Iroso Fun

The Awó who divined for Orunmila before he came down to earth was Efun fun lere. He advised him not to work as an Ifá priest but to go into trade, and to make sacrifice for his Guardian Angel with sixteen doves, a female goat, white cloth and two hundred and one cowries; to Eshú he had to feed a goat, corn, yam and plantain. All the sacrifices were done before he came down.

Once on earth he began to practice Ifá: as a priest he was very effective, but he had no stable life and he did not prosper. The divination told him that he had strayed from the road of his destiny; that he should decorate his Ifá throne with white chalk and white cloth, that he should feed Olokun with a dove, a bag of cowries and money and chalk, and Eshú with a goat. Once the sacrifices were received, Olokun remembered the promise made in heaven and sent her beautiful daughter, dressed all in white, to look in the market for the man dressed in white. They met, they fell in love at once, and she stayed in his house, where everything was decorated in white; he found out who she was because her only food was chalk. On every market day Olokun's servants brought beads, jewels and elephant tusks from heaven that had never been seen on earth; the Obá of the city bought from Orunmila at the price of two hundred men and two hundred women, and the other Obás came after him. Following the road of his destiny at last, he became extremely rich — although Olokun's daughter had no children with him. That is why the person is told to prepare the throne of Olokun for their Ifá, to feed Eshú a goat, and to always wear light-colored clothes.

Obatalá, in this road, was a cheat, and it fell to him to keep the money of the people of his town who were going to Yoko Osha. One day he started gambling with that money that was not his and lost it all: his rivals cheated him. When he found himself with nothing, his enemies spread the word and made a great arayé for him. Since he supposed that the people he had harmed would come to claim from him, Obatalá had a trap built in front of his door: a hole covered with branches, herbs and a mat on top. Whoever came to knock fell inside and was lost.

Among those affected there was a man who tied the rumors of the swindle to the disappearances that kept happening in the town, and he went to Orunmila's house. Orunmila saw this Odù for him and marked him the ebbó of the chick, the hen, the white dove, the stone and the trap, and warned him not to go into Obatalá's house: he had to throw the ebbó onto the mat without stepping on it, and that way he would find a trap. When he arrived he dropped the ebbó onto the mat, and it sank into the hole; the man went around the house and came in through the back door. The servants told him that Obatalá was not there; then he set Obatalá's Ogún on the floor, it fell down, and Obatalá got scared by the noise and shouted. That is how the trap was found out. That is why you must be careful about who you choose as godfather or godmother — there are surely traps against the godchild — and it speaks of buried prendas judías that create trouble.

In this road there was an Awó sick in his blood, his chest and his airways, who was very run down. While he was healthy people loved him; as soon as he fell ill, everyone kept away from him. Since he was a great devotee of Azojuano, and Azojuano thought as much of him, Azojuano sent for him, asked him what was wrong and the Awó told him everything. Azojuano told him to gather plenty of sesame at night and to go scattering it on the rooftops of his enemies.

The Awó did so. The next day, as soon as the sun warmed the sesame, the seeds burst open and a great epidemic broke out in that land, the same land that had thrown out the son of Oluo-Popo. Seeing what was happening, the people ran to Orunmila's house, and he saw this Ifá for them and marked them ebbó with tripe, small fish, beef, sesame and black and red beans and every kind of ashé — and they were saved from that sickness. By this Odù you must receive Oluo-Popo, and behind the door you place the sack bag with beans, sesame and camphor.