Ìjàpá and Erin: The False Coronation
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.
intermediatehigh·
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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.
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 tori about Ìjàpá di tortoise and Erin di elephant, where one village need elephant for sacrifice and dem no fit catch any, and Ìjàpá bring am come alive as e tell am say di village wan crown am king. Di tori get song refrain where di audience dey join sing, and unlike most tori for dis section, di Yorùbá text of dat song still dey inside peer-reviewed publication with informant wey dem name .
Dis na di second one out of two different type of Ìjàpá-and-Erin tori for dis section. Di other one, where Ìjàpá win bet as e ride Erin enter town and escape enter swamp, na alo-ijapa-rides-the-elephant. Both of dem na genuine tori; dem na separate tori, no be variants.
As Pa. Oduremi Eluwole fellow informant Mr. Adisa Yusufu, wey be 68 years old, from Oke-Oniti, Oshogbo narrate am, recorded 26 January 2022 and published by Bamidele Omolaye of Obafemi Awolowo University .
King of one village die, and di community wan install another one. By di custom of di village, dem must consult oracle first, and anyone wey oracle pick na him dem go crown. When di villagers do di rites wey dem suppose do, di oracle tell dem say make dem do sacrifice with elephant before dem fit install new king.
Dis kind thing almost impossible and di tori talk so. Omolaye record di proverb say king wey go capture elephant no dey, and e note say person no fit tie elephant to tree with rope because di elephant go just uproot di tree . Di demand bring confusion among di elders and make di whole village sad.
Na so Ìjàpá come promise dem say e go bring elephant enter di village alive. As dem hear am dey boast say e go bring am come without harm and without wahala, di villagers gree make e try.
Ìjàpá bake cake with plenty honey inside and waka enter di thick forest. When e see Erin, e begin hail am: say Erin na di oga for all other animals, and say no animal fit do pass wetin e instruct. When e see say Erin dey happy with di praises, e tell am wetin bring am. Di villagers wan make you their king.
Erin laugh am and talk say human beings wicked and harsh well well.
Then Ìjàpá give am di honey cake chop. As Erin chop am, and di cake sweet well well, e change im mind come agree follow am.
Ìjàpá tell Erin say when e become king, e go come visit am. E come ask whether e fit climb and ride on top Erin back, so dat di villagers go see how dem close reach, and make di journey quick pass. Erin carry am up immediately and start to go di village. And as dem dey go, Ìjàpá sing.
Call: A ó mérin J'oba Response: Èrèkú e we le Call: A ó mérin J'oba Response: Èrèkú e we le Call: Ní we le, ní we le, Response: Èrèkú e we le
Idiomatic English Translator: Bamidele Omolaye
Call: We shall install the elephant Response: Easily, easily Call: We shall install the elephant Response: Easily, easily Call: With ease, with ease Response: Easily, easily.
Di article print im Yorùbá with grave and acute accents but without any subdots: no ẹ, ọ or ṣ dey anywhere inside di published text, as person fit verify if e search di article itself . Na typesetting loss, no be dialect feature, and na as dem print am e dey here instead of make dem correct am, because to put di subdots wey dey miss go give another reading wey di source no give. Make readers understand J'oba say e stand for j'ọba, and di corpus mark di whole song as untoned for di aspect of subdots. Di tone marks wey dey there na as di article print dem.
Di song dey do something wey di translation no fit show, wey be say e dey true. A ó mérin j'ọba, "we shall make the elephant king," na exactly wetin di villagers plan to do, in di sense say dem go make di elephant sit down on top throne. Wetin e hide na say di throne na cover for pit. Erin dey carry, on top im own back, di animal wey dey sing accurate description of im death, and di village go sing follow am. Di refrain èrèkú e we le, wey dem translate as "easily, easily," na di part wey audience dey take, so during performance na di children for room dey promise say everything go happen easily.
After dem don waka some distance, Erin wan turn back. Sharp sharp Ìjàpá give am another cake chop and e come dey happy again, na so dem continue to dey go.
Meanwhile Ìjàpá don already give di villagers instruction: make dem dig very deep pit, cover am with fine and expensive cloth, and put expensive chair on top am as throne. When di two of dem enter di village, Ìjàpá raise di same song again, and joy full di villagers body as dem dey sing along with am.
Then Ìjàpá tell Erin make e sit down for im throne. Erin sit down, and sink enter inside di pit, and di hunters shoot am till e die.
Di way di tori work na say wetin destroy di victim na im own hunger for status, and di tori take time give am chance to escape. Di first response wey Erin give correct: e talk say human beings wicked and harsh, wey be true judgment of wetin wan happen to am. Honey cake come make am change dat correct judgment. Later, for road, im mind come dey do am two-two, and second cake settle dat one too. So di tori present di same choice three times, praise, cake, cake, and Erin fail am three times, so di audience no fit talk say na simple trap dem just set for am.
Omolaye record wetin di tori dey teach, and e pass one thing . Dem dey tell children di tori make dem learn say if person face problem wit determination, e go solve am; make dem run from long-throat and wayo, and make dem dey content wit wetin dem get; and, di main one, make dem no look down on anybody. E bring di last point out well: say if person look how tortoise body weak reach, di person go think say tortoise no fit ever bring dat kind big animal come community for sacrifice .
Dat last meaning deserve attention because e look somehow when you put am beside di others. Dem dey use di tori at di same time to warn children make dem comot hand for wayo, and still dey hail how di wayo person sabi work. Dis one no be contradiction wey di body of work suppose cover up. Na di standard condition of di Ìjàpá cycle, as dem argue for yoruba-alo and as e clear across di proverbs record for owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster, where di same collection get proverbs wey dey praise tortoise skill and proverbs wey rank im wayo below snail own. Di lesson wey story-teller go bring out depend on di night.
Another thing dey wey di tori dey do wey no source talk plainly, so we mark am here as analysis. Di tori start wit oracle wey demand sacrifice wey impossible, and di alternative wey di community get instead of Ìjàpá trick na make dem no get king at all. So dem do di trick to serve di community and na di community order am: di villagers dig di pit, cover am wit cloth, put di chair, and sing di song. Ìjàpá no dey steal here, wey be wetin e dey do for most part of di cycle. E dey solve public problem wit method wey di public agree to, and di tori no punish am for am.
Di refrain get independent proof say e dey exist. Di modern retelling site yorubatales.com carry Yorùbá-language version of Ìjàpá and Erin tori wey im refrain appear as "Ẹrẹku - ẹwẹlẹ", wey person fit clearly recognize say na di same refrain as Omolaye own Èrèkú e we le and dem print am wit di subdots wey Omolaye typesetting lose . Dat similarity make sense to record, because two independent sources wey get di same refrain na real proof say di song na traditional one, no be just wetin one person cook up for one telling. We no quote am as text here, because di site no credit who tell di tori and person no fit trace am back to any performance.
Di version for dat site still set di tori for one place wey dem dey call Jakọta and bring in lion, Kìnìún, wey dem just choose as leader of di animals, while Erin dey vex say dem bypass am . If dat kind framing na traditional one, e give reason why Erin fall for di trick wey Omolaye version just leave as ordinary pride, but e no get sourced collection wey confirm am, so we record am here only as difference between di two tellings.
Evening telling, wey dem discuss for yoruba-alo. Omolaye article provide performance detail wey most sources for dis section no get: di songs dey in compound duple metre, dem dey sing am for hemitonic pentatonic scale, wit pitch wey di lead singer set, and e provide staff-notation transcriptions . E describe di setting as moonlight storytelling, especially during harmattan season, where children dey gather listen after di day work . yoruba-orin discuss di wider song context.
Di call-and-response structure here follow di strict form: di teller dey call line wey dey change, di audience go answer wit fixed refrain. Na dat mechanism di name àlọ́ àpagbè dey refer to.
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.
Twenty-nine Yorùbá proverbs built around Àjàpá the tortoise, the tradition's central trickster animal, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá wins a wager by goading Erin the elephant into carrying him into town, then escapes execution by persuading the elephant that mud is more lethal than stone.
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.
The one modern peer-reviewed source in this section that names its informants and prints Yorùbá song text, and the one defect in it that governs how every song from it is reproduced.
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.