So proud that he never asked for a reading, Odi came down to earth with no preparation and condemned himself to loneliness. As an old man he made the sacrifice he had ignored and, saving a difficult birth, he was finally recognized.
Odi Meyi was so proud that he never got a reading before a trip: he believed he was above the deities and trusted his own strength alone. He came down to earth with no preparation, carrying on his head the thunderstone and the smelting furnace —the tools of Shangó and of Oggún. His followers warned him not to leave without offering a goat to Eshú and a guinea hen to his guardian angel, but he paid no attention.
On earth he taught his parents to honor Oggún and Shangó, but because of his fierce, unbeatable character nobody wanted to live near him, and he ended up alone deep in the forest. As an old man, his guardian angel spoke to him in dreams: he was suffering because he had not made the sacrifice. He consulted his Ifá, his own Odù came up, and at last —with the money from selling his fruit— he offered the goat to Eshú and the guinea hen to Ifá.
Soon after, the king's daughter had a birth that would not come, and no priest had been able to solve it. They called Odi, who with an incantation got the child and the placenta to come out together. His worth was finally recognized; the king gave him a title and a home. But he was sorry that he had planted trees whose fruit others would gather, because he had not listened in time to the advice to make the sacrifice.