Ìjàpá Rides the Elephant
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.
intromedium·
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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.
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 di smallest animal take ride di biggest one enter town for everybody eye, come use mouth escape make dem no kill am for wetin e do. E end with explanation of why elephant no dey show face for town again. Na A. B. Ellis record am for English for 1894 ; di person wey compile dis work no know of any Yorùbá text, and song no dey inside am.
Dis na one of two different kind Ìjàpá-and-Erin tori wey dey documented for dis section. Di other one, where dem deceive Erin say dem wan crown am king come kill am inside pit wey dem cover, na different tori with different plot and e get e own sources, wey dem treat for alo-ijapa-and-erin-the-false-coronation. Make person no read dem like say na variant of each other.
Di person wey tell Ellis di tori start say: "My alo is about Tortoise and the elephant" .
One day, Ìjàpá tell di other animals say e go ride elephant. All di animals say no, you no fit ride elephant. Ìjàpá come say, no wahala, I bet una say I go ride elephant enter town. Di other animals come agree to di bet.
Ìjàpá go inside forest go find Erin. E tell am say: my father, all di animals dey talk say you too fat and big to come town.
Vex catch Erin. E say, di animals na fools. If I no come town na because I prefer forest. Besides, I no even know di road wey go town.
Ìjàpá come say, ah, follow me come now. I go show you di road to town, and you go fit shame all di animals.
So Erin follow am. As dem near town, Ìjàpá say: my father, body don taya me. Abeg, make you allow me climb your back. Erin say no wahala, e kneel down, and Ìjàpá climb am.
Den Ìjàpá arrange di signals. My father, when I scratch your back you must run, and when I knock my head against your back you must run faster; dat one go make you display well for town. Erin say e don set.
As dem near town, Ìjàpá scratch am, and Erin start to run. E knock with e head, and Erin run faster.
As di other animals see dis one, fear catch dem. Dem enter inside their house, but dem dey look from window. And Ìjàpá shout call dem:
Abi I no talk say I go ride my father slave enter town?
Wetin you mean by "your father slave," Erin talk, as e dey vex.
Na praise I just dey praise you, Ìjàpá talk.
But Erin see say di other animals dey laugh, e vex come increase. E shout say, I go throw you down for dis hard stones here, break you into pieces.
And na here di tori turn because of single speech:
Ehen, ehen, na so. Throw me down here. E go dey alright. Dat one I no go die; dat one body no go pain me. If you really wan kill me, wetin you suppose do na to carry me go swamp. For dere I go die immediately, because di potopoto and water go drown me.
Erin believe am. E run go di swamp come throw Ìjàpá inside di potopoto, den stretch e leg make e kick am, but Ìjàpá dive inside di mud come out for another place. Di other animals dey look, and Ìjàpá shout call dem again: abi I no talk say I go ride my father slave enter town?
When Erin see say e no fit catch am, e run back to forest with speed. For dere, e tell di other elephants wetin "dat broken-back" do am, and dem tell am say: you na fool to carry dat broken-back go town.
Since dat time, elephant no dey come town again.
Dem use two names for tortoise for dis tori and Ellis record di two for inside e own footnotes.
Bald-headed elf. Na so Ellis translate ajapa, wey e break down as aja, elf, plus pa, to bald or bare . Dis etymology na Ellis own idea and make person look am with care: na morphological guess wey one nineteenth-century colonial officer make, printed without tone marks, and di corpus no endorse am. Di standard modern spelling of di name na Ìjàpá or Àjàpá, and owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster record di animal other names, Ahun, Abahun, Aláábahun, from di proverb collections.
Broken-back. Ellis put dis one for footnote say na "an epithet of the tortoise. It probably refers to the notched appearance of the back" . Again, na im dey doubt by himself. Wetin matter for dis section na say di epithet dey point to di same physical fact wey four different aetiological tori for dis corpus try to explain, di shell wey get marks or lines, wey dem treat together for alo-why-the-tortoise-shell-is-marked.
Di way e take work na flattery wey target di exact insecurity wey di trickster just invent. Ìjàpá no beg Erin say make e carry am. Wetin e do na to report insult wey nobody insult am, come allow Erin own pride carry am continue di rest of di journey. Every other step na Erin idea of how to answer di insult: to come town at all, to allow di ride, and to run fast make e fit do "a fine display." By di time Ìjàpá dey shout say e dey ride e father slave, Erin don already do everything to e own self.
Di second way e take work na di turn-around for di swamp, and na di oldest trick wey dey folktale for di whole world: di victim go beg for di punishment wey e want, but e go present am like say na wetin e dey fear. Wetin make di Yorùbá version work na say e make sense anatomically for way wey audience fit confirm. Tortoise wey dem throw enter stones go really dey inside serious danger, and tortoise inside potopoto dey inside e natural place. Erin no just be say e dey easily fooled; e dey reason about body wey e no get. Di corpus notice say na dis same logic dey run through di tortoise proverbs, where di shell dey turn to armour, trap, and disguise, for owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster.
Di phrase "my father" dey do steady work throughout. Ìjàpá use am as respect while e dey set di trap, den change am to di insult "my father slave" when victory reach, so di title of respect come turn to punchline. Yorùbá address terms dey carry real seniority claims, wey dem treat for owe-elders-seniority-respect, and di joke depend on knowing say to call Erin "my father" na formal submission wey Ìjàpá no mean at all.
Di last line make di whole story bi aetiological. No be just story about clever tortoise bi dis: na answer to why animal wey people know say dey, person no dey ever see for town, and di answer na shame. How Bamgbose group Yorùbá folktale themes into moral stories, tortoise stories and why-stories, wey dem cite for yoruba-alo, dey show clearly here as all di three together.
Di record wey dem look no keep any Yorùbá-language version of dis story and no second collected version dey, so person no fit do variant analysis. yorubatales.com get one story wey get title "Ijapa and Erin (Elephant)" , but dat version follow di false-coronation plot instead of dis one, and dem discuss am for alo-ijapa-and-erin-the-false-coronation.
Evening telling, wey dem treat for yoruba-alo. Dis story no get song, wey good make person talk clearly: di section name àlọ́ àpagbè, stories with song, no mean say every story get song inside. Ellis record six tortoise stories and na only two of dem get song. Wetin dis story give storyteller instead na different voices, di way Ìjàpá take dey beg and do humble to get wetin e want, di vex and gra-gra of Erin, and di yabbis wey dem shout repeat two times for di same beat.
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 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 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.
What A. B. Ellis's 1894 collection contains, why its tale texts are usable, and exactly where its colonial framing has to be refused.
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.