise of di first thonda.
Parkinson add one note put for di story:
Irogun na di original name for Shango, di lightning na Shango fire .
Dis na big claim and di corpus mark am say e never get confirmation. Parkinson no bring any evidence for dis identification, no source, and no Yorùbá-language authority, and dis compiler never confirm am against Ṣàngó scholarship. Dem record am here as wetin di collector claim instead of established fact, and make person check sango for wetin di corpus actually document about òrìṣà.
Wetin pesin fit talk without argument na say di story dey inside di same conceptual space as Ṣàngó material: dem explain thunder as fight, fight wey never finish, and na ram be di animal wey dey do am. Di way ram take connect to Ṣàngó na standard element for di tradition, and di closing image for di story, where ram dey dig ground during thunderstorm dey promise rematch, na normal observation of how animal dey behave wey dem turn to cosmic grievance wey never settle.
Parkinson editor put comparative footnote about di lightning-bird for across southern Africa, dey cite Mabille on top Basuto, Dudley Kidd Essential Kafir pp. 120-121, plus wetin Zulu and Pondo people believe, and e mention say dem identify di Basuto lightning-bird with real species while "the Yoruba bird" look like myth . Dat one na di period diffusionist apparatus wey dem describe for alo-parkinson-1909-as-a-source, and dem record am instead of to adopt am.
Di mechanism na ascending sequence wey dey defeat size, and dem build am so dat audience go dey count. Three sons according to power wey eye fit see, elephant, buffalo, ram, and dem drive di two biggest comot without any fight. Na ram small pass among di three of dem, and na im only wrestle instead of to dey pose. Elephant talk say e never see who go dare try am; buffalo talk say e no fit possible say pesin go flog elephant; ram no talk anything about impossible, e just drop im load down.
Di second mechanism na say na far from di fight dem take settle di fight. Di two fighters break dia weapons, both of dem send dia wives make dem go bring anoda one, and di matter finish based on which errand succeed. Elírí, wey dem don flog two times and na im make all dis things dey happen, win di matter: e hang roasted beef for place wey female dog hand no fit reach well, and di female dog, as e eye dey look di oil wey dey drop, forget di message completely. Di mother, wey be di smallest and weakest character for di story, defeat di thief because e understand appetite.
Say di story give di decisive act to di mother wey dem do wrong instead of to any of im big-big sons na someting wey make sense to talk, and di corpus mark as analysis di observation say dis na story about who really get effect, wey dem tell for way wey spend most of di time on top people wey no get effect. E still be, for di way female dog take distract, di same device wey spoil plan for Ìjàpá for alo-adun-and-the-borrowed-body: person wey dey watch get work, but food wey dem put near am defeat am.
Di closing line of di ram na formula of business wey never finish, and e turn every thunderstorm wey happen after into evidence. Di story no dey end; e dey repeat.
Dis compiler no find any Yorùbá-language version and no second collection of dis story. Di record wey dem check no talk anything about variation.
Evening telling, wey dem treat for yoruba-alo. Dis story na di section clearest evidence of di audience role: dem mark chorus for four places, and e dey repeat for di same narrative beat every time, di mother curse. Di structure come be say di audience dey perform di grievance, four times, while three sons fail to avenge am.
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 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.
What John Parkinson's Ọ̀yọ́ tale collection contains, why its stated provenance is unusually candid for its period, and how to read its editor's comparative footnotes.
A very short aetiological tale in which the birds and the rats each disown a dead bat because he lacks their distinguishing feature, so he is left without relatives and without a funeral.
The thunder orisa and fourth Alaafin of Oyo, the contested question of whether a king became a god or a god absorbed a king, the Oba ko so narrative, and Sango in Cuba and Brazil.
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.