The Palm-Oil Seller and the Goblin

Ellis's teller opens: "My alo is about a woman whose little girl made palm-oil". One day when the girl had made palm-oil she took it to market to sell, and stayed there selling until it was quite dark. When it was dark an ìwin, which Ellis glosses as goblin, spirit or ghost, came to buy palm-oil and paid her in cowries. When the girl counted them she found one short, and asked the goblin for the missing cowry. The goblin said he had no more cowries, and the girl began crying: my mother will beat me if I go home with a cowry short. The goblin walked away, and the girl walked after him. Go away, said the goblin; turn back, for no one can enter the country where I live. No, said the girl; wherever you go I will follow, until you pay me my cowry. So she followed a long, long way, until they came to the country where the people stand on their heads in their mortars and pound yams with their heads. Then they went on a long way further and came to a river of filth. And the goblin sang. Original The Yorùbá is not given. Ellis prints this song in English only. Literal gloss No Yorùbá text in source; literal morpheme gloss unavailable. Idiomatic English (Ellis's rendering, as printed) Translator: A. B. Ellis > Goblin: Oh! young palm-oil seller, > you must now turn back. > > Girl: Save I get my cowry, > I'll not leave your track. > > Goblin: Oh! young palm-oil seller. > Soon will lead this track, > To the bloody river, > Then you must turn back. > > Girl: I will not turn back. > > Goblin: See yon gloomy forest? > > Girl: I will not turn back. > > Goblin: See yon craggy mountain? > > Girl: I will not turn back. > Save I get my cowry > I'll not leave your track. Notes on the translation. No Yorùbá survives and nothing is reconstructed. Ellis has rendered the exchange as rhymed English verse, back/track, and the rhyme is his: a Victorian translator's convention for marking that something was sung. What can be observed structurally is the antiphonal shape, a warning that escalates through four terrors and a refusal that does not change. The girl's line is a fixed response against a varying call, which is the àlọ́ àpagbè mechanism described in `yoruba-alo`, and it is very likely the part the audience sang, though Ellis does not say so. They walked on a long, long way, and at last arrived at the land of dead people. There the goblin gave her palm-nuts to make palm-oil, and said: eat the palm-oil and give me the ha-ha. Ellis glosses ha-ha as the stringy remains of the pulp of the nut after the oil has been expressed. But when the oil was made, the girl gave the oil to the goblin and ate the ha-ha herself. And the goblin said: very well. By and by the goblin gave her a banana and said: eat this banana and give me the skin. But the girl peeled it, gave the banana to the goblin, and ate the skin herself. Then the goblin said: go and pick three ado. Ellis glosses ado as a very small calabash, commonly used for keeping medicinal powders. Do not pick the ado which cry "pick me, pick me, pick me," but pick those which say nothing, and then return home. When you are half-way back break one, break another at the house-door, and the third when you are inside. She picked as she was told and went home. Half-way, she broke one, and many slaves and horses appeared and followed her. At the door she broke the second, and sheep and goats and fowls appeared, more than two hundred. Inside the house she broke the last, and the house filled to overflowing with cowries, pouring out of the doors and windows. Then the girl's mother took twenty country-cloths, twenty strings of valuable beads, twenty sheep and goats and twenty fowls, and went to make a present to the head wife. The head wife asked where all these things came from, and when she had been told, she refused to accept them. She said she would send her own child to do the same, and could easily get as much. So the head wife made palm-oil and sent her own daughter to sell it in the market. The goblin came and bought and paid the proper number of cowries, but the girl hid one and pretended he had not given her enough. What am I to do, said the goblin. I have no more cowries. Oh, said the girl, I will follow you to your house, and then you can pay me. And the goblin said: very well. On the road the goblin sang as before, and the girl answered, but the exchange is shorter this time and her refusals are flat. Then the goblin said: very well. Come along. And they walked on till they reached the land of dead people. There the goblin gave her palm-nuts and said: when the oil is made, eat it yourself and bring me the ha-ha. And she ate the oil and brought him the ha-ha. And the goblin said: very well. Then he gave her a banana and said: eat the banana yourself and bring me the skin. And she ate the banana and carried him the skin. Then he said: go and pick three ado. Do not pick those which cry "pick me, pick me, pick me," but pick those which say nothing. She went. She found ado which said nothing, and left them alone. She found others crying "pick me, pick me, pick me," and picked three of those. Half-way home she broke one, and lions and leopards and hyenas and snakes appeared, and ran after her and harassed her and bit her until she reached the door. At the door she broke the second, and more ferocious animals came upon her and bit and tore her. The door was shut, and there was only a deaf person in the house. The girl called to the deaf person to open the door, but he heard her not. And there, upon the threshold, the wild beasts killed her.