Iroso Ogunda

This odu, in Heaven, devoted himself to divining for those who wished to prosper on Earth. Noticing that his colleagues had already left, he resolved to go down too. He asked God for leave, and God suggested that he apply to himself what he had so often done for those who consulted him. He answered that the Awoses he turned to had left him alone, and begged for a blessing. God gave it, but with a warning: he had to reinforce it with divination and sacrifice, because Eshu has great power on Earth.

Before leaving he went to see his protector, the Guardian Angel, who warned him what would happen if he went down without any sacrifice and recommended that, at the very least, he carry a sack full of food to share with those who approached him on the trip. He would not hear this either, and set out with nothing in his hands.

On his way he first came upon Emu, who asked him for food. He turned her away, claiming he carried nothing. Emu then refused to accompany him to the world and told him that his company did not interest her. Next he met Eshu, who demanded to know how he dared leave Heaven without having treated anyone, and he promised to feed Eshu on reaching Earth. Further on was Elenini, the Obstacle, who also asked for food and got the same refusal. Last of all, the Madman asked him for something to eat, and he was left with nothing too.

Once in the world, his life became tangled completely. His manner was harsh and nobody gave him importance. Every gift that God tried to send him, the Obstacle diverted elsewhere. Eshu, for his part, wore him out with a deceptive piece of advice: to dress in white and pray at dawn and at dusk, believing that everything would then improve. With that he sought to keep him away from the practices of Ifá, which would have opened his eyes to his problems. The other Awoses scolded him because he mocked Ifá and did not respect the deities.

In the meantime, the Obstacle sent him a woman, and she had a sick son. The care of the child took what little money the man had, and when the last resource was gone, the child died. Then he went into the forest with the idea of taking his own life. At that moment Eshu wanted to show him what his prosperous life would have been like had he paid his debt in Heaven.

Before he could carry out his intention, Eshu sank him into a vision. There was his dead son, in a street full of riches, and himself in the middle of a crowd that celebrated at his side. Thrilled, he decided to stay in that fantasy, which had wrapped around him in the middle of the forest. He spent seven days there. After that time, Eshu brought him back to harsh reality: he set his paradise on fire, and the flames swept away everything except him. He woke alone, in the middle of the forest.

He ran off with no direction. Eshu appeared again and asked him for a goat. The Guardian Angel, who had censured his disobedience, provided the goat. He handed it to Eshu, who asked whether he was ready to respect those who were stronger than himself, and he answered yes. Eshu ate the goat and told him to walk always in one direction and he would find Orunmila. Suddenly he found himself at his house.

There, Elenini, the one who had sent him the woman, demanded a she goat and ground yam. He got them, sacrificed the she goat and gave a great banquet for the people. The next day he gathered the Awoses so that they would make Ifá for him. When they consulted it, they described to him what he had lived through in the forest. The preparation of Ifá lasted seven days, and in that time he took a second wife, the mother of many children. The Obstacle moved out of his life, and he reached old age with a modest prosperity.

When the Igbodun shows this Ifá, it may be that the person passed through Christianity before receiving Ifá. They must give a she goat to Elenini, so that their first wife moves away. Without that they will not prosper, because she represents the deity of the Obstacle.

Orunmila traveled to Ifé to work in the service of a woman named Aiye, which means the World, who wanted to have children. Before leaving, his consultations told him to make an ebbó with a billy goat, and he did it. At Aiye's house he prescribed a sacrifice of a ram, a she goat and a duck. Once it was done, he began to give her his medicines and at last she became pregnant. Aiye had three children, named Oromu roma Oshokpo, Akikani gbago and Ole komu dawa ra shaka.

The house also had several servants; the oldest was Eyinuwa. When the children grew up, Eyinuwa left and settled by the sea. Years went by, Aiye died and the three children divided her property. In that division they did not think of Orunmila, who had helped their mother so much, nor of Eyinuwa, the family's veteran servant, whose whereabouts nobody knew.

Later, Orunmila visited the children and asked why they had given him nothing of what their mother had left, when he had been her diviner and benefactor. The children answered with an evasion: they said they had not forgotten him and that they had kept for him their mother's oldest servant. However, they did not know how to reach him.

They also did not know that Eyinuwa, alone by the sea, had done wonderfully and was now very rich. Back at home, Orunmila consulted Ifá to learn how to find Eyinuwa. The answer was to offer a billy goat to Eshu and then to honor his head by offering wine in a gourd, next to a road.

Orunmila gave the billy goat to Eshu. Then, with the gourd of wine, he went out to the main road that entered the town and sat down to honor his head. He was begging for Eyinuwa's return, offering palm wine and kola nut, when he saw a caravan of horsemen and carriers of loads approaching. Some people in the retinue heard Orunmila's pleas, which named their lord, and immediately told him what the man at the side of the road was asking.

The two already knew each other and Eyinuwa recognized him first. Hearing those pleas, he dismounted and knelt in front of Orunmila, as before his new lord. He explained that he was returning to his land with his entourage to swear loyalty to whoever had become master since the death of his mistress Aiye. Orunmila was stunned by that reversal. They put him on a horse and took him back at the front of the parade.

Eyinuwa was already a man of fortune through his own effort, and he put all his wealth into Orunmila's hands, so that Orunmila became rich overnight. Afterward, the children of Aiye were amazed to learn how Orunmila had found Eyinuwa.

Olose, daughter of God, was a young woman of great beauty, whose name is understood as the loveliness that eyes behold without blinking. The time had come to marry her off. Since Death and Night asked for her, and Orunmila as well, God accepted all three and summoned them together to decide who deserved most to be the husband.

Elenini, the divinity of Obstacle, received permission from God to set the method. He called the three suitors and told them that the world had sunk so deep into evil that any means was valid to win the bride. The rule was this: whoever first handed her, as a gift, 201 fresh human skulls brought from the Earth would marry Olose.

For Death and Night it was an easy matter. For Orunmila, on the other hand, killing was not his place, and he was in trouble. Back home, he consulted Ifá. The answer was to offer a goat to Eshu and, to Ifá, 16 snails and a guinea hen. Then he had to tie the shells of those 16 snails to a forked rod, and the next morning, as soon as the first rooster crowed, walk to the edge where Heaven and Earth meet, striking the ground with the rod and singing a song: if he met Death, he would fight her to the last moment.

Orunmila carried out the ebbó, and before dawn he took the rod with the shells and set out for that edge. Death, meanwhile, had gone down to Earth to gather the heads of 201 people already beheaded and was returning to Heaven carrying her bags. Near the border an enormous, booming noise reached her, and she wondered what caused it. She had never feared anyone, so she went on with her usual courage. But as she drew near she heard clearly the words of the song, a challenge that shook the Earth to its foundations.

Death stood still, trying to guess what bold power this was that made the ground tremble and promised to confront her on seeing her. The uproar, while she hesitated, grew stronger. For the first time she felt true terror: she threw down the bags with the heads and fled at full speed back to the Earth.

Orunmila reached the place where Death had left the 201 skulls, let his rod and shells fall, gathered the heads and ran to hand them to Elenini as the prize for the bride. On receiving them, Elenini gave Olose to him as wife: he had been the first to present the prize.

Death, confident of her triumph, went back to the Earth for another 201 skulls. She thought Orunmila would not be able to get any, because he was not capable of taking anyone’s life. Night, on the other hand, needed to wait many nights until finding a pretext to kill. On arriving before Elenini, Death got a great surprise: Orunmila had already beaten her. Humiliated, she and Night swore to finish him.

Orunmila guessed that the defeated would react like this, and consulted Ifá. An ebbó was indicated to him: fried rabbit meat, which he had to leave at the crossing nearest his house; plantains roasted without removing the peel and roasted corn, beside the road; and a whole roasted goat, with its meat at that same spot.

Eshu smelled the roasted goat and came at once to have a feast. On seeing the rest, he stayed on watch, curious about the outcome. The first to act was Night, who was going to attack Orunmila. Near the house she found a dish of fried rabbit, and her appetite won out: she ate it. Eshu then appeared and accused her of stealing. “Whom did I rob?” she asked, and Eshu answered that the food was Orunmila’s. Theft was paid for with one’s life, so Night preferred to give up her claim against Orunmila, in exchange for forgetting what she had eaten.

At dawn, Death approached Orunmila’s house armed with a club. As soon as Eshu saw her coming, he lit up the roasted corn and the plantains, so that she would see them clearly, since they were her greatest taboos. On recognizing them, Death gave up her plan and ran back home to be safe. Orunmila could at last enjoy his wife in peace.

When this Ifá comes out in the Igbodu, the person is advised to receive his Ifá as soon as possible, because then he will have a prosperous life. He may find himself tangled in matters of love, with a woman between two men. He must make an ebbó similar to the earlier ones and avoid roasted plantain in its peel.