«My divining staff is taken up carefully, my whisk is precious as a bead, and my board is of gold»: he was told to serve Ogún with a turtle, his head with a rooster, Eshu with a young goat and Ifá with a female goat. On earth he married a difficult woman whose children died of convulsions: he repeated the sacrifice — with Eshu eating his young goat alone — and lost no more children. He prospered; and when Egbere, the Oloba's wife, fell irresistibly in love with him, Ifá told him to give a goat to Eshu: the Oloba not only gave her up without objection, but made him a great chief.
"The staff I divine with is gripped carefully; my little brush is worth as much as a bead; and the board I read on is made of gold": those were the names of the Awoses who read for this Odù before it came down to earth. They warned him to serve Ogún with a turtle, his head with a rooster, Eshu with a small goat and Ifá with a she-goat, all so he would not get into trouble with women down here. He sacrificed and came down.
The woman he married turned out to be difficult, and his children kept dying of convulsions. He sent for some Awoses to read in his house: what fell to him was a she-goat for Ifá, a small goat for Eshu — but Eshu was to eat it alone —, a rooster for his head and a turtle for Ogún. He did it, and he did not lose children again. He began to rise, and that modest success already earned him enemies. Around that time, Egbere, wife of the Oloba of Oba, became infatuated with him in a way there was no holding back; he tried to please her and could not stop her. He asked Ifá how to proceed, and Ifá ordered him to serve Eshu with a goat. Once the offering was made, he joined with the woman, and the Oloba, far from getting in his way, handed her over to him and on top of that named him a great chief. In Igbodu: sacrifice to avoid problems with a woman and the death of children, and to have prosperity. In an ordinary reading: a woman is crazy to marry you — marry her after giving a goat to Eshu.