There was no rain: the witch cult had left three eggs in heaven that held the rain back. Shangó's hunter shot one down without touching the others, the mechanic emptied it onto the altar of the Earth, and Sheyi put it back in its place. When the witches found out, they pretended Death was ill so as to trap whoever was responsible; Obara Osa saw through it, set his board before them with Osa Meyi and Osa Ogbe, and before the fight he invited them to eat snails: they fell asleep — and for the first time that year, it rained all night.
Between one trip and another he had no time for his own people, and his son Sheyi he ended up handing over to Shangó as a servant. Two others lived with Shangó: one hunted and the other fixed whatever broke.
There was hunger in the land because the rainy season went by with no water. The people went to Shangó, who had dealings with heaven, so he would find out the cause. At the meeting of the Divine Council he was told that Awon Iyami Oshoronga, the cult of witchcraft, kept three eggs up there, and that as long as they were intact not a drop would fall; God warned that his own anger would be enough to break them, and then chaos would come. The Council offered a way out: if someone emptied one of the eggs and put the shell back in its place, it would rain for three days.
Back below, the hunter dressed for the hunt and hit one egg without touching the other two; it fell whole. The mechanic opened it and poured its contents into the oropéndola of Obara Osa, altar of the divinity of the earth; then he put it back together, and Sheyi, who went up to heaven often, put it back where it was. Since it was all done in broad daylight, the cult found out nothing.
When night fell the witches found one of their eggs empty. They then sent word: the divinity of Death was sick and Awoses from the earth were needed to offer to cure her, and they added that producing the contents of the egg would heal her. Nobody doubted that Obara Osa was the only one able to attend to her; but when he consulted his okpele he saw that Death had nothing wrong with her and that the Elders of the Night were after a victim for sacrifice. From that night on he set out to fight the cult of witchcraft as long as he lived.
He went out that same night with his board, marked with Osa Meyi and Osa Ogbe. The witches challenged him, accusing him of keeping the contents of the eggs, and he answered that someone who had not gone up to heaven could hardly be keeping it; right away he placed the board inside the oropéndola. They were about to lock into a fight when he suggested they eat snails before the combat. When the meal was over, they all fell asleep — and the rain broke for the first time that year and kept falling all night, with joy all over the whole land. In Igbodu: offer sacrifice to the Night at once; never have a servant; hen to the head if your mother is alive — hen and fish if she is dead.