{"collection":"African","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/afr/yl/yl26.htm","path":"afr/yl/yl26.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/afr/yl/yl26.htm","text":"Sacred-Texts African Index Previous Next\nIN a certain village no children had been born for many years, and the people were greatly distressed.\nAt last all the women of the village went together into the forest, to the magic tree, the Iroko, and implored the spirit of the tree to help them.\nThe Iroko-man asked what gifts they would bring if he consented to help them, and the women eagerly promised him corn, yams, fruit, goats, and sheep; but Oluronbi, the young wife of a wood-carver, promised to bring her first child.\nIn due course children came to the village, and the most beautiful of all the children was the one born to Oluronbi. She and her husband so greatly loved their child that they could not consent to give it up to the Iroko-man.\nThe other women took their promised gifts of corn, yams, fruit, goats, and sheep; but Oluronbi took nothing to propitiate. the tree.\nAlas! one day as Oluronbi passed through the forest, the Iroko-man seized her and changed her into a small brown bird, which sat on the branches of the tree and plaintively sang:\n| \u201cOne promised a sheep, One promised a goat, One promised fruit, But Oluronbi promised her child.\u201d | \nWhen the wood-carver heard the bird\u2019s song, he realized what had happened, and tried to find some means of regaining his wife.\nAfter thinking for many days, he began to carve a large wooden doll, like a real child in size and appearance, and with a small gold chain round its neck. Covering it with a beautiful native cloth, he laid it at the foot of the tree. The Iroko-man thought that this was Oluronbi\u2019s child, so he transformed the little bird once more into a woman and snatched up the child into the branches.\nOluronbi joyfully returned home, and was careful never to stray into the forest again.","title":"XXIV OLURONBI","type":"page"}