Ijapa tiroko - A folktale about the tortoise
Recently, I was reminiscing about the days when I was younger and used to enjoy tales from my mum and dad. There were some tales I heard from other adults too and there were some I heard from my mates, which of course had been told to them by their parents and grandparents. However, one of the very fascinating stories that made us really laugh then was a tale about the tortoise.
This folktale describes the tortoise's disobedience and how he paid for it. Basically, the tale was used to caution us as kids against the act of disobedience. Read the interesting tale below:
Several years ago, the tortoise, referred to as ( ijapa) in yoruba native language and his wife ( yannibo) had problems having children. All efforts made by them to have children kept proving abortive and for years they were both barren.
As frustration started to set in, the tortoise went ahead to visit an herbalist, to ask for help. The herbalist, after hearing about the tortoise's plight, prepared a concotion for him, for his wife. The concotion was made of mushrooms, bush meat and fish stew and it smelled and looked really appealing.
As much as the concotion appeared harmless and tempting, the tortoise was warned severally by the herbalist not to taste out of it. Tortoise thanked the herbalist and he kept the calabash containing the concotion in his bag.
As he journeyed back home, the smell of the concotion wouldn't let him be. The tortoise tried as much as possible to take his mind off the concotion but his greed and love for food took over his resolve. The tortoise gave up and immediately sat down under a tree, bringing out the concotion, he defiled the herbalist's orders and he began to eat the concotion.
He ate the concotion until he finished eating it completely, leaving none for his wife. As he stood up to leave, he noticed strange movements in his stomach and before he could do any other thing, his stomach began to swell. He became pregnant.
The tortoise began to panick. What was he supposed to do at that moment, he couldn't return to his wife because of the evil he had done. He also didn't have enough courage to go back to the herbalist knowing he had disobeyed. As he began to cry and worry an idea came to him, he would go back to the herbalist relating what had happened to him in a song. So tortoise started to return to the herbalist's place singing:
Babalawo mo wa bebe.....alugbirin
ogun to se fun mi le kan....alugbirin
to ni ki ma ma mu owo ba enu..... Alugbirin
mo fo wo kan mo mu ba enu...alugbirin
mo je tan, mo wa se kun gben du.....alugbirin
Herbalist I have come to beg....alugbirin
The concotion you made for me.......alugbirin
That you told me not to put in my mouth....alugbirin
I touched it and put in my mouth....alugbirin
I ate it and my stomach became big..... alugbirin
The herbalist was alarmed and dissappointed. I do not remember if the tortoise was given an antidote or not. But i remember the tortoise really suffered for his actions.
Moral of the story
Disobedience never pays