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.
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.
Na this be di second story among di two co-wife story dem wey Ellis collect, and na here e tell us say this kain story common: "this story is also about the discomfiture of an ìyálé, which is a favourite theme," and e still add say "the plot resembles the foregoing" . One poor junior wife lose her pikin give àranran, one bird of prey, e sing for am three times, and dem first give am coral bead dem, then valuable property, and after that di pikin self, without any harm. Di head wife carry another wife pikin go di same tree make e fit repeat di same thing, but di bird kill and chop di pikin. Di story end with how dem judge di head wife for front of di king and kill am.
Di song keep Yorùbá word dem, wey make am one of di very few text dem for this section wey any part of di original language still remain.
Di person wey tell Ellis di story start say: "My alo is about a poor young woman" .
One poor young woman dey wey get pikin. E poor sotey e no fit buy cloth wey e go wear, and na plantain leaf e take tie her pikin put for back.
E dey always go inside bush go fetch firewood to sell. One day e go as e dey always do. One tall tree dey there, and under am e put her pikin down make e sleep for shade.
Now inside this tree, one àranran dey there, wey Ellis explain say na bird of prey, "probably from ra, to hover" . As di young woman dey cut firewood, di àranran catch di pikin carry am go up inside di tree.
When e don tie her bundle of wood finish, e come back to where e leave her pikin, but e no see am. E look everywhere and run up and down, dey cry well well. Finally e look up, and see her pikin for inside di àranran claw dem, high up for top of di tree. And e come start to dey sing.
Àranran, eiye igbo, igbo, Give me back my child, oh, igbo. Here is a rope of tie-tie, igbo; Quickly let my child down, igbo.
Translator: A. B. Ellis
Note dem on top di translation and di orthography. Ellis tell us exactly why di Yorùbá dey here: "the native words are here retained in order to preserve the rhythm" . That na decision wey translator take wey dem report open-open, and e mean say di Yorùbá wey remain no be just part of transcription wey cut comot, but na rhythm thing wey dem leave intentionally: igbo dey fall for end of all di four line dem as di beat wey dey repeat, and Ellis judge say if e translate am, e go spoil di shape of di song.
Dem print di text without tone mark dem and without subdot dem, for 1894 orthography, and na so dem reproduce am here. To add diacritics go mean say person dey give am one specific reading, and di corpus no do that one. Dem only put di modern form dem for di gloss just to identify am.
Wetin remain then na part of di song: one Yorùbá refrain word wey dey carry di rhythm, while di line dem wey carry di meaning dey translated into English. Di corpus record this one say e better pass nothing, but e still far less pass transcription. Make una also note say tie-tie, wey dey di third line as if na Yorùbá word, no be so: na West African colonial English, and as e dey inside di printed song, na sign of di translator hand instead of di person wey tell di story.
When di young woman don sing this one finish, di àranran throway one bag of coral beads down give am. E run go meet di bag open am, but her pikin no dey inside, so e throway di bag down come sing again.
Then di àranran pack all kain valuable property dem throway down give am. And di mama look here look there as di thing dem dey drop, but her pikin still no dey there, so e sing di same song di third time.
Then di àranran carry di pikin fly come down with am, come put am jeje for ground.
Di young woman run go meet her pikin, carry am carry put for back. E still pack all di thing dem wey di bird throway down. And from person wey dey poor, e come turn rich person.
After e reach house, e take twenty strings of coral bead dem go give di ìyálé. But di ìyálé, when e hear how di young woman take get di beads, e reject dem.
This rejection na di same turning point like di one for alo-the-palm-oil-seller-and-the-goblin, and Ellis footnote wey explain say gift wey person reject dey show enmity, dem discuss am there.
Di ìyálé carry one pikin wey belong to one of di other wife dem, carry am go inside bush. E put am under di tree of di àranran come comot go cut wood.
But as e dey cut wood, di àranran carry di pikin, kill am and chop am.
When di ìyálé return come back to under di tree and no see di pikin, e start to dey sing as di young woman do. Then di àranran shit well well inside one bag, tie di mouth of di bag, come throway am down. Di woman run go meet am, pick am loose am, see say dirty full inside am, come throway am go. Then e sing again. This time around di bird pass urine inside one big calabash drop am make e fall, sotey e break for her head. And e sing for di third time.
Then di àranran carry di bone dem of di pikin throway down give am.
Di ìyálé run go look di bone dem, come shout say: this one no be my pikin. Na another woman pikin this bird kill, as e think say na my own. Then e comot go.
When e reach house, di mama of di pikin come meet di ìyálé make e collect her small pikin. And di ìyálé talk say di pikin dey very well, but say e no dey with am.
Plenti times di mama come ask for her pikin, and when three months don pass wey dem never return di pikin, e carry di matter go front of di king.
She tell the king everything: say the ìyálé collect the pikin from her hand, and say three months don pass and dem never bring the pikin come back.
The king call the ìyálé come and ask am: wetin you do with the pikin? Where the pikin dey? And the ìyálé answer: wetin you think say I suppose do with am?
Then the king tell the people wey gather there say: if na una get this woman, wetin una go do with am? And all the people answer: if na we get am, we go kill am.
And the king talk say: make dem kill am then. Na so dem take kill the ìyálé.
The way the tori take work na three-time repetition wey the same song dey bring out wetin opposite each other, and the people wey dey listen dey count to three two times. The bird three answers to the poor woman dey go up, beads, then different kind valuable things, then the pikin. Im three answers to the ìyálé dey go down enter shame, shit, urine wey pour for im head, and last-last the bones. The structure be like mirror, and the song na the fixed point: the same words, wey two women sing for the same tree to the same bird, wey bring wealth and living pikin for one side and dirty things with skeleton for the other side.
Wetin separate them no be the words but the purpose of the waka. The first woman dey find her son. The second one dey try get the same result, and she carry pikin wey no be her own do am. The tori make this one clear for the most wicked line wey any of the women talk: when dem show am the bones, the ìyálé say "this one no be my pikin," and she waka comot. She no talk lie, but na the worst thing person fit talk. She just watch as dem kill pikin because she put am under one bird tree, and the answer wey she give na to talk say the loss no be her own.
Then the tori do something wey the other co-wives tori no do: e go court. The mother wey lose her pikin wait, ask several times, and after three months, she carry the matter go meet the king, wey call the accused person, hear how she take deflect the answer, and throw the question give the people wey gather before e give judgment. The corpus note say this one na short but correct picture of Yorùbá court hearing, and owe-justice-judgement-court gather the proverb material. The king no judge with only im own power; e ask the gathering wetin them go do, and them answer, and e approve am. The punishment na community decision, wey be the same structure wey the analysis of Ìjàpá àti Ìgbín for yoruba-alo identify as how the tradition dey usually resolve matters.
The corpus mark as analysis the observation say the real topic of the tori no be greed, but how person take treat another person pikin like tool wey dem fit use. The crime of the ìyálé no be envy, wey the tori treat as normal thing, or even say she reject the gift. Na say she solve her problem by using a pikin wey belong to woman wey no get power reach her, and say when dem ask the community directly, dem choose death.
The other tori wey follow am, alo-the-palm-oil-seller-and-the-goblin, get the same shape: poor junior wife wey get wealth through supernatural encounter, senior wife reject gift, try copy wetin happen, and pikin die. Ellis note say this one na "a favourite theme" na statement about how that kind tori dey show well-well for the material wey e collect, and the corpus record am as wetin the collector observe instead of systematic research finding.
Two differences dey important to note. For the goblin tori, the senior wife send her own daughter and lose am; for here, she carry another wife pikin and no lose anything for her own self, na why this version need court case and the other one no need am. And for here, the punishment fall on the person wey start the trouble instead of the pikin wey dey copy, wey make this one clear pass on the moral side between the two.
This compiler no see any version for Yorùbá language.
Na evening time dem dey tell am, as dem discuss for yoruba-alo. Dem sing the song six times for the tori, three times by each woman, and Ellis print am in full every time instead of to shorten am, wey show say the person wey tell am do the same thing. As Yorùbá refrain word dey close every line, this one dey among the clearest examples for this section of song wey dem make for audience to follow sing.
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 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.
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.
Forty Yorùbá proverbs on the lawsuit, the hearing, the judge and the verdict, on what makes a judgement fair and what corrupts it, and on the guilt that arrives before anyone rules on it, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
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