Ìjàpá and Erin: The False Coronation

As told by Pa. Oduremi Eluwole's fellow informant Mr. Adisa Yusufu, aged 68, of Oke-Oniti, Oshogbo, recorded 26 January 2022 and published by Bamidele Omolaye of Obafemi Awolowo University. A king of a certain village died, and the community wanted to install another. By the custom of the village they had to consult the oracle first, and whoever the oracle selected would be crowned. When the villagers performed the required rites, the oracle told them to make a sacrifice using an elephant as the object of the sacrifice, before they could install a new king. This is close to impossible and the tale says so. Omolaye records the saying that a king who would capture an elephant does not exist, and notes that an elephant cannot be tied to a tree with a rope because the elephant will simply uproot the tree. The demand caused commotion among the elders and saddened the whole village. Then Ìjàpá came and assured them he would bring an elephant into the village alive. Having heard him boast that he would bring it in unharmed and unhindered, the villagers let him try. Ìjàpá baked cakes with a great deal of honey in them and went into the thick forest. When he found Erin he began to hail him: how Erin was the head of all other animals, how there was no animal who could act contrary to his instructions. When he saw that Erin was pleased with the praising, he told him why he had come. The villagers want you as their king. Erin laughed at him and said that human beings were harsh and wicked. Then Ìjàpá served him the honey cake. As Erin ate it, and it was very sweet, he changed his mind and decided to follow. Ìjàpá told Erin that when he became king he would come and visit him. Then he asked whether he might climb and ride on Erin's back, so that the villagers could see how intimate they were, and so the journey would be faster. Erin picked him up at once and set off for the village. And as they went, Ìjàpá sang. Original (as printed by Omolaye; see the note on diacritics below) > Call: A ó mérin J'oba > Response: Èrèkú e we le > Call: A ó mérin J'oba > Response: Èrèkú e we le > Call: Ní we le, ní we le, > Response: Èrèkú e we le Literal gloss - A ó we shall mérin take-the-elephant (mú erin, contracted) J'oba make-king (jẹ ọba, to be or become king) - Ní we le with ease - Èrèkú e we le the refrain, glossed by the article as "easily, easily" Idiomatic English Translator: Bamidele Omolaye > Call: We shall install the elephant > Response: Easily, easily > Call: We shall install the elephant > Response: Easily, easily > Call: With ease, with ease > Response: Easily, easily. Notes on the translation and the diacritics. The article prints its Yorùbá with grave and acute accents but without any subdots: there is no ẹ, ọ or ṣ anywhere in the published text, as can be verified by searching the article itself. That is a typesetting loss, not a dialect feature, and it is reproduced here as printed rather than corrected, because supplying the missing subdots would supply a reading the source did not give. Readers should understand J'oba as standing for j'ọba, and the corpus flags the whole song as untoned in respect of subdots. The tone marks that are present are as the article printed them. The song is doing something the translation cannot show, which is that it is true. A ó mérin j'ọba, "we shall make the elephant king," is exactly what the villagers intend to do, in the sense that the elephant is going to be seated on a throne. What it withholds is that the throne is a lid. Erin is carrying, on his own back, the animal singing an accurate description of his death, and the village is going to sing along with it. The refrain èrèkú e we le, rendered "easily, easily," is the part the audience takes, so in performance the children in the room are the ones promising that it will all be done easily. After they had travelled some way Erin wanted to turn back. Ìjàpá quickly fed him another cake and he was happy again, and they went on. Meanwhile Ìjàpá had already instructed the villagers: dig a very deep pit, cover it with fine and expensive cloth, and set an expensive chair on top of it as a throne. When the two of them entered the village Ìjàpá raised the same song again, and the villagers were filled with joy and sang along with him. Then Ìjàpá asked Erin to sit on his throne. Erin sat, and sank into the pit, and the hunters shot at him until he died.