A co-wives tale in which a girl short-changed by an ìwin follows him to the land of the dead, passes tests of humility and obedience, and returns rich, while the head wife's daughter repeats the journey dishonestly and is killed.
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 poor subordinate wife pikin wey one ìwin, goblin or spirit, shortchange one cowry, she follow am go land of the dead to collect am, pass series of test by giving away di good part of everything wey dem offer am, and come back house rich. Di head wife come send im own daughter make she go do di same thing. Di second girl do cheat for every step and dem kill am for im own doorstep. A. B. Ellis record am for English for 1894 .
Na im be di first story for Ellis folklore chapter and one of di two co-wives story wey im print. Ellis note about di second one say "the discomfiture of an ìyálé is a favourite theme" , wey be collector observation about how often e dey happen, and na di closest thing wey dis section get to statement about which human-world story dey common.
Person no fit understand di story without di compound structure, and Ellis explain am for footnote: ìyálé, wey im derive as ìyá-ilé, mistress of the house, na di head wife; di subordinate wives, wey di first girl mama be one of dem, na ìyá-ìwó . owe-family-lineage-compound treat di household, and women-marriage-from-the-womans-side treat di position from di woman own side.
Wetin matter here be say dis na two children of one man for one compound, and say di rivalry wey dey drive di plot dey between dia mothers instead of between dem.
Di person wey tell Ellis di story open am say: "My alo is about a woman whose little girl made palm-oil" .
One day after di girl don make palm-oil, she carry am go market go sell, and stay there dey sell till night dark well-well. As place dark, one ìwin, wey Ellis explain as goblin, spirit or ghost , come buy palm-oil and pay am with cowries.
When di girl count dem, she see say one short, and she ask di goblin for di cowry wey dey miss. Di goblin talk say im no get cowries again, and di girl start to cry: my mama go beat me if I go house with cowry wey short.
Di goblin waka go, and di girl waka follow am.
Go away, di goblin talk; turn back, because nobody fit enter di country where I dey stay.
No, di girl talk; anywhere you go I go follow you, until you pay me my cowry.
Na so she follow am far, far way, until dem reach di country where people dey stand on dia head inside dia mortar and pound yam with dia head. Den dem go far way again and reach one river of dirty things. And di goblin sing.
Dem no give di Yorùbá. Ellis print dis song for English only .
No Yorùbá text for source; literal morpheme gloss no dey available.
Idiomatic English (Ellis's rendering, as printed) Translator: A. B. Ellis
Goblin: Oh! young palm-oil seller, you must turn back now.
Girl: Unless I get my cowry, I no go leave your track.
Goblin: Oh! young palm-oil seller. Soon dis track go lead, To di bloody river, Dat time you must turn back.
Girl: I no go turn back.
Goblin: You see dat dark forest?
Girl: I no go turn back.
Goblin: You see dat rough mountain?
Girl: I no go turn back. Unless I get my cowry I no go leave your track.
No Yorùbá survive and dem no reconstruct anything. Ellis translate di exchange as rhymed English verse, back/track, and di rhyme na im own: Victorian translator convention to show say na song dem dey sing. Wetin person fit observe structurally na di antiphonal shape, warning wey dey increase through four terrors and refusal wey no dey change. Di girl line na fixed response against different call, wey be di àlọ́ àpagbè mechanism wey dem describe for yoruba-alo, and na very likely di part wey di audience sing, though Ellis no talk so.
Dem waka far, far way, and at last reach di land of dead people.
For there di goblin give am palm-nuts make she use am make palm-oil, and talk say: chop di palm-oil and give me di ha-ha. Ellis explain ha-ha as di stringy remains of di pulp of di nut after dem don press out di oil . But when dem make di oil finish, di girl give di oil to di goblin and chop di ha-ha by herself. And di goblin talk say: very well.
Small time di goblin give am banana and talk say: chop dis banana and give me di skin. But di girl peel am, give di banana to di goblin, and chop di skin by herself.
Den di goblin talk say: go pick three ado. Ellis explain ado as very small calabash, wey dem commonly dey use keep medicine powder . No pick di ado wey dey shout "pick me, pick me, pick me," but pick di ones wey no talk anything, and den return go house. When you reach half-way break one, break another one for di house door, and di third one when you dey inside.
She pick as dem tell am and go house. For half-way, she break one, and plenty slaves and horses appear come dey follow am. For di door she break di second one, and sheep, goats and fowls appear, wey pass two hundred. Inside di house she break di last one, and cowries full di house overflow, dey pour come outside through doors and windows.
Den di girl mama carry twenty country-cloths, twenty strings of expensive beads, twenty sheep and goats, and twenty fowls, go give present to di head wife.
Di head wife ask where all dis things from come, and when dem tell am, she refuse to accept dem. She talk say she go send her own child make she go do di same thing, and she fit easily get as much.
So di head wife make palm-oil and send her own daughter make she go sell am for market. Di goblin come buy and pay di correct number of cowries, but di girl hide one and pretend say im no give am reach.
Wetin I go do now, di goblin talk. I no get cowries again.
Oh, di girl talk, I go follow you go your house, den you go fit pay me. And di goblin talk say: very well.
For road di goblin sing as im do before, and di girl answer, but di exchange short pass dis time and her refusal dey flat. Den di goblin talk say: very well. Come along. And dem waka go till dem reach di land of dead people.
Na there the goblin give am palm-nuts come talk say: when the oil don ready, chop am yourself come bring me the ha-ha. And she chop the oil come bring am the ha-ha. And the goblin talk say: e good.
Then e give am banana come talk say: chop the banana yourself come bring me the skin. And she chop the banana come carry the skin give am.
Then e talk say: go pick three ado. No pick the ones wey dey shout "pick me, pick me, pick me," but pick the ones wey no talk anything.
She go. She see ado wey no talk anything, and she leave dem. She see others wey dey shout "pick me, pick me, pick me," and she pick three from dem.
As she reach half road to house, she break one, and lion dem, leopard dem, hyena dem and snake dem come appear, run follow am, harass am, and bite am reach door. For door she break the second one, and wild animals wey wicked pass dem attack am, bite am and tear am. The door lock, and na only person wey deaf dey inside the house. The girl shout call the deaf person make e open door, but the person no hear am. And na there, for the door mouth, the wild animals kill am.
The main point wey the story turn na one rejection wey modern English reader fit no understand well, and Ellis bin foresee this thing well-well. E put footnote for the moment wey the senior wife reject the gift:
For European eye, this one go look like good behavior from the iyale side, because dem go think say she no want take plenty property from the junior wife, but dat one no be native view. For native mind, person dey only reject gift when e dey keep malice against the person wey give am the gift, and to reject gift na sign of enmity .
Na this footnote make sense pass for inside all the material wey Ellis write wey no be tortoise story, because without am, person no go see where the story bend enter. The gift wey the junior wife give na sign of respect from junior to senior for the compound, and if she bin accept am, e for settle the matter come confirm the hierarchy. To reject am na declaration. owe-gratitude-ingratitude-reciprocity gather proverb materials on top gifts and the duty wey follow dem.
Two warning on top how the corpus use this note. The observation about how dem dey reject gift get strong meaning for ethnographic study and e carry weight, so dem keep am. The way dem frame am, "the native view," "the native mind," na the kind general talk of dat period wey dem describe for alo-ellis-1894-as-a-source, and dem quote am here as old-time artifact instead of make dem take am as normal way to talk.
The way e dey work na test wey person no go know say na test, wey dem run two times with the answers open in plain sight. Nothing for the goblin instruction tell the first girl make she give the good part commot. E tell am make she chop the oil come give am the dregs, but she do the opposite. E tell am make she chop the banana come give am the skin, and she do the opposite. E no be say she dey obey, and na dat one be the main point: wetin she dey do na to show respect, to take the worse part in front of person wey deserve respect, wey be normal way to behave give elder for the compound wey she from come. Her reward no be for cleverness or obedience, but for habit.
The ado test na the opposite. For here, the instruction clear well-well, make she pick the quiet ones, and the first girl follow am exactly. The second girl turn the two upside down: she take the good portion when dem tell am to take am, wey be obedience, and she pick the calabashes wey dey shout, wey be disobedience. Dem punish am for the disobedience, but the corpus note for analysis say her real failure start early and e come from her character. She take the oil because dem tell am to do so, as she no get any instinct wey go make am do otherwise, and she pick the ado wey dey shout because person go think say anything wey dey announce itself must to be valuable thing.
Dat last one na the sharpest idea for the story and e make sense to talk am plain: the calabashes wey dey advertise demselves na dem full with lion. owe-pride-humility-self-knowledge carry the proverb material on top self-advertisement.
Dem no soften the ending. Wild animals kill child for door mouth while deaf person no fit hear as she dey call. The corpus record say Yorùbá warning stories for children dey usually harsh reach like this, and alo-cautionary-tales-and-what-they-threaten treat this pattern across the section.
Lastly, make una note who dem punish. The senior wife start everything come lose her daughter; the daughter do cheat and die. The story no share the consequence equal-equal, and the mama, wey her rejection of the gift start everything, remain alive with the pain say she don lose pikin. Whether Yorùbá storytellers understand dat one as her punishment, the record wey dem check no talk am.
Ellis own Tale II, alo-the-poor-woman-and-the-aranran-bird, na second co-wives story with wetin Ellis call resembling plot : one poor woman become rich through encounter with supernatural powers, the senior wife try to copy am, and the attempt end in child death. E better make person read the two together, and the note wey Ellis write say this one na "a favourite theme" show say dem represent one particular type instead of two separate stories.
The person wey compile this work no find any Yorùbá-language version. yorubatales.com carry one story wey dem title "The Two Wives" , wey dey show say dat kind story still dey move around, but the site no put who get each story and dem no quote anything from am.
Na evening time dem dey tell am, as dem treat for yoruba-alo. The song dey repeat, full for the first journey and short for the second one, and the audience wey hear the short version already know the road wey e dey describe. The journey itself dey built like sequence of wonders, people wey dey pound yam with their head, the river of dirt, the dark forest, the rough mountain, the land of the dead, and each of dem na place where the storyteller fit stop and explain well-well.
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 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 A. B. Ellis's 1894 collection contains, why its tale texts are usable, and exactly where its colonial framing has to be refused.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about the household, the lineage, the father's house and the obligations that follow from being born into a particular family.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about courtship, the bond between husband and wife, and the frictions and duties of the polygynous marriage itself.
Twenty-one Yorùbá proverbs on doing and receiving favors, the risk that kindness goes unrewarded or turns to harm, and the moral weight of ingratitude, drawn from a thinner sourced record than most themes in this corpus.