1. The animal that is careful lives long in the forest.
2. No one says a child should not be leprous if only he/she can stay alone in the forest.
3. A motherless child shouldn’t allow his/her back to develop sore.
4. The crowing of the cockerel brings misery to the sluggard.
5. The cockerel shows being an elder by keeping the time but spoils it by defecating in the pen.
6. Before stone a bird, you should put yourself in its position.
7. The crouching of a tiger is not out of cowardice, it is only looking for what to eat.
8. The child that accuses his/her father of not grinding pepper right wants to hear about what
sent his mother away from his/her father's house.
9. The task master only teaches one to be strong.
10. Twenty children cannot play together for twenty years.
11. The apparel of the person who promises clothing me will testify.
12. When one buys clothe for the lazy man, one should also dye it.
13. It is where the adult is that the child will grow to meet him.
14. One shouldn’t put fire on one’s roof top and sleep.
15. No matter how fast the horse gallops it will always meet the ground ahead.
16. The sky is wide enough for the birds to fly without collision.
17. The left washing the right and vice-visa makes the palms clean.
18. The dog that will get lost will not hear the whistle of the hunter.
19. If the lion wants to barb its mane it is not a dog that will be the barber.
20. The lizard that enters into a scorpion’s hole will come back with its rear.
21. The dog that visits a tiger in its den wants a clothing of blood.
22. It is from the threshold of the coward that we will point to the ruin and grave of warrior.
23. Inability top refuse errand running, kills horse in battle.\
24. The cane that was used to beat the first wife is on the roof top for the second wife.
25. Elders cannot be in the market where women strapped on children with crooked necks.
26. Let greeting is greeting and betrayal be a betrayal, why eulogizing the virtue of an Ibadan
man in the threshold of Shodeke? (Shodeke was a warlord in Egba land in the olden days when
Ibadan was terrorizing them. Reciting the lineage poetry of an Ibadan man would give him out
as an enemy.)
27. I will help in spending your money starts from borrowing of match sticks.
28. A forewarned battle will not kill a clever cripple.
29. When a cripple is told that the load on his head is bent, he pointed to his legs.
30. Too much description turns a tiger to a mere deer.
31. The bath water that threatens to drown a person, let wait and watch.
32. The inability to decipher divination (Ifa) makes one to look up, there is no cipher on the ceiling.
33. When you give a ram to the deity, you should let go of the rope.
34. It is not easy to say that “he is greater than I”: the quarrel based on envy does not end on time.
35. It is not hunger that makes a cat to be smaller than a tiger: It is its nature.
36. If you are a man of substance don’t called your brother a lazy man; as time and fortune is in the hand of providence.
37. When the man that prayed not to be shamed is shamed, he prays not to die.
38. The corpses weep for corpses and the mourners mourn themselves.
39. If one chases one’s goat into the house of a troublesome man, one stops the chase right there.
40. The sheep that moves with a dog would eat shit.
41. When trouble knocks and one says there is no chair it says it bring it own seat.
42. The sky is falling is not the problem of one person.
43. It is the king’s goat that ate the king’s yam.
44. It is the things that the elders had seen that pushed their eyes into the sockets.
45. No need telling the blind that the market is deserted, when he does not hear the voices of the
market he will turn back.
46. The man that had swam in the ocean and seas should not be afraid of a mere bathtub.
47. A stinging man does not adorn himself.
48. Nothing you can do to a pig to remove the protrusion of its mouth.
49. Give and take is what makes the life easy, a farmer that want to eat bread would send yam to the baker.
50. Because of four, four days visit a trader cannot shit in his Shed.
51 What you leave is what you meet: he who defecated on the road on his way to farm would meet flies when returning.
52. When the elders leave the town, the town is spoilt and when the youths die, the town is
desolated.
53. It is the man with torn in his flesh that would look for the assistance of the knife owner.
54. It is in one’s yard that one eats a rat with a navel.
55. It is the short name of theft they call pilfering.
56. The rich man is not God, he is merely comfortable.
57. The fire covers itself with ashes on burnt out; the plantain replaces itself with suckers: it is
children that will replace us when we die.
59. He that doesn’t want to be splashed with water should not come near the stream.
60. Farms cannot belong to father and son without a boundary.
61. The day you beat your creditor is the day you must pay his debt.
62. You cannot divorce a woman and still be admiring her waistline.
63. Unripe plantain is not easy to chew, a bad child is not easy to throw to the tiger to devour.
64. The stubbornness of the pepper seeds is not a thing of bother to the mill stone (grinding stone)
65. If you don’t mind my shit when you bite my buttocks, I will not mind you brain when I bite you
head.
66. Proverbs are the horses of words and words are that of proverbs: when words are lost, it is
proverbs that we use to find them.
67. The food that is given to a slave is not for body building but for survival.
68. The eyes know the food the will fill the belly.
2. No one says a child should not be leprous if only he/she can stay alone in the forest.
3. A motherless child shouldn’t allow his/her back to develop sore.
4. The crowing of the cockerel brings misery to the sluggard.
5. The cockerel shows being an elder by keeping the time but spoils it by defecating in the pen.
6. Before stone a bird, you should put yourself in its position.
7. The crouching of a tiger is not out of cowardice, it is only looking for what to eat.
8. The child that accuses his/her father of not grinding pepper right wants to hear about what
sent his mother away from his/her father's house.
9. The task master only teaches one to be strong.
10. Twenty children cannot play together for twenty years.
11. The apparel of the person who promises clothing me will testify.
12. When one buys clothe for the lazy man, one should also dye it.
13. It is where the adult is that the child will grow to meet him.
14. One shouldn’t put fire on one’s roof top and sleep.
15. No matter how fast the horse gallops it will always meet the ground ahead.
16. The sky is wide enough for the birds to fly without collision.
17. The left washing the right and vice-visa makes the palms clean.
18. The dog that will get lost will not hear the whistle of the hunter.
19. If the lion wants to barb its mane it is not a dog that will be the barber.
20. The lizard that enters into a scorpion’s hole will come back with its rear.
21. The dog that visits a tiger in its den wants a clothing of blood.
22. It is from the threshold of the coward that we will point to the ruin and grave of warrior.
23. Inability top refuse errand running, kills horse in battle.\
24. The cane that was used to beat the first wife is on the roof top for the second wife.
25. Elders cannot be in the market where women strapped on children with crooked necks.
26. Let greeting is greeting and betrayal be a betrayal, why eulogizing the virtue of an Ibadan
man in the threshold of Shodeke? (Shodeke was a warlord in Egba land in the olden days when
Ibadan was terrorizing them. Reciting the lineage poetry of an Ibadan man would give him out
as an enemy.)
27. I will help in spending your money starts from borrowing of match sticks.
28. A forewarned battle will not kill a clever cripple.
29. When a cripple is told that the load on his head is bent, he pointed to his legs.
30. Too much description turns a tiger to a mere deer.
31. The bath water that threatens to drown a person, let wait and watch.
32. The inability to decipher divination (Ifa) makes one to look up, there is no cipher on the ceiling.
33. When you give a ram to the deity, you should let go of the rope.
34. It is not easy to say that “he is greater than I”: the quarrel based on envy does not end on time.
35. It is not hunger that makes a cat to be smaller than a tiger: It is its nature.
36. If you are a man of substance don’t called your brother a lazy man; as time and fortune is in the hand of providence.
37. When the man that prayed not to be shamed is shamed, he prays not to die.
38. The corpses weep for corpses and the mourners mourn themselves.
39. If one chases one’s goat into the house of a troublesome man, one stops the chase right there.
40. The sheep that moves with a dog would eat shit.
41. When trouble knocks and one says there is no chair it says it bring it own seat.
42. The sky is falling is not the problem of one person.
43. It is the king’s goat that ate the king’s yam.
44. It is the things that the elders had seen that pushed their eyes into the sockets.
45. No need telling the blind that the market is deserted, when he does not hear the voices of the
market he will turn back.
46. The man that had swam in the ocean and seas should not be afraid of a mere bathtub.
47. A stinging man does not adorn himself.
48. Nothing you can do to a pig to remove the protrusion of its mouth.
49. Give and take is what makes the life easy, a farmer that want to eat bread would send yam to the baker.
50. Because of four, four days visit a trader cannot shit in his Shed.
51 What you leave is what you meet: he who defecated on the road on his way to farm would meet flies when returning.
52. When the elders leave the town, the town is spoilt and when the youths die, the town is
desolated.
53. It is the man with torn in his flesh that would look for the assistance of the knife owner.
54. It is in one’s yard that one eats a rat with a navel.
55. It is the short name of theft they call pilfering.
56. The rich man is not God, he is merely comfortable.
57. The fire covers itself with ashes on burnt out; the plantain replaces itself with suckers: it is
children that will replace us when we die.
59. He that doesn’t want to be splashed with water should not come near the stream.
60. Farms cannot belong to father and son without a boundary.
61. The day you beat your creditor is the day you must pay his debt.
62. You cannot divorce a woman and still be admiring her waistline.
63. Unripe plantain is not easy to chew, a bad child is not easy to throw to the tiger to devour.
64. The stubbornness of the pepper seeds is not a thing of bother to the mill stone (grinding stone)
65. If you don’t mind my shit when you bite my buttocks, I will not mind you brain when I bite you
head.
66. Proverbs are the horses of words and words are that of proverbs: when words are lost, it is
proverbs that we use to find them.
67. The food that is given to a slave is not for body building but for survival.
68. The eyes know the food the will fill the belly.
