p.

events

xx

"When Ozidi later ... overreaches himself in a series of excesses, he is visited with divine punishment".

xxi

"Ozidi’s young widow Orea ... is contemplating suicide, when her mother Oreame ... flies in on her magic fan. ... mother and daughter fly from the hostile city-state Orua for their own town of Ododama."

xxii

"the premature birth of the younger Ozidi in ... a storm, followed by his growing up, his return to ... where his idiot uncle cowers decrepit under a silk cotton tree, his discovery of the assassins through their ... boastful wives, the grand running spectacle of ... monsters, finally, ... his eventual visitation ... by the Small-Pox King."

Agbogidi of the Naked Parts."

Tebesonoma of the Seven Heads".

the brink of Azema’s seven pots, kept always on the boil for human meat."

"the retired wizard Bouakarakarabiri ... invests the young Ozidi with the master charm of mortar and seven cauldrons that, boiling over at every fight, fill all opponents with fear. Because the cunning old magician also passes the same secret and power to a second client, namely, Odogu the Ugly, ... both men clash over the favour of one women."

xxiii

"the Smallpox King goes off ..., followed by his entire royal entourage of Migraine, Fever, Cold, Cough, Spots and Maggots."

p.

dialect

xxv

"the Ijo of Tarakiri Clan own the saga of Ozidi".

xxvi

"Ijo is unique among West African languages ... in that its tone system subordinates word tones to larger tone patterns so that syntax determines ... tone groups."

onomatopoia,

xxvii

allusion, etc.

"Ozidi is forbidden the knowledge of woman ... .

Odugu, ... whose wife tempts him, may not see a new-born child.

fresh fish".

p.

persons appearing in the epic

xxxv

10. Frigrinfin / Sigirisi the Net-Man

xxxvi

39. Tebekawene the Head-Walker

p. 6

"a male lizard" was omen to Ozidi, but was ignored by him.

p. 9

Ozidi is beheaded : "when they cut down coco-yam leaves and covered his face, ... they cut with ease".

"Azeza snatched up the head to place it on his own head, ...

p. 10

Ofe ... a ... midget ... snatched up Ozidi’s head to place on his own head".

p. 14

"she ... changed into a hillock"

p. 15

"she changed into a leopard"

p. 21

that hillock left termites

p. 22

that leopard "sped away"

p.

animal

28

male monkey

29

kingfisher

male lizard

30

hornbill

"Deliver that message to Azeza, and then ... fall wide apart. ... Azeza’s wife rushed out there, all pieces cutting through the air."

Ofe’s wife : "After saying come and do battle with him, ... fall down splintered."

p. 65

"Agbogidi of twenty hands, of twenty feet, ... tied on some" amulets. {cf. the 100-handed Hekaton-kheires, who rapidly untied knots}

p. 67

Agbogidi is "the sponge liana."

p. 74

"Azeza plunged straight into water." {waterspout?}

p. 75

"Azeza on his one leg, with ... one leap from here ... he vaulted, ... his one eye ... looked".

p. 80

"Azeza ... spinning around ... steadied his one eye".

p. 91

"Azeza ... sent on ... a mermaid’s whirlwind".

p. 182

"Sigirisi, his body all iron and nothing but iron". {cf. [Yoruba] Ogun}

p. 188

Fingrifin is the nut-palm.

p. 194

"After being mown through, he formed into a new thing. After being carved up, he emerged a new creation." {cf. the re-assembling of the body-parts of the dismembered Osiris} {Nara-ayana slew the Asura Indra-damana, and "had cut off his head, hands, and other limbs, which returned anew to their places." ("BANA&V" 4)}

p. 196

the taboo {cf. Irish geisa} of Ofe : "dig up a mandrake. ... Next a plantain, pluck its fresh budding front. Then, the head of a rat, ... put all these things into the pot".

p. 210

"puffing at his pipe" {cf. pipe-smoking Maya god}

p. 224

"he rocketed off, straight for a kukuru tree."

p. 226

charm for overcoming the Scrotum King : "When you’ve caught the frog, then go and catch a lizard. ... go next and pluck that ... ripe plantain ..., having tied this to those creatures, put this into the left hand".

p. 232

"there was Odogu’s wife washing up ... . And as she was washing up, he [Ozidi] saw that she was most beautiful."

p. 233

Odogu’s wife said : "the husbands we have, with shins like buttress roots." ["Odogu’s shin spread ... like a buttress. ... his eyes, both were like those of the mudskipper’s" (p. 286)]

"Soon Ozidi was sitting on her outstretched legs."

p. 237

"Seven heads he had to himself."

p. 242

"a man took out a male vulture ... and cut his own leg." {cf. South American tropical forest myth of man who cut off his own leg}

p. 247

Egberigbelea ["One not touched by a dispute" (p. 268, n. 26)] was sister of Tebe-sonoma.

p. 248

"Ayanma our father is fire and burns up men."

p. 249

Tebe-sonoma’s sister 2^nd name was Anetorofa ["The one without sight" (p. 268, n. 27)].

p. 255

iroko tree fell upon husband of Tebe-sonoma’s sister.

p. 256

Tebe-sonoma’s sister stated : "I was already past child-bearing when I grew big with child." {cf. the same situation with S`arah’s bearing her son Yis.h.aq}

p. 260

Tebe-sonoma proposed to Ozidi : "So let’s be allies."

p. 266

"only the cock on his head was left." {cf. Maya gods having birds atop their heads}

p. 267

"And the fowl was ... craning his head to peck at the grains of corn."

p. 279

Odogu’s wife falsely accused Ozidi to her husband : "He tried to rape me but in vain. I’ve been struggling with him ... . ... [Ozidi] couldn’t be taken prisoner in another person’s house, and like lightning he was off". {cf. Pot.ipar’s wife’s falsely accusing Yo^sep}

p. 283

"But when he [Odogu] tried to grab him [Ozidi], ... his body was ... okra, all slippery".

p. 284

"Oreame flew on and on, and taking the woman [Odogu’s wife] with them, she touched down on home ground." {cf. the carrying off Rama-candra’s wife Sita in a flying vimana}

p. 287

"What the female organ looked like, he [Ozidi] had no idea."

pp. 289-290

Odogu’s wife required, as a prae-condition of sexual intercourse with him (p. 290), that he tell her (p. 289) "what makes you so strong? ... what’s the secret?" {cf. Dlilah’s requiring of S^ims^o^n the secret of what made him so strong}

p. 291

"taking the sword, ... he slept beside her till daybreak without making further advances." {cf., in Norse saga, a sword between a man and a woman while they slept together, to keep them from sexual intercourse}

p. 294

Ozidi’s secret "thing is so heavy that, as I approach the doorway, you’ll have to come out fast to take it yourself." {cf. the carrying away, by S^ims^o^n, of the city-gates}

p. 296

Odogu’s mother Agonodi : "Both her eyes were set in the middle of her head. And upon her head fire smouldered".

p. 299

"Smoke-clouds belched out of her head in regular curls."

p. 300

"this boy, Ozidi seized the two hands of Odogu’s wife, and held both her legs up in the air. ... The woman hung out there, her parts swinging in the air."

p. 305

Oreame "overflew Odogu’s mother ... . When Agonodi heeled around, she let her hand drop" the magical resuscitating herb. ... "And Oreame snatched the herb."

p. 326

"In came Tebekawene ... on his head, and levering himself upon his hands firmly on the ground, ... his head to the ground, his feet in the air." {[Maori god] Tane is standing upside-down}

p. 330

Tebe-kawene’s wife Ekrepo added pepper and salt to food. {cf. [Aztec goddess] Huixto-cihuatl and Lo^t.’s wife}

p. 331

Tebe-kawene’s wife : "her head was bald ... . Her teeth were like blocks."

p. 335

"Tebekawene ... picked him [Ozidi] up."

p. 336

"And off, off Tebekawene bore him." {cf. the carrying off of the infant Kr.s.n.a by Trin.a-vartta}

p. 344

"this woman Azema, her teeth were all scarlet with blood. She fed only on men."

"In these seven pots they crammed and cooked themselves human beings.:

p. 351

"a swim" : "Racing to the stream, they threw themselves in. Both broke into free strokes, roaring through the water for several laps. These two, child and mother, played".

p. 353

"Then he went and brought water ... and poured it lingeringly over her head before both splashed back into the stream."

p. 355

Azema-roti’s town was Gbekebo

p. 357

Orea-me "perched as a fly upon Azema. ... Next, Oreame took out needles and stuck them ... all over her head. {cf. acupuncture} It was a bundle of spikes that Oreame stuck into her."

p. 358

While chewing, Azema "sounded like a woodpecker at work."

p. 362

"Her decapitated head was still pulsating with life so that the teeth kept on grinding." {cf. the head of Medousa, effective even after beheaded}

p. 368

charm for slaying Azema-roti : fresh unripe plantain, a tadpole, a red bird’s egg.

p. 370

"the mother immediately turned into a skeleton." {cf. [Aztec living skeleton goddess] Mictlanca-cihuatl}

p. 374

Ozidi murdered his uncle Temugedege by "choking".

pp. 375-377

In order to punish Ozidi for having murdered his own uncle, Anglese [the smallpox-god (p. 390, n. 40)] arrived in a boat and afflicted him with smallpox.

p. 384

miraculous cure of Ozidi from smallpox by Orea-me’s herbal medicinal-bath "frothing all over."

p. 386

Ozidi "chopped up Engradon [smallpox-god (p. 30, n. 50)] himself along with his men, cutting up the boat into bits and pieces."