Obara Wori

Four sisters decided to come to the world together: the Tigress, the Leopard, the Zebra and the Wildcat. They went to consult Obara Iwori, who told them to make a sacrifice with a hen, a tortoise and rotten materials. He also told them to hold a feast for their animals, and in this way they would gain the respect of everyone. Above all, they had to make a sacrifice against the danger of misfortune.

Just before leaving, they had to place the head of the sacrificed animals: the Tigress with beef, the Leopard with plenty of meat, the Zebra with guinea fowl and the Wildcat with rats and fish. The Wildcat made all the sacrifices and, because Orunmila insisted, she left the head on top of a hill. The Tigress placed the head but failed in everything else. The Leopard and the Zebra refused to make any sacrifice.

One morning the Tigress went into the forest to hunt for her cubs. She killed an antelope and carried it to the foot of an apple tree. When she began to cut it open, fruit started to fall from the tree and she got frightened. Without realizing it, she stepped on the antelope with her left paw, and tigers do not eat meat they have stepped on with that paw. She left the antelope and went to hunt a deer. She carried it to the foot of another tree, another fruit fell, she was frightened again and stepped on it again with her left paw. Once more she had to leave the prey. She could not hunt anything else that day and returned home very hungry. Just before arriving, the hunter saw her, took aim, fired and killed her. Her cubs died for lack of milk. According to tradition, the bodies of tigers are taken to the king of the town.

The hunter also got the Leopard, who died in the same way when she went out to look for food for her young.

The Zebra saw what had happened to her older sisters and ran to Orunmila for a new divination. Then she looked for money to buy the materials for the sacrifice and promised to pay after the first rains of the year. The Worm, the Hen, the Fox, her brothers in law (the husbands of the Tigress and of the Leopard), the Hunter and the Boa lent her what she needed.

When the first rain fell, the Worm came first to collect, and then the Hen, the Fox and the two husbands. The Zebra asked them to wait outside while she counted the money. There the Hen saw the Worm and ate it. The Fox saw the Hen and ate it. The Leopard's husband met the Fox and devoured it. Then the Tigress's husband attacked the Leopard's husband and killed him for food. Next the Hunter arrived, saw the Tiger, took aim and killed him with a shot. Without knowing it, the Boa had been following him closely and had stopped behind him. After the shot, the Hunter stepped back and accidentally stepped on the Boa, who bit him by reflex. The Hunter turned and killed her with his machete, but the poison of the bite killed him. In this way the seven creditors of the Zebra destroyed each other and there was no one left to pay.

The Wildcat, the only one who had made the sacrifice, came out unharmed. That is why cats are not used in sacrifices, their meat is not eaten and their young grow up small without any trouble.

When this Ifá appears in the Igbodu, the person must be asked whether he or she is one of four siblings.

A certain man was a sorcerer, and the members of his cult often gathered inside his house. Nobody in his family knew what those meetings were. One of his sons, mischievous and curious, began to spy on them.

When they found out, the sorcerers wanted to collect for the offense. After each meeting they removed from the boy a piece of intestine and another of liver. Little by little the boy fell ill in the stomach and did not get better.

When he was almost dead, the father consulted Ifá and discovered that those of the sect were consuming him. Ifá told him to summon them all again and ask for mercy for his son. At the meeting, the sorcerers explained the reason: the boy had spied on them, and so they wanted to leave him without a stomach. The father pleaded and asked how he could repair the damage. They asked for an image of the boy modeled with clay taken from behind a hill, besides a goat, eggs and a good amount of palm oil.

He took it all to the next meeting, and his son was healed. From then on he allowed no more meetings of the cult under his roof.

Obara ba le ra Ogún was an awó from Imere and divined for the people of that place. Before leaving heaven he received two instructions: to build his house right on the edge where heaven touches the earth, next to the Other World, the territory of the Abikú, and to offer Eshu a male goat at a crossroads, together with two hundred of grains of corn, plantains, yams and pieces of meat. Obara made the offering and built his house at that crossroads, not far from where the Abikú live.

When the Abikú traveled to the earth, they first had to stop at his house to be divined and find out how to get more out of their short visit. However, they refused to make an ebbó. Orunmila found a way to leave them held in this world: give notice to the parents of those children and show them what to do so that the children would stay. When the Abikú realized that Orunmila was wrecking their plans, they changed tactics and began to be born in the families of those who serve Ifá as priests. Hence there are so many Abikú among the children of the priests.