Irete Kana

Three awó wanted to harm Irete Kanlú but could not find a way. So they chose to strike him through his wife. They went before Olofin with an invented version: the disorder in the town, they said, was caused by the thread sellers of the market, and one of them was the wife of Irete Kanlú. The solution, they claimed, called for a rooster for the ebbó and for the women themselves.

Each one went back home and ordered his wife not to sell thread in the market again. But Olofin had given the order earlier: it was already decided to act against any woman who sold thread. That day Irete Kanlú consulted his Ifá and treachery came out. The message told him to do a rogación for his head, to cover himself with a bandage for seven days and, if they came for his wife, to answer that she could not go out because she was sick. She, being obedient, did so. The wives of the other three, in contrast, did not listen to their husbands: they went out to the market (ilé loyá) with their thread and were arrested there. Only the wife of Irete Kanlú was spared.

Seeing their wives in prison, the three awó had to admit to Irete Kanlú the trap they had set for him, and they begged him to help the women.

Then the traitors went again before Olofin with another argument: without Irete Kanlú the rogación could not be done. Olofin had him called. Irete Kanlú came to Olofin’s house and explained that for that rogación the women’s threads and pieces of their clothing were enough; the women were not needed. With that everything was settled.

Note: during the rogación the awó wears a white and yellow cap to go to bed, and keeps it on for 7 days.

Irete Kanlú was greatly renowned as an awó. One morning he consulted his sign, this Ifá came out, and he warned his wife: she must not go to sell thread at the market; if her friends came by to fetch her, she had to stay home and say she was sick.

That same day, an urgent matter led Olofin to summon the awoses, who came without informing Irete Kanlú. They performed osode for Olofin, and the result was that a rogation had to be done in which the women who sold thread there took part.

A few days later, Olofin already had several women detained and summoned the awoses again. When they arrived, they discovered that the imprisoned women were their own wives. So they pretended to prepare the ebbó, but they took so long that Olofin wanted to know the reason. They replied: “Babá, we do not know how to make this ebbó; Irete Kanlú must be called.”

When Irete Kanlú arrived, they explained the situation to him, including that their wives had to be lost in the ebbó. He spoke before Olofin: “Babá, this ebbó only requires a small piece of the clothing of those women and white and black thread.” Once the ebbó was finished, he looked at the other awoses and said: “My heart is better than yours: being my disciples, you tried to harm me.”

This Ifá calls for prudence before a conspiracy plotted by people of the same generation. Whoever consults must be careful with rivalry at work and with his relationships.

The Ifá Irete Kana came out for Orunmila on the day of an assembly of Babalawos at Olofin's house. The attendees had arranged a poison to finish him off as soon as he arrived.

Orunmila found out and wanted to know what the dining place was like, to avoid being poisoned. At once he offered a sacrifice of 32000 cowries and palm oil: he had heard the warning and answered it with the sacrifice.

That same day the Babalawos sent for him on the excuse that he should join them at the party. In front of Olofin they laid out their plan and managed to put deadly poison on Orunmila's clothes and on his mat. When he arrived, they also poured poison into his drink.

Orunmila watched the drink for a long while and told himself that the vessel was boiling, that it was the poison bubbling in the pot, and that the awó of Irete Kana would not drink that day. A little later they brought the poison near him again; Orunmila looked at it and spoke a few words.

Then Olofin sat on the floor to consult about the fate of his eldest son, a great liar. The Babalawos present stated that the son would not die. When asked his opinion, Orunmila answered that the young man would avoid death only if Olofin recovered his royal robe and the mat that served him as a blanket on the throne, since with those objects a medicine or a trap could be prepared for the son.

Olofin, who was looking for a way to kill Orunmila, thought he had the chance to put the poison inside those garments. But when they went outside, a bird began to cry out without stopping to warn Orunmila: that day he should not sit on the mat or put on the clothes, and he should only pretend to.

When the robe and the mat were brought, Orunmila kept asking about them until the Babalawos had no choice but to reveal where the poison was. Then he took the left side of the place and came out safe and unharmed.