Why the Tortoise's Shell Is Marked: Four Documented Explanations
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.
Ẹni tí ó kójọ
Orísun tí a wò kò dárúkọ ẹni tí ó kójọ rẹ̀.
Àlọ́ náà ní ṣókí
The tortoise's shell is seamed, plated and marked, and Yorùbá àlọ́ explains this more than once. This file sets out the four narratives documented in this section, plus a fifth attested outside the Yorùbá scholarly record, and compares them. The point of the comparison is that there is no canonical version: a single collector working in one region recorded three different explanations, which is direct evidence that the tradition tolerated competing aetiologies rather than settling on one. Each tale is told in full in its own file. This file is the comparison and does not repeat the narratives.
Àlọ́ náà
Kò sí nínú orísun tí a wò.
Àwọn ìyàtọ̀
Kò sí nínú orísun tí a wò.