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II. Oral Tradition |
This story was told to T. J. H. Chappel by an elderly woman born in the Isokun quarter in Oyo: II. A long time ago some people from Isokun quarter in Oyo town, who were traders, went to the country near Ajashe [capital of the kingdom of Porto Novo] and decided to settle there. They called their camp Isokun. It happened that one of the group gave birth to twins. In Oyo it was the practice to kill twins with the help of a knife at the neck for at this time people were distrustful of twins. They could not understand why a woman should give birth to two at a time when she was neither animal nor a goat [i.e., neither wild animal or domestic animal.] However, the parents of the twins decided to keep their children. They consulted Ifa and Ifa said that it would be all right for them to keep the twins provided they performed a certain sacrifice for them. The sacrifice was duly performed and as a result the parents became very rich. When the people in Oyo heard of this they decided to keep their twins so that they might become rich as well (1).
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