The Pig and the Tortoise

The pig and the tortoise made friends. And one day the pig said he wished to play and make music in the house of the tortoise. Then the tortoise made a trench in the square courtyard of his house, put fire at the bottom, and laid a mat on top. When the pig came, the tortoise saluted him, complimented him on many things, and asked him to take a seat upon the mat. The pig said: I am quite comfortable here. But the tortoise insisted, saying: you will be better still upon the mat. And as the pig agreed to the suggestion and sat down, he fell into the ditch which had been prepared, and the fire flew up enveloping him. Then the tortoise packed leaves upon the pig and roasted him, because the pig was unable to get out of the trench. When he was roasted the tortoise took him out and scraped him ready for eating. Then he dressed the pig and said to his wife: keep it, I am going to the blacksmith's to have a knife made. Then he departed, and as he went he sang. Original The Yorùbá is not given. Parkinson prints the song in English only. Literal gloss No Yorùbá text recorded in source. Idiomatic English (as printed, in the interpreter's phrasing) > I have killed a fat pig, and the fat dripped into the fire. Translator: John Parkinson Notes on the translation. No Yorùbá survives and nothing is reconstructed. Parkinson's stated method was to keep the interpreter's phrasing, and what survives here is a boast in two clauses, the kill and the fat. The corpus notes that the second clause is the one doing the work: the dripping fat is the evidence of quality, and a song about fat dripping into a fire is a song about wealth in a tradition where meat was not a daily thing. `owe-hunger-food-plenty` collects the proverb material. Now the blacksmith was a dog, and when the tortoise arrived at the shop he said: make me seven knives. And the dog said: why seven at a time? The tortoise answered: I have a fat joint roasted, and I wish to eat. Then said the dog: for one so small how did you get this? But the tortoise only replied: never mind, make me the knives. Now the dog already had six knives made, but the tortoise asked: where is the seventh? The dog replied: I am short of iron, I will go and get it. And while the tortoise waited, the dog went to the tortoise's house and said to his wife: your husband has sent me for the joint. But the wife said no. The dog continued: do I tell you a lie? I left your husband at my shop. So the wife of the tortoise, knowing her husband and the dog were friends, gave him the joint. The dog took the pig, and at the first corner ate it all. Then, after going back to his shop and making the seventh knife, he handed it to the tortoise, and so glad was the latter that he began to sing again. As he neared his home his wife heard him singing and said to herself: > Why does the fool sing? He has already sent for the pig. There will be nothing for me, I see how all this will end. The tortoise entered his house saying: bring the joint. Then replied his wife: what joint do you mean? Are you mad or drunk? The tortoise answered: this is no joke, let me have it. The wife retorted: I am not joking either. What about the man you sent to fetch the pig a little while ago? Who, said the tortoise. And the wife answered: the dog. The tortoise said: I did? And added: I will go and see the dog at once. The tortoise went into the dog's house taking six big sticks, but the dog had seen him coming from afar off and had left the shop. The tortoise threw the sticks after him but could not reach him, so he went into the shop and waited for him to come back, but the dog never came. Hence it is that the dog is so fond of running about to this day in order to see and to avoid the tortoise.