Iroso She

The deities sent the Guardian Angel to carry people off. When he reached the earth he took hold of them and, dragging them along, passed the back door of Ogún's house; they cried out: «Ogún, help me, the Guardian Angel is dragging me by the feet!». Ogún asked what was going on, but the guardian went on his way, and so they passed the houses of every deity on earth.

When the deities came out, the guardian of the soul explained the case to them. Orunmila read for him and saw this Odù, Iroso She, and told him that he himself would collect the things and that people would sacrifice for the guardian of the soul. The guardian let the people go, and from that day Orunmila collects everything each person's head requires as sacrifice every year and hands it to the guardian — who in turn gives him his share. Ever since, people also give something to Orunmila so he will be their go-between and speak well of them before the deities and their ancestral guardians: that is why it is said that Orunmila is the soul's go-between. By this Odù, Santo or Ifá must be made so you do not come to ruin, your head must be prayed and the Orishas fed: you are on bad terms with your Guardian Angel.

Shangó was the owner of the board where Orunmila did his readings, and he had two helpers: Elegba, the errand runner who carried the ebbós away, and Osanyin, who was trusted with the secrets of the herbs. But Shangó, giving himself over to women and parties, had less time every day, and handed the board to Orunmila: «You are the greatest diviner, the only one fit to keep it». He taught him how to work it and told him: «If you have any trouble, call me by setting sixteen thunderstones on the ground inside a circle of gunpowder, and setting it alight».

Elegba and Osanyin, put out that neither had been chosen, would not cooperate: Elegba did not take the works where they belonged but wherever he pleased, and Osanyin went off deep into the bush to work his own rule. Everything fell into disorder, and Orunmila called Shangó in the way he had been told. Shangó came at once, went out to find them, came upon Osanyin in the bush and let loose a storm of lightning: the bush caught fire, and Osanyin, who had been a perfect man, lost an eye, an ear, an arm and a leg. Dragging himself, he reached Orunmila's house, where he lost consciousness; when he came round, he saw to his astonishment that Orunmila, far from abandoning him, had tended and healed him. Sorry for it, he begged pardon and promised to be his servant. Elegba, hearing of it, came as well: «I was deceiving you too; from today you are the only one with power over me on earth». Ever since, Orunmila has his two servants and sees the result of his works — and that is how bodily imperfections were born.

From the time Olofin made the earth he set Banga, the oil palm, in it, and she had gone deep into the secrets of life itself; that is why the spirit of Ifá joined itself to her. People did not know Olofin: when they wanted to know anything, they questioned Banga leaning against her trunk, and she guided them in spirit. In those days neither men nor beasts died, and Banga was held to be the highest divinity. She went to see Orunmila, who saw this Odù for her: «The palm has everything; everything in you is worth something to life. Make ebbó — and your last secret will help human beings: you will be the food of Kushé, the spirit of fire».

Men learned what their hands were for, but did not know how to make fire or keep it. A hunter named Kushé found the tree of fire and cooked yams in its coals, and found them good. Going back into the bush he met Osanyin Aroni Elesekan — one eye, one foot, long hair and a hairy body — who led him to Banga. She taught him to take the sacred nuts of fewer than three eyes to draw out the palm oil and the oil of their kernels, to cook food with that fat, and to prepare the Adé Iná with the fibers of the dried ikines, to catch fire out in the bush and keep the fire of the household. By the light of the Adé Iná, Kushé was initiated into Ifá and learned all Banga's secrets — for he was Orunmila's son by Adamá, the woman of fire. He went back to his land with palm oil in a malanga leaf and a lit wick, and became Obá. That is how the first men learned to cook with fat and to keep fire, and Banga was left as the tree of life, which divines everything. That is why the Awoses light the Igbodun with wicks of ikines before they use candles.