How the Tortoise Helped the Animals
A drought tale in which every large animal fails to reach the water and the despised tortoise solves it by asking one question, then is trampled by the animals coming to thank him.
intermediatemedium·
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A drought tale in which every large animal fails to reach the water and the despised tortoise solves it by asking one question, then is trampled by the animals coming to thank him.
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 one dry season story wey di animal dem find water wey dem no fit drink because di creature dem wey dey live inside dey sing pursue dem, and every big and powerful animal try one by one but dem fail. Di tortoise, wey dem laugh and tell make e comot because e be nobody, con solve di problem by asking just one single question. Di animal dem con come thank am, but dem no see am, con march ontop am, and na di footmark dem be di mark wey dey en back. Na John Parkinson collect am from Ọ̀yọ́ informants and publish am for 1909 .
Na him be di first inside di three story dem about how tortoise shell take start for Parkinson sequence , and na him pass all of dem interesting by far, because e turn di normal moral shape of di cycle upside down: for here, Ìjàpá no be thief or cheat, but na him be di only pesin wey get sense pass for di room.
During one dry season, di animal dem go consult di babaláwo, wey be say dat time na ground-rat dem . Di chief ground-rat take Ifá, wey Parkinson explain as "nuts of the palm-tree with the shell on," con ask when water go dey. And di rat talk say: yes, water go dey tomorrow. Den e continue: make una go one particular place and una go see one big stream.
Di first animal wey go verify dis thing see di water, but e no fit near am drink because of plenty fish, snail, and crab dem wey sing out .
Ti barua, ti barua, o, i gi, ti barua, ti barua.
No one fit give any. Parkinson no supply any translation or explanation.
No one dey available. Dem print di line without translation. Translator: Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ editorial rendering, unreviewed
Dis na di only Yorùbá text wey dem keep for Parkinson tortoise story dem, and dem print am for 1909 spelling style without any tone mark and without subdot . Dem bring am out here exactly as dem print am. No translation dey because Parkinson no supply any, and di compiler no go try form one: without tone mark di line dey really ambiguous, and if pesin guess di meaning, e go just be like lie wey dem dress up as scholarly work. Di record put am as untranslated chorus and keep quiet on wetin e mean.
Wetin pesin fit talk na about di structure. Di line repeat di same way three times as dem dey tell di story, dey work like fixed audience chorus as di story dey change, wey be di àlọ́ àpagbè mechanism wey dem describe for yoruba-alo. Whether na real words Yorùbá, or words wey change form, or just sounds without meaning like di kind Alugbinrin and Jómijó wey dey for alo-ijapa-and-the-babalawo, di record wey dem consult no establish dat one.
Den di animal dem con want choose another animal, and Afafa, wey Parkinson explain as "a beast like a small dog," talk say e go go drink . But di others talk say no, you dey make too much noise, and Parkinson note for one corner say Afafa dey bark well well for night. You no fit do anything, dem tell am. And Afafa vex, con enter bush, dey keep body far from di others reach today.
So dem send another animal, and di fish and crab dem sing again, and e no fit drink . So dem con choose dia King wey be Elephant, and di Elephant sef must talk say: I don go, but I no fit drink.
Den di stag volunteer say e go go, say e go use en horns kill all dis beasts; but when e reach di river e no fit do anything . Den di leopard talk say: I go kill all of dem with my claws. But all di fish sing, and e con return, as e no fit do anything.
As dem all dey consult, di tortoise enter con greet dem, con ask say: wetin una dey do here ? And dem talk say: comot here.
But di tortoise talk say:
I just come check wetin dey happen, for three days una don dey hold meeting. Wetin con dey wrong?
And some talk say, comot, you be nobody, but others talk say, wait, make una no look en size, hear all wetin e get to talk . And dem tell am everything wey dey happen for di matter.
Den di tortoise talk say e go help dem, but dem all mock am, dey talk again say: comot here; now you don know wetin we don do . Comot.
Still di tortoise remain, con talk di sentence wey di whole story balance ontop:
If I no fit do am, I go still show una di way. Who tell una about di river?
And dem talk say: na di ground-rat.
Den di tortoise answer: di matter simple. Make una go meet am con talk say, we see di river but we no fit near am.
And dem do as e talk, con go meet di ground-rat, talk say: we don see di river for three days but we no fit near am. Den di rat talk say: why una no come meet me at once come tell me di first time?
Den e talk say: call di vulture. And dem call am con send am follow one animal go di river, and di rat give order say make di vulture ready himself when di animal start to drink. When dem reach di river side di vulture land con stand for bank, and when di other animal start to drink, all di fish shout dia chorus. But di vulture dip en beak inside water and, as e dey pull dem out, e fling dem for di river bank, so from dat day all di toad and frog dem con dey live for edge of di river; and all di animal dem drink, while di rat dem still dey worship di Ifá, and if you go dia holes you go see di nuts there till today.
Den, after dem don drink finish, all di animal dem go meet di tortoise make dem thank am, but when dem reach where e dey dem no fit see am, con march ontop am, and na dia footmarks be wetin you dey see for en back till today, while to make sure say dem no march am again e still dey live under leaves.
Di mechanism na dat di problem no be di fish at all. Na say nobody go back to meet di diviner. Five animals attack di symptom as power dey increase, di noisy one, one wey dem no name, di Elephant wey be dia king, di stag with en horns, di leopard with en claws, and every escalation dey fail di exact same way. Di tortoise no bring any power, any plan or any trick. E just ask say who tell una about di river, con send dem go back to di pesin wey already get di answer.
Dis tori dey talk about how to consult oracle well, and wetin di babalawo talk make am clear: wetin make una no come meet me at once come tell me di first time? Di Ifá system dey treated for ifa-ese-verses, and wetin dis tori dey show na di normal discipline wey dey inside, say consultation na relationship, no be just one-time business, and say client wey collect direction but come jam obstacle suppose return. Di animals treat di divination like say di matter don finish once e deliver. Everything wey tortoise understand na about di correct process.
How dem describe di character na di part wey catch person eye pass. Ìjàpá for here no be trickster at all. E reach there with respect and hail di meeting, dem tell am two times make e commot and tell am once say e be nobody, but e still stay. Wetin e take answer dem when dem dey yab am, "if I can't do it, yet will I show you the way," show humble and correct description of wetin e later do. E no take food, e no cheat anybody, and e no ask for anything. Di corpus note for owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster say proverb record hold both tortoise wey dem dey praise and tortoise wey dem dey laugh without settling di two; dis tori na di story version of dat thing, and na proof say di story cycle wide pass just di greedy schemer wey full alo-ijapa-and-the-rock-of-yams and alo-the-tortoise-and-tela.
Di ending wicked pass all for dis section and e be like say di tori self know am. Di animals wey laugh am come thank am, but dem no fit see am, because e small and dey ground, wey be di exact thing wey make dem despise am before. How dem take dey thank am come wound am di same way and for di same reason wey dem take look down on am. And wetin e do na to go live under leaf permanently, so di tori end with di only animal wey help everybody deciding say e go dey live out of sight. Di corpus mark as analysis di observation say dis na aetiology for two things at di same time: di marks wey dey shell and how tortoise dey hide, and say e explain di second one as wetin tortoise learn after people wey no fit even look down value am.
Three other aetiologies still join follow am: why Afafa dey stay separate from other animals, why toads and frogs dey live for water side, and why palm-nuts dey inside ground-rat hole.
Parkinson editor add one long comparative footnote wey identify dis one as variant of one African story type wey spread well well, where dem block animals make dem no drink water. E mention Hottentot version, "The Story of a Dam," wey Thomas Bain record for South African Folk-lore Journal Vol. I p. 69; one Ronga tori for Junod p. 127; one Basuto form wey Jacottet give as "Le Chacal et la Source"; Tete, Bemba and Chinamwanga versions; and "La Caverne des Animaux" (Malinke) for inside Monteil Contes Soudanais. Di editor note say for most Bantu versions, just like here, tortoise na di hero wey succeed .
None of dem be Yorùbá, and di corpus record dem as di editor comparative apparatus instead of variants of di Yorùbá tori. Wetin di footnote establish na say na one story wey don travel well well dem tell here with Yorùbá diviner, Ifá palm-nuts, and Yorùbá aetiology wey dem join put, wey be normal condition of folktale material and no be reason to doubt di Yorùbá telling.
Dis compiler no find any second Yorùbá collection of dis tori.
Evening telling, wey dey treated for yoruba-alo. Di chorus repeat at least three times as di animals dey fail one after di other, and how Parkinson take print am with "&c." after di first full statement show say im interpreter repeat am in full every time and say Parkinson shorten am for print. Di tori come be say dem sing am pass as e appear for di page when dem dey perform am.
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 Yorùbá tradition holds no single account of the marks on the tortoise's shell, and this file sets the four sourced narratives side by side to show what varies and what does not.
An Ọ̀yọ́ variant of the magic yam-rock tale in which the rock opens to a song rather than a command, and Ìjàpá betrays his friend by bringing the whole country to empty the store.
What John Parkinson's Ọ̀yọ́ tale collection contains, why its stated provenance is unusually candid for its period, and how to read its editor's comparative footnotes.
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.
The verses filed under each Odù are case reports in verse, built to a described eight-part structure, held collectively across practitioners rather than by any one person.