Here are some stories Yoruba. Oyo State was the most powerful of the Yoruba city-states. Ilé-Ifé is considered the city of origin of all Yorubas. Here, the Yoruba religion is practiced as in all Yoruba states.
A MAN once brought his wife a very old cooking pot and told her to use it every day to prepare the evening meal.
The wife was not happy with the idea of using such a damaged container and feared that her friends would ridicule her, but she dared not disobey her husband and began to use the pot as he demanded.
She did not guess that the pot was magic and had the virtue of transforming the ashes of the fire on which it rested into gold. Each night the husband would slip outside, when all were sleeping in the huts around the compound, and gather these golden ashes, which he stored safely.
One day, a young man from the village was going on a trip; he came to the woman during her husband's absence and asked her for a favor. He said he had taken a liking to his old pot and would give him a nice new one in exchange. The woman hesitated, but she was ashamed of the ugly old pot and glad to have an excuse to get rid of it.
When her husband found out what she had done, he was very angry and beat her violently; but it was now too late to retrieve the pot, as the young man was already far into the forest.
Of course, he hadn't gotten the pot without knowing the secret, for he had watched the actions of the man who so mysteriously collected the ashes every night; and it is said that from that day on, the young man spent his life cooking, and thus deserved the name of “Chop”, or “Food”!
Yoruba Tales: The Parrot
THERE was a gray parrot who knew how to talk and used to correct anyone who didn't tell the truth.
The parrot was the pet of a lying woman, and she found the bird habit so troublesome that she finally decided to get rid of it.
One day, a neighbor passed in front of her house, and the woman called out to her from the threshold to come and see the beautiful tame parrot she intended to give her as a gift.
The man asked her why she wanted to part with such a beautiful bird, and the woman answered: “Because he eats a lot and I am poor.
The parrot screamed. " She lies! »
The neighbor didn't pay attention, thanked the woman and went home with the bird on his shoulder. When he arrived home, his wife asked him where he had found the bird.
“As I was going through the forest, it flew up and landed on my shoulder,” the man replied, but the parrot quickly shouted, “He's lying! »
The man soon discovered how awkward it was to have such a truthful pet, and he was often tempted to wring the bird's neck.
It happened that this man was dishonest, and stole a large number of objects which he buried in a deep hole, without anyone knowing. It would have been quite safe but for the wonderful parrot.
When the thefts were discovered, a search was carried out of the man's house, but nothing was found there. The investigators were therefore forced to consider that he was innocent. As they came out, they said to him, “Are you sure you didn't steal these things?
" I am on! said the man indignantly; but the parrot cried, "He's lying!"
The man was so enraged that he grabbed the bird and wrung its neck, but the researchers' suspicion was aroused, and eventually they discovered the hole, which was marked with a small stake, and all the stolen items were found. Without the truthful parrot, the secret would never have been revealed.
Yoruba Tales: The Ghost Catcher
KING ABIPA took the fancy to move all his court to a new capital, and for this purpose he decided to build a city on a certain hill which pleased him.
His nobles, however, did not want the change at all, and some of them came together to make a plan that would distract the king from his project.
They agreed to send certain ugly-looking slaves they owned to haunt the hill like ghosts, lest the king build his capital there. One noble sent a hunchback, another an albino, another a leper, and a fourth a dwarf.
When the king's messengers arrived to survey the hill, they saw these strange apparitions leap up, torches in hand, and shout with one voice: "Ko si aye!" Ko si aye! (No room! No room!).
They returned frightened to the king and told him that the hill was haunted by ghosts.
However, one of the royal advisers suspected a plot and advised the king to send hunters up the hill to capture the "ghosts".
The king took this advice and the hunters returned with the supposed "ghosts", who were, of course, in abject terror of being discovered. Instead of killing them, however, the king kept them hidden and invited all his nobles to a banquet. When they had feasted merrily, he sent each nobleman a calabash of ale through the hands of a slave.
What was the consternation of the four noble rebels to receive the calabash, one from his hunchback, the other from his albino, and the others from the hands of the leper and the dwarf!
Evidently the plot had been uncovered and the four nobles expected to be put to death for opposing the king; but the wise Abipa said nothing about it, and the banquet ended in silence.
Soon after, the court moved to the new city unopposed, and henceforth the king was known as "the ghost catcher."
Yoruba Tales: The Turtle and the King
ONE year the elephant had done a lot of damage, chopping down trees, drinking water in times of scarcity and eating the first tender crops from the fields.
The king's hunters tried in vain to destroy it, because the Elephant knew many charms and always escaped their traps.
Finally, the king offered his daughter's hand in marriage to anyone who would rid the country of the plague.
Turtle went to the palace and offered to catch Elephant, then made her preparations. Outside the city a large pit was dug, and above it was laid a thin platform covered with velvet sheets and leopard skins, like a throne.
Then Turtle went into the forest, accompanied by slaves and drummers. Elephant was very surprised to see his girlfriend Turtle riding in such a state, and suspected a trap; but Turtle said that the old king was dead and all the people wanted Elephant to rule over them, because he was the greatest of all animals.
When he heard this, Elephant was flattered and agreed to accompany Tortoise to town. But when he ascended the platform to be crowned king, the timber gave way beneath him, and he crashed into the pit and was quickly slain by the king's hunters.
All the people rejoiced and praised the cunning of Turtle, who went to the palace to receive his bride. But the king refused to give his daughter to such an insignificant creature, and Turtle decided to take revenge. When the new crops had just ripened, he gathered all the field mice and the elves, and asked them to eat and take the corn away. They were only too happy with the idea, and the distressed farmers found the fields quite bare.
Now there was a prospect of famine in the land, and the king offered the same reward as before to anyone who rid the land of pests.
Turtle again appeared in the palace and offered to help. The king was quite eager to accept her, but Tortoise cautiously refused to do anything until the princess became his bride.
The king was therefore forced to consent to the marriage, and when it took place, Turtle, true to his word, gathered all the mice and elves together and showed them a platform laden with delicate morsels of food. He then addressed them the following words:
“The people are so grieved at the evil you have done, that they have prepared this feast for you, and they promise to do the same thing twice a year, before the harvest of the first and the second harvest, if you consent not to touch it. corn in the fields.
The little creatures all consented, and marched in large crowds towards the platform, which they soon cleared.
The king and his people were not very happy to learn of this arrangement, but they were so afraid of Tortoise that they could not complain, and after that the mice and elves never troubled the land again. .
Yoruba Tales: The Turtle and Mr. Fly
ONCE Tortoise and her family went through a rough time and had nothing to eat, but they noticed that their neighbor, Mr. Fly, seemed to be very prosperous and feasted every night.
Tortoise was curious how he had gotten so much money, and after watching him for a few days, he discovered that Mr. Fly flew off every morning early with a large empty bag on his back, and returned in the evening with the sack full, and after that his wife was cooking a feast.
One morning Turtle hid in the bag p. 69 and waited to see what would happen. Soon Mr. Fly came out of his house, picked up the bag and flew away.
He finally came down to the marketplace of a large city, where drums were beating the tones of dancing, and young girls were dancing in front of a crowd of people.
Mr. Fly put his bag on the ground, and Tortoise saw him standing next to one of the drummers. When people threw money, Mr. Fly picked up the coins and hid them in his bag, and by evening he had picked up a large amount. Then he picked up the bag and went home. Turtle quickly got out and took most of the money with him, so poor Mr. Fly was surprised to find the bag nearly empty.
This happened several times, until one day when he put some money in the bag, Mr. Fly spotted Tortoise hiding inside. He was very angry at the trick, and going to see the drummer asked him if he had missed any money.
"Yes," said the drummer. “For the past few days, I have been losing coins. »
“Look inside that bag,” replied Mr. Fly, “and you will see the thief sitting among the money he stole. »
The drummer looked inside the bag and saw Tortoise.
“How will the thief be punished? he shouted angrily.
“Just tie up the bag,” Mr. Fly said, “and then bang it like a drum.”
So the beater tied the bag and beat on it until Turtle was black and blue, and that's why his back is covered with bruises.
Then Mr. Fly picked up the bag, flew high into the air, and dropped it. By chance, the bag fell right in front of Tortoise's house, and neighbors came to tell Nyanribo, his wife, that someone had left a gift outside the door.
But when she opened the bag in the presence of a crowd of people, she found only Turtle inside, more dead than alive. Then Mr. Fly made a song and told the whole story, and the drummers also played it, and Tortoise and Nyanribo were so ashamed that they left the place and went to live in another country .
Yoruba Tales: Erin and Erinomi
TORTOISE has always liked making mischief between harmless people. One day when he was walking along the river, he met the elephant and said to him:
“The hippo brags that you are weak and lack the strength to pull a log from the river.
" It's wrong ! cried the elephant, and to prove his strength he allowed Turtle to tie a strong rope to his trunk and tie the other end to a log in the river.
Turtle walked towards the water holding the rope and said to Hippo:
“The elephant boasts of its strength, and it declares that you are weak and could not cut down a tree. »
" It's wrong ! cried the hippopotamus. “I can chop down any tree. »
Turtle then said that he tied his rope to a tree and would tie the other end to Hippo's horn. He did, and the two animals began to pull, one at each end of the rope. The elephant tugged and tugged, and the hippo tugged and tugged, and neither yielded.
After a while, Hippo rested and Elephant went down to the water to quench his thirst, then they saw the trick that had been played on them.
Sniffling in anger, they began to search for the mischievous Turtle, but by then he was, you can be sure, very far away.
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