Ika Rete

Awó Ifalodun lived in Ikaeri under the rule of Olokun, who kept him tied so that the people of that place would not learn of the things Olokun did. As a child he had not been given Ifá. Olokun took him from the house of his godfather, Awó Omonire, who lived in Oddun Layeo, the land of Shangó, and brought him to Ikaeri, which was his own land. Ifalodun did not know how to handle Ifá, so he consulted everyone who came using only the okpele. Olokun had deliberately prevented him from learning it.

One day Awó Omonire did an osode and Ika Rete came out, which was the sign of his son. He thought that he had gone years without seeing the boy and that Ika Rete announced difficulties with Olokun. He gathered two white hens and a rooster, and began the journey to Ikaeri. On the road he ran into Shangó, who on hearing the destination decided to go with him, since the young man should not stay in Ikaeri: he had been born in Oddun Layeo, a land governed by Shangó.

In Ikaeri they appeared first before Olokun, who received them with suspicion. When they asked for Awó Ifalodun, Olokun answered that he wandered from place to place, with no home of his own, carrying his Ifá with him. Awó Omonire invited Shangó to look for him, and they found him sitting under a cotton tree, consulting a crowd with the okpele. Fresh fish was piled up beside him, since his clients were fishermen and paid him with fish.

Although he had left Oddun Layeo as a very small child, Awó Ifalodun recognized them at once. He wept, embraced them and spoke to them of how hard it was for him to divine, although he never gave it up.

In those days Ayé and Olokun quarreled and Ayé left the house; with that, Olokun's wealth began to dwindle. Olokun went out in search of Awó Omonire and Shangó, and found them with Ifalodun. He asked the godfather to consult Ifá about his problem, but using the adele. Awó Omonire refused to look at it himself, since his son Awó Ifalodun was there, whom Olokun had requested as a child to be the awó of Ikaeri. Olokun objected that the young man did not know how to work with the adele and would not know how to solve his matter. The godfather replied that he did know, but that Olokun kept him tied.

Shangó then took the board, put it in Ifalodun's hands and asked him to take out the adele he kept. Ifalodun, with hands trembling with fear, received encouragement from Shangó, who led him step by step through the ceremony to untie and cleanse his Ifá and to count the adele, with a phrase for each step; in this way he freed himself, drove out the ofo and cleared his path. Each time, Awó Omonire answered with a phrase saying that the adele goes from one place to another and undoes the enemy.

Then Shangó asked him to cleanse himself again and to walk with the adele the lands that Ifá passed through to become what he is. Ifalodun spoke the names of Awó, each with its meaning, and closed the ceremony with words of cleansing, as witnesses from heaven who look after the earth.

Awó Omonire then asked his son to wait, because that land needed a secret it did not yet have, called Ifaye Owodele. He made it, left it in front of the mat and asked Ifalodun to place one of the adele there; then he prayed and sang. Afterward he charged his son with moyugba and atefa.

Ika Rete came out for Olokun, and Awó Omonire ruled that his great difficulty was that the land required the people to have their own share of Ifá in order to prosper, and not merely to worship the stones Olokun kept. He gathered some adele of those that the sea threw up, and sand, and handed them to Awó Ifalodun with the instruction to add sand, hutia and fish, put it all inside the ebbó for Olokun, and also give him a hen.

When they started the ebbó, Awó Omonire, Shangó and Ifalodun placed on top small fresh fish taken from the gourd; when finished, they put it into the gourd and sent Olokun to carry it to the seashore.

When Olokun went back home, Ayé had already returned with all the wealth. From then on he sent all his children to Awó Ifalodun so that he would give them what they needed: Awofakan, Ikofá and Untefá of Orunmila.

Awó Omonire left a charge to his son: always keep the ikines with sand for the people. The people of that place came back, and Awó Ifalodun, son of Ika Rete, had the backing of Olokun, of Shangó and of his godfather in Ifá, Awó Omonire.

Yemayá lived with Obatalá and was expecting a child. In that period her health suffered more than once.

The time to give birth came while Obatalá was eating fish. Yemayá's cry startled him and a bone stuck in his throat.

The child was not being born and Yemayá suffered without rest. She began to have very strong convulsions: this was the eclampsia attack. Obatalá tried to help her and, in the effort, the bone came loose. After much pain, Yemayá gave birth to a son, whom Obatalá named Inle.

She ran out of the house in the direction of the coast. At the place where the ground turned into marsh, she entered the sea with the child.

Abita, a daughter of Yemayá, lived there, and because of her unattractive appearance she kept away from people. Abita took in the child, took charge of raising him and, when he was grown, he stayed with her.

Yemayá settled in the sea. Whenever her little Inle came to her memory, she suffered a fit of madness: she emerged furious in search of him and destroyed everything that stood in front of her.

The note of the passage says that the eclampsia attack originated here, and that the wife of the person may lose her reason after a childbirth.

A woman sold thread in the market and sales were going badly; she consulted Orunmila. In the consultation this Ifá came out and an ebbó was indicated for her: a small box, a rooster, two doves and trash from the market, so that her business would improve. She did not carry it out.

Another merchant had been listening to the whole consultation. Since things were not going well for him either, he asked Orunmila to make that same ebbó for him. Orunmila did so, and that man's luck changed for the better.