A tale in which a bird left off the king's invitation list sings the cleared bush back into growth three times, and the king's son, who lost an ear over the bird's escape, recaptures him by drumming him into a dance.
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 story about one king wey call all di birds say make dem come clear one piece of land, but e forget to invite one of dem. Di bird wey dem leave out, kíní-kíní, dey sing make di bush wey dem clear grow back every afternoon until dem use birdlime catch am. E come turn out say cowrie dey comot for en body anytime dem slap am. E escape through di king small son, wey dem beat and wey lose one ear because of am, and wey later catch di bird again when e make drum and play am take make di bird dance. A. B. Ellis record am for English for 1894 .
E carry two songs, one drum text, and explanation of three named Yorùbá drums, wey make am di richest single story for Ellis collection when e come to performance material.
Ellis identify di two for footnote. Kíní-kíní na "small black and white bird, wey dem dey sometimes call di doctor-bird," wey get name from en cry, wey resemble di words kini-kini . Di odan na "one type of ficus tree, wey dem dey plant for street and open space make e give shade" . Bird wey dem name after en own cry, wey stand on top tree wey people plant on purpose for public place to get shade, na di whole setting for di story: di person wey dey spoil work dey easy to know by sound and e dey sit down where everybody fit see am.
Di person wey Ellis listen to start like dis: "My alo na something about one particular king" .
One day di king call all di birds make dem come clear one piece of land . But e forget to call kíní-kíní.
All di birds come. Dem start work and clear large piece of land. For di middle of di land, one odan tree dey there. For afternoon, when sun dey hot and all di birds don leave work for di day, kíní-kíní come land on top di odan tree, and start to sing.
The king sent to invite my companions, Kini-kini. He assembled all the children of the folk with wings, Kini-kini. Grow grass, sprout bush, Kini-kini. Come, let us go to the house, Kini-kini. And there we can dance the bata, Kini-kini. If the bata will not sound we will dance the dundun, Kini-kini. If the dundun will not sound we will dance the gangan, Kini-kini.
Idiomatic English as printed above; Ellis renders the sense-lines into English and keeps the refrain and the drum names in Yorùbá.
Translator: A. B. Ellis
As e dey for alo-the-poor-woman-and-the-aranran-bird, wetin remain na part of di song: one Yorùbá refrain wey dey carry di rhythm with English meaning-lines for inside. Di refrain na di bird own name, so di song dey call en own name like oríkì, and every second line di singer dey announce who dey do dis thing. yoruba-oriki treat di form.
E good make person explain di song structure well because di translation make am flat. Two lines of complain, "di king send make dem invite my people / e gather all di children of di people wey get wings," then di line wey dey do di work, "make grass grow, make bush sprout," then four lines wey be pure celebration, one party wey di bird dey plan to go. Di curse dey for middle and e long reach just one line. Di main part of di song na di bird wey dem leave out dey describe di dance wey dem no invite am to, and then e invite enself: "come, make we go di house, and there we fit dance di bata."
Next morning, when di birds come work, dem see say grass and bush don cover di land wey dem clear . Dem tell di king, and di king talk say: dat one na nothing; make una clear am again.
Dem clear am again and for afternoon dem go . Kíní-kíní come back and sing en song again, and grass and bush spring up again. Di next day di birds tell di king. E no matter, na wetin di king talk, make una clear di land again.
Dem clear am di third time and go, and di third time kíní-kíní come sing make grass and bush spring up .
Di next day di birds ask di king make e give dem power to catch di person wey play dis kind trick . Di king talk say: no problem.
So all di birds go back, put plenty birdlime for top di odan tree, and go house . Di next morning dem clear di land again, and for afternoon dem go hide for inside di bush wey dey near.
Kíní-kíní come land on top di odan. E sing en song, and grass and bush grow up. Den e wan fly comot, but e see say birdlime don hold am.
All di birds rush come di tree, hold am and carry am go meet di king, dey talk say: look di person wey don cause us so much wahala.
Di king make am come close and ask am: wetin I do you, wey make you do dis kind thing? And kíní-kíní talk say:
When you call all my people make dem clear di land you leave me out, na why I do revenge.
When di king hear dis one, e raise hand to give di bird slap.
Abeg, abeg pardon me, kíní-kíní talk. If I see any cowries I go give you. When I get any kola nut I go bring am for you.
Di king give am slap, and kíní-kíní bring out cowries till di room full.
Wetin be dis, na wetin di king talk, as body surprise am well well, and e raise hand again. I beg for pardon, di bird talk, as e repeat di same promise. Di king slap am again, and di bird bring out more cowries pass di first time.
Di king send messengers go round di whole country make dem call all en people to gather on di fifth day make dem see wonder. All di people promise say dem go come.
Den di king put kíní-kíní inside basket, cover di top, and comot. En small son, wey wan slap di bird by enself, open di basket, and di bird fly comot.
When di king reach house e go check di basket, e no see any bird inside, so e call en son. Where kíní-kíní dey, e ask. Di boy answer say e go play with am and di bird don fly comot.
The king hold the small boy and flog am. He flog am, he flog am, and because of vex, he cut one of him ear. Commot quick, na so he talk. Go quick, and find the bird. And he push am commot for house.
The boy make one small drum and commot go road wey lead enter bush. He sit down for place wey the birds dey usually come, and he start to beat him drum, and the drum talk say:
Tinliki, tinliki, tinli-puru. Tinli-puru.
Literal gloss: Tinliki, tinliki, tinli-puru (onomatopoeic drum rhythm syllables; untranslated vocables)
Idiomatic English: Tinliki, tinliki, tinli-puru. Tinli-puru. (drum sound pattern)
Translator: A. B. Ellis
Notes. Na drum sound be this, no be words, and dem print am as syllables. The corpus talk about the Yorùbá talking drum and how e dey sound like speech for yoruba-drum-poetry; wetin dey here na rhythm pattern, no be sentence, and dem no give any meaning for am. Ellis self no give any meaning.
All the birds gather round am, and each of dem dance turn by turn. When e reach kíní-kíní turn, e no gree dance. All the birds beg am, but e refuse.
Then the boy start to beat the drum faster. He beat am, beat am, and beat am, while all the birds dey beg kíní-kíní.
At last the bird come agree. E twist body go here, e twist body go there. E fly three times round the small boy head. The boy continue to beat the drum like say e no notice anything, and kíní-kíní start to dance.
E turn here and twist there. E turn, and twist, and turn, till e reach very close to the drum. Then the small boy stretch him hand out and hold am for leg. All the other birds fly commot.
The boy bring kíní-kíní come meet him papa. I don catch am, na wetin he talk. Look am here. And then the line wey the story build up to reach:
You no go do something now to bring my ear back?
Then the king stand up. He take one dry leaf put for where the ear dey before. And the dry leaf soft and turn to ear.
Ellis explain the three drums wey dem mention, and that note na truly useful record from that period:
Bata, dundun, and gangan, na the names of different kind of drums. The bata na tall drum, the dundun get small small bells wey hang for body, and the gangan na proper war-drum. These names follow how the sound dey sound. Each drum get him own measure and rhythm, and people dey talk say "to dance the bata, to dance the dundun, or to dance the gangan," just as we dey talk say, "to dance a waltz, to dance a polka, or to dance a quadrille" .
The way e compare am to European dance names na the useful part: e show say each drum get special rhythm wey dancer dey dance to, so to list three drums inside song mean say dem dey list three dances. The corpus talk about these instruments well for yoruba-drum-poetry, and the descriptions wey dey here na Ellis own, wey dem record as wetin one nineteenth-century observer see, no be as how the corpus describe the instruments.
The way the story work na say small mistake wey person make get big wahala as answer, and the story no treat that reaction like say e too much. Wetin kíní-kíní talk to explain him side na just one sentence, e correct completely, and nobody argue am: you leave me commot, na why I take my revenge. The question wey the king ask, "wetin I do you," get complete answer wey make the king no fit argue at all. Instead, he just hit the bird.
Wetin follow after that na the real matter wey the story dey talk about, and the corpus mark this one as analysis. Every other wahala wey happen for the story come from how the king fail to pay attention to people. He forget to invite one bird; he no even send to listen to the birds complaint the first two times, he talk say "that one no be anything" and "e no matter"; he see one bird wey dey produce cowries and immediately he make am something to show the whole country on the fifth day; and when one child let am escape, he flog that child and cut him ear commot. The mistake for the beginning and the cutting of ear for the end na the same failure on different levels, and owe-chiefs-kings-authority gather proverbs about rulers wey no dey see the people wey dey front of dem.
How the son take catch the bird back na the counter-argument, and e build am on top wetin him papa no get at all. He no chase the bird or set trap for am. He make drum, go where birds dey gather, and play till the birds demsef start to beg kíní-kíní make e join dem. Dem catch the bird because dem include am: dem invite am to dance, wey be the only thing wey e want from the start and wetin dey him song complete. The boy method na to give the bird wetin the king deny am, and then control him mind, dey beat drum "like say e no notice anything" while the bird fly round him head three times.
The talk wey happen for the end na the main point of the story. The boy no ask for reward, praise, or make him papa hail am. He ask for him ear back, wey mean say he ask him papa make e fix wetin him papa spoil. And the king fit do am: he take dry leaf and e turn to ear. The corpus note say this one make the cutting of ear worse when person look back at am, instead of to make am better, since e show say the king get the power to fix am since, and he only use am when the child wey he wound ask am directly, after that child don solve the problem for am.
The person wey compile this work no find any version for Yorùbá language and no second collection of this story. The record wey dem check no talk anything about variation.
Story wey dem dey tell for evening, wey dem treat for yoruba-alo. This story give person wey dey tell am plenty things to use pass any other story for Ellis work: song wey dem sing four times, drum text, dance part where the bird twist body and fly round, and beating. If the professional storyteller carry drum, as Ellis record for p. 243 and as alo-the-opening-formula-and-the-teller discuss, then the drum text for this story na cue for the instrument wey dey the storyteller hand, and the people wey dey listen for hear tinliki, tinliki, tinli-puru wey dem play on top drum instead of to speak am with mouth.
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 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.
What A. B. Ellis's 1894 collection contains, why its tale texts are usable, and exactly where its colonial framing has to be refused.
The dùndún as a literary instrument rather than a technical curiosity: oríkì and proverbs delivered on the drum, what the drummer composes from, and how drummed, sung and spoken text relate in one performance.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on the ọba (king), the olóyè (titled chief), and the obligations, dangers and limits that come with holding power over others.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on the duties of host and visitor, the structural vulnerability of the stranger in a Yorùbá town, and the reciprocal etiquette that hospitality is built on.