Obara Fun

He did the reading for the parrot on the eve of her starting to study Ifism with a priest named Awoko. The reading marked sacrifice for her; she saw no use in it, since all she wanted was to master the art. So, without having made the offering, she showed up at Awoko's house to begin the course.

Awoko had only to say the name Obara Ofun for Eshu to take hold of the parrot with the know-it-all syndrome: she then told the teacher that she already knew everything he planned to teach her. Awoko, annoyed by that interruption that made no sense, wanted to know what she meant to learn, if not Ifá. The parrot, as if possessed: "moti mobara, mo mofun" — and that is what the parrot's sign is called to this day. That is why Obara Ofun kept the only two words of Ifá the parrot managed to know: she refused the sacrifice. In an ordinary reading: this is someone who talks a lot; measure what you say, or your own words may bring you misfortune. Do not act as if you knew more than your teacher or your boss, and do not think you are enough on your own: you would lose what humility and modesty give.

Before coming into the world he went through a reading. They marked sacrifice for him on account of the conflicts he would find in his own house and on account of a woman: a goat for Eshu and a feast with a she-goat. They also gave him two rules: no relationship with a yellow woman and no alcohol, since drink would bring him a passing madness. He did everything he was asked. Even so, a yellow woman came down after him from heaven to earth. On earth he became a prosperous Ifá priest: he left Ifé to practice Ifism and got as far as Oyó. He was at the top of his career when the Alaafin of Oyó sent for him for a reading, and that is where he met the yellow woman: the two felt drawn to each other, as if they had known each other forever. The work he did for the Alaafin turned out so well that they showered him with rewards, and at the head of those gifts came a man and the yellow woman, whom he had already fallen in love with. He went back to Ifé with her.

His relatives, seeing what he brought from Oyó, filled with envy and began to make life hard for him; his fortune went downhill. For her part, the yellow woman — who had followed him from heaven precisely to destroy him — set to her sick work and poisoned his food. He then came down with a very bad cough, which took away his body's strength for work. When it got to the point of vomiting blood, he went to the oldest Awoses of Ifá; when they sounded him out, his own Odù came up. They told him the harm started inside his own house and reminded him of the rule he had brought from heaven and could not remember: no relationship with a yellow woman. They prepared the cough medicine for him with palm wine and a big bat, and they marked the she-goat feast with the family, after the goat for Eshu; they assured him the risk of death was behind him, though a light cough would stay with him. Once the feast was held, Eshu saw to it that the troublemakers left the house: all the relatives who were to blame for the collapse of his business went away. The yellow wife did not leave, but she fell into disappointment, frustration and helplessness. He prospered again, and the yellow woman went back to heaven. In Igbodu: do not let any relationship settle in or stay in your life; with a yellow woman you have nothing to do; do not drink; and hold the she-goat feast with your people, once Eshu has been served a goat and a big bat.

Ataparapa was a bandit with no pity, protected by a devilish charm that made it impossible to attack him. Before he became sure that nobody could catch him, he had a reading at the house of Obara-mo-Ofun to keep himself safe from Death: they marked a goat for him and a small container with a sponge inside and the blood of that goat. Once the sacrifice was done, it occurred to him to go up to heaven to make friends with Death, and in dealing with her he found out that those same materials he had offered down below were, in fact, Death's own taboos: a small clay container, a sponge and blood. With that piece of news he came back to earth and went on stealing without anything happening to him; he became a growing threat to his community, and nobody knew how to stop him.

In those days Death came down often to collect those the neighbors or the community had condemned. They asked her to take Ataparapa away and she decided to pay him a visit. Walking into her friend's house she found him sitting there, with a small clay container, a sponge and a lot of blood spilled all over the room. Faced with her taboos all together, Death fled in a hurry back to heaven. When the town saw that not even Death could handle him, people went to convince the wife to reveal his taboos. She agreed: the shame that man had brought on the family weighed on her too much. She said the only thing forbidden to him was ripe plantain, and that the day he tasted it he would die. Together they prepared a ripe plantain wine (oten) and set it in front of him so he would drink it. Back at his house, after drinking it, he asked his wife to shave a small osun right in the middle of his head, which was where he kept his strength. He fell into a deep sleep at once and never came back from it. His death, even so, brought the family plenty of trouble. In Igbodu and in an ordinary reading: be careful with a woman in general; give a she-goat to Ifá, a dog to Ogún and a goat to Eshu, so that you do not fall into your enemies' hands by a woman's hand. Plantain wine is forbidden to you.