The Voices of Birds
An aetiological tale in which a jealous magician talks a grove of plain brown songbirds into trading their voices for bright feathers, explaining why the most beautiful birds cannot sing.
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An aetiological tale in which a jealous magician talks a grove of plain brown songbirds into trading their voices for bright feathers, explaining why the most beautiful birds cannot sing.
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 aetiological tori wey dey explain why di birds wey fine pass no fit sing. One magician, wey dey jealous bikos im no get voice to sing, convince some normal brown songbirds for inside forest say dia feather ugly, con tell dem say im fit make dia body fine with bright colour if dem give am dia voice. Dem agree. Im pack di voices put inside calabash, swallow dem, con popular bikos of di singing. M. I. Ogumefu record am for English inside 1929 .
Na dis tori near pass for dis section to di wise-and-foolish moral comedy wey Yorùbá tradition dey treat well well for inside proverb, and di main thing inside di tori na di sweet mouth wey di magician take convince dem.
One time, one magician pass through one small forest where plenty brown birds dey fly from tree to tree and dey sing sweet songs everywhere . Im sit down listen for long time, and di sweet melody sweet am well well, but na jealousy take end am, bikos imsef no fit sing.
For di end, im feel say im must get di voice of dis birds by all means, so im call all of dem together con talk say :
E dey pain me say di gods give una dis kind poor, ugly brown feathers. See how una for happy reach if una get bright colours like red, blue, orange, and green!
And di birds agree say na big pity say dem ugly like dat .
Di magician con talk say with im juju, im fit give all of dem fine feathers if dem exchange am with dia voice, wey dem no even dey really use do anything, since nobody dey come inside di forest come hear dem .
Di birds reason wetin im talk, and dem really want di beauty wey im promise dem . So like mumu, dem agree to give am dia voice, wey di magician pack all of dem put inside big calabash. Im con use im juju change di dull brown feathers to orange, green, and red, and body sweet dem well well.
Di magician quick-quick comot, and as soon as im reach place wey nobody dey, im open di calabash con swallow wetin dey inside . From dat day, im voice sweet pass anything, and people come from far and near to listen to im songs.
But di birds dey satisfied with dia bright feathers . And na why di birds wey fine pass no fit sing at all.
Di way dem do di 419 na through reframing, and every move inside am na just mouth talk. Di magician no take anything by force and im no talk open lie. Im do di exchange wey im promise: di birds ask for bright feathers and dem get bright feathers.
Di way im take tif am dey inside three sentence, and e make sense to separate dem.
First, im put defect wey no dey before. "E dey pain me say di gods give una dis kind poor, ugly brown feathers." Nothing inside di tori show say di birds no dey happy with dia colour before im talk am. Di next line wey Ogumefu write na di sharpest for di tori: "di birds agree say na big pity say dem ugly like dat." Dem accept im assessment sharp-sharp con carry am make dia own.
After dat, im bring down di value of wetin dem get. Dia voice "no even dey really use do anything, since nobody dey come inside di forest come hear dem." Na dis place be di main turning point, and na im carry di best irony inside di tori: im dey stand for inside dat forest bikos im come hear dem, and im sit down dey listen for long time, as di melody sweet am. Imsef na living proof say wetin im talk na lie at di exact time wey im talk am. Di birds no notice.
After dat, im present di trade like say na dash or help. Dem present di exchange like say na im dey solve dia problem, and dem con thank am for am.
Di corpus analysis note say di tori point out where di foolishness really dey, and no be where modern reader fit expect am. Di birds no be mumu bikos dem want fine. Dem be mumu bikos dem allow stranger tell dem wetin dem worth, and bikos dem accept di value wey person wey want dia gift put on top di gift. owe-folly-wisdom-experience gather proverb material on top dis kind foolishness, and owe-beauty-ugliness-appearance on top how appearance dey different from substance.
Di last line do something wey di plot no really need. "But di birds dey satisfied with dia bright feathers." Dem never ever discover. No scene dey where dem find out, no moment where dem open dia beak and nothing comot con understand wetin happen. Dem get wetin dem ask for and body dey sweet dem for am, permanently, and di tori end with di wayo man popular and di people wey im cheat dey satisfied. Dat ending dark pass if to say na punishment dem give am, and na inside subordinate clause dem drop am.
Di tori dey explain wetin people dey see for real life: many times, birds wey get bright colour no sabi sing, and normal brown ones na dem dey sing pass. Na di same style of explanation as alo-how-leopard-got-his-spots and di shell tori dem wey dey gathered inside alo-why-the-tortoise-shell-is-marked, where something wey person fit see for animal body dey come out as result of moral event.
Wetin make dis one different na say di fact wey e dey explain na trade-off instead of ordinary mark. Di shell tori dem dey explain scar; dis one dey explain why two good things no dey happen together, and e use exchange take answer am. Di corpus note say dis one na more advanced aetiological form, bikos e no just explain one animal condition, but e explain pattern across many animals.
Di work wey make dem write dis file include Ọlọ́gbọ́n and Òpè tori dem, di wise person and di fool, as category of human-world moral comedy. Dis compiler no fit find any sourced Yorùbá tori collection wey dem arrange around named wise-man-and-fool pair, and im no claim say any one dey inside di form wey di category describe.
Wetin di record wey dem check support na say di wisdom-and-folly register dey well-well inside Yorùbá verbal art, and na proverbs mostly carry am pass tale cycle. owe-folly-wisdom-experience gather dat material. For narrative side, di closest material wey dey na dis tori, plus Ogumefu "The Three Magicians," wey king "foolishly" refuse three magicians permission make dem go home, and wetin dem do na to show am wetin dem fit do without im permission , and "The Ten Goldsmiths," wey be craft-and-judgement tori . Dis compiler never read any of di two last ones in full, and none of dem dey presented here.
Di corpus state dis gap clearly instead of trying to fill am. One category fit dey real inside tradition but thin for di record wey person fit access, and di honest report na say di wise-fool comedy inside di sources wey dis section fit get dey inside proverbs, no be inside tales.
Dis compiler no see any Yorùbá-language version and no second collection of dis tori. Di record wey dem check no talk anything about variation or about any song.
Na evening dem dey tell am, as dem treat for yoruba-alo. Dem no record any song, even though tori about birds wey lose their voice go strange make person sing am, and di corpus mention am without saying for sure say na di topic fit be di reason. As Ogumefu already talk say im omit songs (alo-ogumefu-1929-as-a-source), di fact say song no dey no be evidence for any side.
Di shape of di tori when dem dey perform am na single speech with three moves, wey make am teller piece pass audience piece: di way di magician take persuade dem na di whole event, and na to one grove of birds wey stand like di room dem deliver am to.
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.
Two competing aetiologies of the leopard's markings printed consecutively by one collector, one in which Akiti the hunter's arrows leave dark marks on an invulnerable leopard, and one in which a bathing woman throws her soapy loofah at him.
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.
Fifty Yorùbá proverbs on foolishness, wisdom as practical judgement, and the way experience, not instruction alone, is what actually teaches.
Thirty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on beauty and its uses, the danger it attracts, adornment, and the gap between how a person looks and what a person is, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Fifty-five Yorùbá proverbs on pride, arrogance, humility, and the limits of what a person can know about themselves, each given with the original, a literal gloss, and a named translation.