Shangó was reaching for greater power and Orunmila saw this Ifá for him: «You will reign in another land, but there is a trap: when they offer you a chair, shake it if it is wooden, and if it is upholstered, refuse to sit in it; and to keep that luck, make rogation now and then and do not run around with many women.» In a distant land the dying king, watching his ministers fight over the throne, decreed: «My successor will come from another land, wearing a red cape.» The ministers set a poisoned arrowhead under the lining of the throne. Shangó arrived, the people proclaimed him, and he asked to be crowned standing; then he sat in the queen's chair and ordered each minister to sit on the throne: every one of them refused. He had them arrested and executed, tore open the lining in front of the guests, and the betrayal was public. He ruled for some years — but he forgot Orunmila's warnings, took many women, let himself go, and the soldiers loyal to the executed ministers laid another trap, and he fell into it: he lost the crown.
Shangó lived quite well in a town, because he had already been through his hardships to reach the position he enjoyed; but he was still not satisfied, since he was reaching for greater power, and for that he went to Orunmila's house, who made an osode for him, saw this Ifá and told him: «You will reign in another land; but to obtain that kingdom you have to make ebbó with two roosters, a chain, a trap, an arrow and a small chair, so that you are free of a trap they are going to set for you. When they offer you a chair or something like it to sit in, you must shake it if the seat is wooden; and if it is upholstered, you must refuse by every means to sit in it, so that your enemies do not manage to beat you. And for you to keep that luck Ifá promises you, you have to make rogation now and then and not run around with many women.»
Shangó made his ebbó and set out walking in search of the luck Ifá had promised him.
It happened that in a land some distance from Shangó's, the king fell gravely ill; and seeing that all his ministers were reaching for his throne, and meaning to keep them from destroying one another and harming his people in the process, he gathered them and said: «My successor will come from another land, wearing a red cape.» Right after that, the king ordered an edict issued making his last will known to all the people.
Days later the king died, and the ministers conspired to kill whatever stranger came to claim the throne. For that they lifted the lining of the seat, set a very fine poisoned arrowhead standing up, and covered it with the lining of the throne's seat, so that when he went to sit down he would be pricked and would die.
Shangó arrived in that land, and the people, seeing him, proclaimed him heir to the crown and took him to the palace. Shangó, as an intelligent man, picked out from among those people the youngest and strongest, and ordered them to arm themselves with all the spears and arrows they could find, since they were his trusted guard.
On the day of the coronation, the palace was crowded with guests from other lands and from the provinces of the kingdom, and the ministers told him to sit on the throne so the coronation ceremony could go ahead. Shangó answered them: «I would rather you crown me standing.»
So it was done; and once Shangó was crowned king, he walked toward the throne, and to everyone's astonishment he did not sit in it, but in the one that would belong to the queen, if the king were married.
Shangó called the ministers of the late monarch, and to the one nearest him he gave the order to sit on the throne at his side; but he refused to obey, claiming that he did not deserve such an honor. The second, the third, and so on: every one of them refused to obey him. And Shangó ordered his guard to arrest them and kill them all; and afterward, in front of all the guests, he ordered the lining torn open, and so the betrayal they had prepared for him became public.
Shangó ruled for some years; but he forgot Orunmila's warnings and began to take many women and to let himself go. And since in that palace there were still soldiers sympathetic to some of the executed ministers, they laid another trap, and he fell into it and lost the crown.