{"yoruba": "1. Màrọ́kọ́ is a place name and the site of a court.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "2. The name Mokúṣiré means “I play at dying.”", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "3. In Yorùbá numeration “ẹ̀ẹ́dẹ́ . . .” indicates a certain amount (or figure) “less than ...”; “ẹ̀ẹ́dógún,” for instance, is fifteen (five less than twenty), while “ẹ̀ẹ́dẹ́gbẹ̀rin” is seven hundred (one hundred less than eight hundred.).", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "4. In  Yoruba usage one would not use personal pronouns to refer to animals, even though Yoruba pronouns are not differentiated by gender.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "5. As the names suggest, the one is a virtual clone of the other; the aid the one offers will not make the other  any better as a dancer.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "6. The proverb recalls the oríkì of Ògèdèm̀gbé, the 19th century Ìjèṣà warrior, which says, À ńlé e bọ̀ lẹ́hìn, ó ńlé ará iwájú lọ  (He is being pursued from behind, and yet he is in pursuit of people in front.)", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "7. Corcchorus Olitorius  (Jew's Mallow) (Tiliaceae).  See Abraham, 533.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "8. Gbégbé leaves are used for making charms that enable the user to transport himself instantly over long distances.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "9. Cordia Millenii (Boraginaceae), used for making bẹ̀m̀bẹ́ drums.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "10. Other trees may feel superior to ọ̀mọ̀ in other regards, but they cannot beat it as drum material.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "11. The calabash beater is someone employed to clear evil spirits ahead of the funeral procession by means of the charm-laden calabash.)", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "12. All three propositions are similar; they indicate conditions that are inappropriate: that a visitor take over the seat by the fireplace, that the priest or priestess be without shelter, or that delicate eggs be crushed together.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "13. Bẹ̀m̀bẹ́ is a type of music named after the bass drum that it employs.  The dancing to this type of music is close to stomping.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "14. Presumably ékuru is less desirable a meal than àkàrà; but the beggar cannot (or should not) presume to exercise a choice.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "15. White hair is associated with age, and the chicken's white feathers compare with white hair.  The chicken, of course, is unaware of the implications of age among humans.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "16. The proverb was obviously suggested by the usual description of chickens as ọlọ́mọ-yọyọ, mother of a flock of chicks.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "17. The beetle in question plays dead whenever it is touched.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "18. Some substance from the brimstone tree, òrúwọ, whose sap is used in weaning children from breast-feeding, because of its bitterness.  (See Abraham, p. 489.)", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "19. The fruit of the vine, Tetracarpidium Conophorum.  The English name by which people refer to it is walnut.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "20. The type of music is reserved for affluent people.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "21. The dry skin will be chaffed.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "22. This is identical in intent with, Àgbàlagbà kì í yọ ayọ̀-ọ kílóbáyìíwa?", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "23. Babies are carried on their mothers' backs.  When they fall asleep their heads may loll crookedly.  Since the mothers cannot see behind them, responsible people are required to call their attention to the babies' crooked postures.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "24. The phrase, ní ẹsẹ̀ nílẹ̀, literally “to have feet on the ground,” means to have substance or influence.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "25. The prescription of stale pounded yams is a humorous twist, since even that is not the type of food that self-respecting people would choose to eat, although it is certainly better than rat intestines.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "26. Traditionally the Yoruba eat with their fingers, and washing one's hand after eating is a sign that one is done.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "27. This is identical in intent with, Àgbà kì í ṣeré-e kílóbáyìíwa?", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "28. The kite is notorious for swooping down to grab chicks with its talons. The snail's hard shell makes it invulnerable to the bird.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "29. It is sometimes necessary for a person to share a sleeping mat with a superior. If one was in awe of the superior one would not forget oneself even in sleep.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "30. The proverb has added force because dogs are considered unclean by muslims, and they are not allowed near mosques.  See, Ta ní ńjájá ní mọ́ṣáláṣí?", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "31. For some reason the Yoruba consider the partridge an unfortunate and lowly bird.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "32. The woodpecker's habit has some slight resemblance to the carving of mortars, the eggs of frogs have some slight resemblance to strung beads, and the action of awúrebe  resembles weaving, but in each case the product is not quite what humans have in mind.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "33. The owner of the machete in this case is the person on whose farm the mutual-help workers are engaged on this occasion.  In the traditional mutual-help arrangement, the owner of the farm being worked on is the person in authority.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "34. Dùndún is a minor drum in the traditional “talking drum” ensemble.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "35. Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn is a type of leopard that the Yoruba consider inferior to the real leopard.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "37. The reference is apparently to an insect that makes paths in the sand.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "38. Diviners hold back some of the items they prescribe for sacrifice for their own use.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "39. This is apparently the plaint of a man besotted by his attraction to a woman.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "40. The proverb refers to the Yoruba belief that the dead have the power to protect their living survivors. Normally, though, the living look to the spirits of dead elders for such protection, never to the spirits of their dead children.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "41. Women are forbidden to approach masquerades, and are supposed to run into hiding whenever masquerades are about on pain of being whipped.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "42. In this case Ààrẹ is the short form of the highest Ọ̀yọ̀ military title, Ààrẹ Ọ̀nà Kakaǹfò.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "43. Dioscurea Dumetorum (See Abraham: 324); the starch content is so low that it is not suitable for pounding.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "44. Orò is a secret cult forbidden to women, and at the approach of whose ritual bearer women must run into hiding.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "45. Corn-loaves are cooked wrapped in large leaves, much larger than the leaves of the locustbean tree, which are inadequate for the purpose.  The proverb plays on gbà (to receive) and the last end of ìrúgbàá (gbà á), which means “receive it,” or “accommodate it.”", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "46. Sikirat is a muslim name for a woman; the town of Ìwó is, presumably (as far as this proverb is concerned), a stranger to Islam.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "47. The proverb plays on ìtìjú, literally “the pushing at the eyes,” which is the Yoruba word for shame.  A person who is insensitive to “the pushing at the eyes” certainly can do without a second eye, and the one he or she does have can be as large as possible, since it will be insensitive to pushing, and the disfigurement would mark the person as grotesque while having no effect on him or her.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "48. The Yoruba word for the partridge, àparò, can be rendered, etymologically, as à-pa-rò (something one kills and boasts about killing), because the bird is a desirable stew meat.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "49. The proverb is usually a comment directed at a particular person, rather than a general proposition or observation.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "50. Falana is a proper name that has come to be associated with uninvited intrusion into other people's affairs.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "51. Eégún, masqueraders supposed to be the incarnations of dead ancestors, are themselves objects of terror.  Fright does not become them.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "52. The expression “Gba wèrè,” translated as “Accept imbecility,” means “acquiesce in being treated like an imbecile.”  The back-and-forth haggling during market transactions is here seen as each bargainer proposing terms to the interlocutor, who would be an imbecile to accept them.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "53. Customarily, the tortoise is killed by pulling its neck and rubbing it against the sharp edge of its shell behind the neck until it comes apart. That part of the shell is known as the tortoise's sword.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "54. Ṣ\"ìgìdì is a clay image one makes of one's enemy and endows by means of incantations with the power to harm the enemy in his/her dream. Although thus endowed with supernatural powers, if it is placed in the rain it will crumble.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "55. The name Mákùú (má kùú) means “Do not die.”", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "56. It is the manner of one's sitting in a company that causes one to be selected as the right person to clear the garbage.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "57. Àlọ́, mythical city of elephants, also a jungle.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "58. Ìrùkẹ̀rẹ̀, horse-tail whisk, is one of the tools for consulting Ifá the Yoruba oracle.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "59. A wife is expected to accord respect to the relatives of her husband, even very young ones, especially those born into the family before she is married into it.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "60. The proper thing is for the son to carry the cutlass for the father.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "61. Gbégbé leaves are of little use to anyone. They are reputed to have magical powers, though.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "62. At the time Nigeria became independent in 1960 one of the most powerful politicians was Ahmadu Bello. The people of Ìlọrin did not care much for him, apparently, and one person there named his goat after him.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "63. Being the god of thunder, Ṣàngó can rage only during the rainy season.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "66. The proverb in all probability refers to alárìnjó (itinerant performing masqueraders) contests during which they claim to transform themselves into animals and reptiles. Oloyo is another name for the brown monkey.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "67. Ẹtù is a rich cloth cap that only the prosperous wear.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "68. The idea is that the bee listened attentively to instructions on how to pack venom in its sting, but the wasp thought it knew it all.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "69. Orò is a secret divinity connected with the secret supreme political and juridical council known as Ògbóni or Òṣùgbo. His public outings are announced by the bull-roarer, at the sound of which women must go into hiding. A man who is not a member of the cult also runs the risk of being killed if he intrudes into its rites even accidentally.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "70. This proverb is used to chastise people and to order them to snap out of their bad habits.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "71. When the Yoruba have written someone off are irremediably worthless they say, “Óọ́ b  lọ́wọ́ ẹ̀” (It has all slipped from his/her hands.)", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "72. Black eyed peas eaten for dinner cause heart burn and great thirst.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "73. Pàkọ̀kọ̀ is a very minor eégún (masquerader) as distinct from the major ones that strike terror into people.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "75. Aláàńtètè is a type of cricket.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "76. A tag to the proverb goes: Bó bá yẹ ẹ́, tẹni tí ńfà á ńkọ́? (Even if it does, what about the person pulling it?)", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "78. The use of afà and èro for hive (nest) and honey is non-standard Yoruba.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "79. The omele is the smallest drum in the dùndún ensemble, and it is usually played by an apprentice drummer.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "80. The bàtá drum and ensemble are associated with traditional deities and their worship, and therefore out of bounds in a mosque.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "81. Ṣàngó worshippers wear skirts, and good Ṣàngó dancing requires skirt shaking.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "82. “Orí ẹẹ́ fọ́!” (Your head is split) is an insult.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "83. Elders often sit on cowhides when they relax or adjudicate disputes.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "84. The proverb assumes that co-wives would not ordinarily extend generosity towards the children of other co-wives.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "85. Ọlọ́jọ́ (Owner of the day) is another designation for God.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "86. Èṣù is the unpredictable god in the Yorùbà pantheon, his favorite food is palm-oil.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "87. Bámidélé is a male name. The proverb is probably based on the play between ọ̀ṣín, the name for the vulturine fish-eagle, and Ọṣìn, a male name that is sometimes used as a designation for a king. Bámidélé (which means “Come home with me”) indicates that the possible prey is one that is readily at hand.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "90. Òkolo is not a Yorùbá but an Ijọ name.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "91. The Yorùbá do not consider dogs to be preferred company.", "english": "[Back to text]"}
{"yoruba": "92. The play is on the syllable tẹ̀, which occurs in tẹ̀tẹ̀ (spinach) and tẹ́ (to be disgraced).", "english": "[Back to text]"}