Ìsọ̀kun and the Baby
A childless queen who has been refused by every god steals a newborn from a sleeping woman by the roadside, and is exposed when the hungry baby quiets instantly at its real mother's breast.
intermediatemedium·
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A childless queen who has been refused by every god steals a newborn from a sleeping woman by the roadside, and is exposed when the hungry baby quiets instantly at its real mother's breast.
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 Ìsọ̀kun, King Dekun wife wey no get pikin, wey disappear from di palace for many weeks, waka go shrines of all di gods go beg for pikin, but every one of dem reject her prayer, and as she dey go house, she go tif two-day-old baby from one woman wey dey sleep for roadside. She carry di baby show say na her own. Di way di baby take hungry na im expose di wayo. Na M. I. Ogumefu record am for English for 1929 .
One King Dekun get one wife wey her name na Ìsọ̀kun wey no born any pikin for am, and bikos of dat, heavy sadness dey inside di palace .
One day Ìsọ̀kun disappear and she no dey around for many weeks, and even though dem find her everywhere, dem no see any trace of am at all .
Di koko of di mata be say she commot go visit di shrines of all di gods, with hope say one of dem go promise her say she go get pikin . But even though she waka go far far places, di gods of all di trees and streams and rocks turn down her prayer.
As she finally dey reach near house, she come see one poor woman wey dey sleep for roadside with her two-day-old baby .
Ìsọ̀kun tif di baby and rush go di palace, where she tell di king say she disappear so dat she go give am di sweet surprise of im small son .
Heavy celebration happen for di palace, dem make sacrifices, and drums beat loud well well .
Meanwhile di real mama wake up come discover say dem don tif her baby . She run enter town with scatter head and insist say she must search inside every house, but she no see anything.
Finally she reach di palace and insist say she must enter inside there too, and dis one dey possible dat time bikos everybody dey celebrate di arrival of di king heir .
All dis time di baby dey cry bikos of hunger, and as Ìsọ̀kun no fit feed am, she formulate oda reasons why di pikin dey cry and try in vain to make am quiet without make people suspect anything.
As she hear di cry of di pikin, di mama enter and immediately put di baby for her breast, where di baby come calm down at once.
Inside few moments di wayo open, di mama carry her pikin commot, and Ìsọ̀kun, with shame and fear of di king vexation, run commot from di palace and she never return.
Di way di tori work na say body wey no fit lie na im expose di lie, and dem arrange di tori in a way say di exposure no need investigation, witness, or accusation. Nobody catch Ìsọ̀kun. Di baby dey hungry, she no fit feed am, and di cry do two things at di same time: e draw di mama come inside di palace and e provide di proof sharp sharp di moment she reach. Di pikin quiet as e touch breast, and na di whole judgement be dat.
Di corpus note as analysis say dis na judgement style wey arrange well well, bikos e dey execute by itself. Compare alo-the-poor-woman-and-the-aranran-bird, where stolen pikin bring three-month waiting, formal complaint, king summons, assembly and execution. For here, na di same crime dem settle inside one sentence through small baby mouth. Di difference be say for di aranran tori, di pikin don die and na only testimony remain; for here, di pikin dey alive and na im own evidence.
Di tori also pay attention to di order of Ìsọ̀kun's failures. She no start as tif. She start as woman wey go every shrine wey dey, and di tori talk say every god reject her: di gods of di trees, di streams and di rocks. Dat na complete rejection, and di tori report am without any explanation. Dem no dey punish her for anything wey di tori mention. women-motherhood-childbearing-and-the-body treat childlessness and di heavy weight wey e carry, and owe-children-parenthood-inheritance treat di proverb material.
Wetin she come do after dat no be just to carry pikin, but to set up public event around am: rejoicings, sacrifices, drums. Dem for fit settle di theft; na di announcement make am impossible to survive, bikos e commit di palace and di king to one story wey hungry baby fit scatter for front of everybody. Di corpus note di same structure for alo-buje-the-slender and alo-the-king-and-kini-kini, where person announce claim for public on top fixed day, and na dat announcement come destroy di person wey make di claim.
Look who dem no punish and wetin dem no settle. No judgement dey, no court dey, and no royal anger happen: Ìsọ̀kun run "with shame and fear of di king vexation," and di tori end for there. Shame commot her from di tori before authority reach her, wey be di same ending as alo-buje-the-slender, where one woman cover her head and run enter bush. owe-shame-reputation-being-seen collect di material about shame as sanction.
And dem no ever address di childlessness mata. Di tori wey start with "heavy sadness inside palace" over queen wey no fit born come end with di queen wey don run commot, while di palace probably still dey without heir. Ogumefu no return to am.
Di poor woman deserve attention bikos di tori give am almost nothing, but na her do everything. She dey sleep for roadside with two-day-old baby, wey put am for di bottom of di tori social order; di queen wey rob am dey for di top. She wake up, run enter town with "scatter head," and search every house inside am, come insist say she must enter di palace, wey di tori note say she only fit do bikos di celebration make doors open.
So how dem take recover di baby depend on poor woman wey refuse make dem turn am back from palace during royal celebration. Di corpus mark as analysis say di tori, without giving comment, make di whole outcome rest on her persistence, and say na di event wey dem dey celebrate, di arrival of di king heir, na im make am fit enter.
Dis compiler no see any Yorùbá-language version and no see second collection of dis tori. Di record wey dem check no talk anything about variation or about any song.
Di motif of pikin wey people dey drag wey dem settle through test dey spread wide across di world, especially for di judgement wey dem link to Solomon. Di compiler notice di resemblance and e no talk say connection dey between dem: judge no dey here, threat no dey to di pikin, and dem no give di people wey dey claim am any choice. Nobody conduct di test.
Na evening dem dey tell am, as dem treat for yoruba-alo. Dem no record any song, and as Ogumefu talk say e remove songs (alo-ogumefu-1929-as-a-source), e mean say di absence no be evidence. Di climax of di story na sound instead of speech, baby wey dey cry during celebration and come stop, wey be moment wey person wey dey tell story suppose hold during performance.
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.
The tale of a woman who promises her first child to the spirit of the ìrókò tree in exchange for fertility, cannot pay, and is turned into a bird until her husband carves a wooden child to deceive the tree.
A co-wives tale in which a bird of prey takes a poor woman's baby and returns it with a fortune, and kills the child the head wife brings to repeat the trick, ending with the head wife executed by the king.
What M. I. Ogumefu's 1929 collection offers, and the disqualifying caveat she states in her own preface: the songs of these tales have been deliberately left out.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on bearing and raising children, the duties of parents, the training of the young, and what passes from one generation to the next.
Ìyá as a status and a philosophical category, the world's highest twinning rate and what the Yoruba built on it, what infertility actually costs a woman, àbíkú and the medical evidence behind it, and the ìyá abiye who delivered the children.