Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 138: Nigeria- The Voices of Birds, Three Magicians, Isokun and the Baby (M.I. Ogumefu 1929)
Transcript
- 0:32Welcome back listeners to Sandman stories presents.
- 0:35The folklore podcast where I reach you to sleep or until the
- 0:38next story, I'm your host Dustin.
- 0:42Today, we are back in, Nigeria with the Yoruba Legends of Mi
- 0:46oguma fool. In the first story.
- 0:48We learn my beautiful birds. Have quiet voices in the second.
- 0:53We learn about a great flowing river in a stagnant pool.
- 0:57And in the third story, we'll learn the sad tale of a soak one
- 1:01who just can't seem to have a baby.
- 1:05Okay, let's begin the voices of birds.
- 1:13A magician ones passed through a Grove in the forest or a great,
- 1:16many brown birds fluttered from tree to tree and filled the air
- 1:20with their songs for a long time, he sat and listened
- 1:24enraptured by their beautiful Melodies.
- 1:27But in the end, he became very jealous where he himself could
- 1:31not sing at last. He felt that he must by some
- 1:36means or other possess the voices of these singing birds.
- 1:40So we called them all together and said it Grieves me that the
- 1:44gods have given you all such poor ugly Brown feathers, how
- 1:48happy would be if you were brilliantly colored with red,
- 1:52blue, orange and green. And the birds agreed that it was
- 1:56a great pity to be so ugly. The magician then suggested that
- 2:01by means of his charms, he could give them all beautiful feathers
- 2:05in exchange for their voices which were after all a very
- 2:09little used to them since nobody came to the Grove to hear them.
- 2:14The birds thought over his words and desired very much, the
- 2:16beauty, he promised them. So, they foolishly agreed to
- 2:19give him their voices, which the magician placed all together
- 2:23inside a large Calabash. Then he used his charms, to turn
- 2:27the dull Brown feathers of the birds into orange and green and
- 2:31red. And they were very pleased, the
- 2:34magician hurried away. And as soon as he came to a
- 2:36deserted place, he opened the Calabash and swallowed its
- 2:40contents. From that day on, he had an
- 2:43exceedingly sweet voice. And people came from far and
- 2:46near to listen to his songs. But the birds were satisfied
- 2:50with their bright feathers in. This is why the most beautiful
- 2:53birds are quite unable to sing the end.
- 3:15Okay. And store number two, the three
- 3:17magicians. A certain King had engaged in a
- 3:21series of wars during which he employed three magicians or
- 3:24medicine men to make charms for him, so that he might destroy
- 3:28his enemies. At the end of the war.
- 3:30These three magicians came to the king and humbly ask to be
- 3:33allowed to return home. The king foolishly refused.
- 3:38And at this, the magician said we asked her permission out of
- 3:41courtesy, O King, but we can still very easily depart without
- 3:45it. Thereupon.
- 3:47The first magician fell down on the ground and disappeared.
- 3:50The second through ball of twine into the air climbed up the
- 3:53thread and disappeared. Likewise the third magician Alan
- 3:57re remains standing. It is your turn to disappear.
- 4:01So, the king trembling with anger, or I will slay you You
- 4:06cannot harm me reply the magician.
- 4:09At this, the king ordered him to be the headed, but the sword
- 4:12broke into and The Executioner's arm withered away.
- 4:17Then the king ordered him to be speared, but the spear crumpled
- 4:20up and it was useless an attempt was made to crush the magician
- 4:24with a rock, but it rolled over his body as lightly as a child's
- 4:28ball. The king then sent for The
- 4:31Magician's wife and asked her to reveal his secret charm at last
- 4:35the woman confessed but if they took one blade of grass, from
- 4:38the thatch roof of a house, they could easily cut off his head
- 4:41with it. This was done and The Magician's
- 4:44had rolled off and stuck to the Kings hand.
- 4:47It could not by any means, be removed, when food, or drink was
- 4:51brought to the king, the head consumed.
- 4:53It also that the king seemed likely to die.
- 4:56Magicians were hastily summoned from all over the kingdom but
- 4:59the head laughed at all their charms and remained fast.
- 5:03Finally came one who prostrated himself before the head and
- 5:06cried out. Who am I to oppose you?
- 5:09Greater Landry. I come only because the king
- 5:11commands me to this Ellen, replied, you are wiser than all
- 5:16the rest. And the head felt wants to the
- 5:18ground where it became a flowing river.
- 5:21Which to this day is called Odo, Alan Ray or Elaine raised River.
- 5:26The Magicians wife was likewise changed into a river but because
- 5:29she had betrayed him Alan Reed commanded.
- 5:31The river not to flow and it became instead a stagnant pool.
- 5:37The end. Okay, and Story number three,
- 6:00you so Kuhn and the baby, a certain King, Deccan had a wife
- 6:04named, a Silcoon Who Bore him, no children on which account
- 6:08there was great unhappiness in the palace.
- 6:12One day is Oaken disappeared was absent for many weeks and those
- 6:15search was made. No.
- 6:17Trace of her could be found The truth was that eye.
- 6:21So Co and had set out to visit the shrines of all the gods in
- 6:24the hope. That one of them would promise
- 6:26her, a child. But though she traveled far and
- 6:29wide, the gods of all the trees and streams and rocks refused
- 6:32her prayer. When she was at last nearing
- 6:35home again, She Came Upon a poor woman asleep by the wayside with
- 6:39her two-day-old baby. I Ciccone stole the baby and
- 6:42hasten to the Palace where she informed the king that she had
- 6:46disappeared in order to give him a joyous, surprise of his little
- 6:49son. There were great rejoicings in
- 6:52the palace. Sacrifices, were made in the
- 6:54drums beat loudly. Meanwhile, the real mother
- 6:58awoken discovered that her own baby had been stolen.
- 7:02She ran into the town distracted and insisted on searching every
- 7:05house. But without success, At last,
- 7:09she came to the palace and insisted on entering their also,
- 7:12which was possible at that moment because all were
- 7:14celebrating the arrival of the kings.
- 7:16Are at this time, the baby cried with hunger and as I so couldn't
- 7:21could not feed him. She invited other reasons for
- 7:24the crying and sought in vain to pacify him without arousing
- 7:27suspicion drawn by the cries, the mother entered and snatch
- 7:32the baby to her breast or it was at once contented.
- 7:38In a few moments, the deception was made clear and the mother
- 7:41departed with her child. And I soak on ashamed and
- 7:44fearing anger of the king fled from the palace and never
- 7:47returned the end. As far as storytelling goes I
- 8:28really like that first one. It could be made to kind of open
- 8:33up a storytelling thing. All I gave the birds are
- 8:36beautiful things but they gave me their beautiful voice.
- 8:41The second one I kind of like the head getting stuck to the
- 8:45Kings hand and just being a real pain in the butt and you know of
- 8:50course the white for trying I'm yeah and stagnant pool all that
- 8:53but still pretty cool wizard story and the third one
- 8:57isochronous just You know, you can't feed the baby.
- 9:02What are you doing? Don't snatch people's babies.
- 9:05Okay, and the podcast shout out is to the British History
- 9:08Podcast. This podcast is already huge.
- 9:11So it won't see any sort of to listener bump from the Sandman
- 9:14shoutout. But gosh darn it.
- 9:16This is a really good podcast, Jamie and producer Z to a great
- 9:21job of pointing out what we know how we know it, what the gaps in
- 9:25the knowledge are what the biases of the writers history
- 9:28are. It is a full-on history course.
- 9:31I've been a free listener for a long time but their membership
- 9:34sounds very worth it. It's British history from
- 9:38prehistory up until about 1066 at this point.
- 9:42It's a great listen and I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.
- 9:45Go, listen and review And subscribe and all that goodness.
- 9:50And The Listener shout out is to Vega Alta, put it through Rico
- 9:54located, on the north side of the island, they gotta was
- 9:57nicknamed, the city of squatters because the people would squat
- 10:00there to wait for the train. Diana was the indigenous
- 10:05language of the land until the Spanish overtook it and
- 10:08lin-manuel Miranda has roots in the city and my friend Lavon
- 10:12also has roots in the island for some reason.
- 10:14Anger gives Puerto Rico stats separate from American ones.
- 10:19So I've got listeners in America and Puerto Rico, but Puerto
- 10:22Rico's America. Anyway, I would love to go there
- 10:25and see the beauty of the Caribbean.
- 10:28Thank you. And good night.