Obara Fun

A diviner performed the divination for the parrot on the eve of her starting to study Ifá with a priest named Awoko. The consultation set a sacrifice for her, but she saw no use in it, because all she wanted was to learn the art. Without having made the offering, she appeared at Awoko's house to begin the course.

As soon as Awoko pronounced the name of Obara Ofun, Eshu took hold of the parrot and filled her with the idea that she knew everything. She told the teacher that she already knew all that he planned to teach her. Awoko, annoyed by the interruption, asked what she wanted to learn then, if it was not Ifá. The parrot, as if possessed, answered only with a few words in the ritual language. From then on the sign of the parrot has been named with that phrase.

Because she refused the sacrifice, Obara Ofun kept only the two words of Ifá that the parrot managed to know.

When this odu appears in an ordinary consultation, it points to someone who talks a lot. That person must measure what he says, so that his own words do not bring him misfortune. He also must not act as if he knew more than his teacher or his boss, nor believe that he is self sufficient: he would lose what humility and modesty give.

Before coming to the world, this man received a divination. They set a sacrifice for him because of the conflicts he would find in his own house and because of a woman: a goat for Eshu and a feast with a female goat. They also gave him two prohibitions: to have no relationship with any yellow woman and to drink no alcohol, because drink would bring him a temporary madness. He fulfilled everything they asked of him. Even so, a yellow woman came down from heaven to earth after him.

On earth he became a prosperous priest of Ifá. He left Ifé to practice Ifá and reached as far as Oyó. He was at the height of his career when the Alaafin, the king of Oyó, sent for him for a divination, and there he met the yellow woman. They were drawn to each other, as if they had always known each other. The work he did for the Alaafin turned out so well that they filled him with gifts, and among them came a man and the yellow woman, with whom he had already fallen in love. With her he returned to Ifé.

His relatives, seeing what he brought back from Oyó, were filled with envy and began to make his life difficult. His fortune kept falling. The yellow woman, who had followed him from heaven precisely to destroy him, set to work and poisoned his food. A very strong cough came over him and took away his strength to work. When it reached the point of vomiting blood, he went to the oldest diviners of Ifá. When they consulted, his own odu came out.

They told him that the origin of the harm was inside his house and reminded him of the prohibition he had brought from heaven and could not remember: no relationship with a yellow woman. They prepared a medicine for the cough. They also set the feast of the female goat with the family, after the goat for Eshu. They assured him that the risk of death was behind him, although 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 fall 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 returned to heaven.

When this odu appears in the Igbodu, the person is told not to let any relationship settle in his life and that with a yellow woman he has nothing to do. He must also not drink. He must celebrate with his own people the feast of the female goat, once a goat and a large bat have been served to Eshu.

Ataparapa was a ruthless bandit whom an evil spell made untouchable. Before he became convinced that nobody could catch him, he went to Obara mo Ofun to protect himself from Death. The answer was that he should offer a goat, together with a small container holding a sponge and blood from the same animal. When the ebbó was done, it occurred to him to go up to heaven to become friends with Death.

Living alongside her, he discovered that the things in his ebbó were exactly those that were forbidden to Death: blood, a sponge and a small clay vessel. With this knowledge he returned to the earth and went on with his misdeeds without suffering any harm. Every day he was a greater danger to his own people, and nobody knew how to stop him.

At that time Death often came to look for those whom the neighbors or the whole town had sentenced. When she was asked to take Ataparapa, she decided to return her friend's visit. She found him sitting in his house, with the clay vessel, the sponge and blood spilled all over the room. Seeing her prohibitions gathered together, Death fled in a hurry to heaven.

When the neighbors saw that not even Death could deal with him, they got his wife to say what was forbidden to him. She cooperated, because the shameful acts of her husband deeply upset her on account of the family. She revealed that his only prohibition was ripe plantain: as soon as he tasted it, he would die.

The neighbors prepared a wine from ripe plantain (oten) and gave it to him to drink. Ataparapa, back at home, asked his wife to shave a tiny osun in the middle of his head, where his strength was kept. Then he fell into a deep sleep from which he did not wake. Even so, his death caused his family many troubles.