Obara Fun

He made the reading for the parrot when she was going to learn Ifism with a priest called Awoko. She was warned that she had to make sacrifice, but she did not think it necessary, since all she wanted was to learn the art. Without having made the sacrifice, she went to Awoko's house to begin the course.

As soon as Awoko said the name of Obara Ofun, Eshu overcame the parrot with the know-it-all syndrome, and she told the master she already knew everything he meant to teach her. Awoko, feeling needlessly interrupted, asked her that, if it was not Ifá, what was it she wanted to learn. The parrot, as if possessed: «moti mobara, mo mofun» — which to this day is called the sign of the parrot. So Obara Ofun remains with the only two words of Ifá the parrot knew, because she refused to make the sacrifice. In an ordinary reading: you are in the habit of talking a great deal — see that your words do not bring bad situations on you; do not behave as if you knew more than your boss or your teacher, and do not think you know it all, so you do not lose what humility and modesty would earn you.

When he was about to come into the world, he went for a reading and was told to sacrifice on account of the trouble he would find in his house and on account of a woman: a goat for Eshu and a feast with a female goat; that he was to have no relationship with a light-skinned woman, and not to drink alcohol, so as to avoid a passing madness. He made every sacrifice. All the same, a light-skinned woman followed him to earth the whole way from heaven. He reached the earth and became a prosperous priest of Ifá; he left Ifé to practice Ifism and came to Oyó. He was at the height of his career when he was invited by the Alaafin of Oyó to make a reading for him — and there he met the light-skinned woman: they were drawn to each other, as if they had known one another all their lives. He did such successful work for the Alaafin that he was richly rewarded: the list of gifts was headed by a man and the light-skinned woman, whom he had fallen in love with. He went back to Ifé with her.

When his relatives saw the gifts he brought from Oyó, they were envious and began to make trouble for him: his fortune began to fall off. At the same time, the light-skinned woman who had followed him from heaven to destroy him began her sickly work, poisoning his food: a very heavy cough started that steadily wore down his physical strength for work. When it got to the point of his coughing up blood, he went to the eldest Awoses of Ifá: on sounding it, his own Odù appeared. They told him the source of his troubles was inside his own house, and reminded him of his heavenly rule — which he could not remember —: no relationship with a light-skinned woman. They prepared the medicine with palm wine and a large bat to cure his cough, and told him to hold the feast of the female goat with his family after the goat for Eshu, assuring him the danger of death had passed, but that he would go on with a slight cough. He held the feast, and the troublemakers began to leave his house at Eshu's prompting: every relative responsible for the decline of his business left. His light-skinned wife did not leave him, but she began to feel disillusioned, frustrated and powerless; he began to prosper again, and the light-skinned woman returned to heaven. In Igbodu: do not allow any relationship to live or stay with you, you have nothing to do with a light-skinned woman, do not drink, and hold the feast of the female goat with your relatives after serving Eshu with a goat and a large bat.

Ataparapa was a bandit without mercy, under a devilish charm such that nobody was able to attack him. Before satisfying himself that there was nobody able to catch him, he went to the house of Obara-mo-Ofun for a reading, to secure himself against Death: he was told to sacrifice a goat and a small vessel holding a sponge and the goat's blood. After the sacrifice he decided to go to heaven and make friends with Death, and in the course of that acquaintance he learned that the very materials he had sacrificed with on earth were the things Death had forbidden her: a small clay vessel, a sponge and blood. With that knowledge he returned to earth and went on with his banditry unpunished, becoming a greater and greater menace to his community, with nobody knowing what to do about him.

In those days Death frequently came to earth to carry off those condemned by their neighbors or their community. When she was asked to carry off Ataparapa, she decided to pay him a visit — and on reaching her friend's house she found him sitting with a small clay vessel, a sponge and a great deal of blood spread all over the room. Seeing all her prohibitions, Death ran off quickly for heaven. When the townspeople saw that Death had not been able to take him, they won over his wife to tell them his prohibitions; she decided to help, since she was thoroughly disgusted by the shameful things he had brought on the family: the only thing he was forbidden was ripe plantain, and he would die the day he ate it. The townspeople prepared a ripe plantain wine (oten) for him to drink. After drinking it, he came home and asked his wife to shave a small osun in the middle of his head, where his strength was; afterwards he fell fast asleep and never woke. His death, however, brought a great deal of trouble on the family. In Igbodu and in an ordinary reading: be generally careful of a woman — a female goat to Ifá, a dog to Ogún and a goat to Eshu, so a woman does not hand you over to your enemies. You cannot drink plantain wine.