When human beings arrived on Earth, Death began taking thousands of people every day.
Orunmila ended that slaughter on the day Ikú came for Ebbó, his son. Ebbó, who is sacrifice, defended people from death.
Ikú learned in Heaven that Ebbó protected men and warned them against her, and she came down in person. It was said that Ebbó was an excellent Ayó player, and Death challenged him right there on Earth with these rules: if she won, she would take him to Heaven and every sacrifice would vanish from the world; if she lost, she would never return to Earth.
They began to play fairly, and tournament after tournament Death stayed ahead. At dusk they left the board to resume in the morning. Then Death observed that the next day a month would be complete since she had been beating him. Ebbó did not understand: only one day had passed. She answered that the New Moon would appear the following day. Ebbó claimed the opposite, that the Moon would not be seen until the third day. To settle the dispute, Death put the Ayó aside and changed the bet. If the New Moon rose the next day, as she said, she would take Ebbó to Heaven and would also keep coming to the world for humans. If Ebbó was right, she would leave him in peace and take no one else. With the bet sealed, night fell and they parted.
Ebbó hurried to tell his father. Orunmila looked at his calendar and saw that Ikú was right: the Moon would appear the next day. He then consulted Okpele, who asked for a male goat for Eshu, at once, so that he would prevent Death's victory over Ebbó, since it would be very grave for the Earth.
With the goat eaten, Eshu went up to Heaven to see the Moon. She has a single dress for coming to the world. That morning she had washed it and spread it on the grass of the yard, to put it on when night came. Eshu asked her when her trip of each month was, and she said that very night.
Eshu left with that information. The Sun was nearing the end of its day. He gathered the smallest children of Heaven and made them play on the white dress, already dry, until it was completely trampled. It was left so dirty and spoiled that, had she worn it, the light of the Moon would hardly have been noticed.
Seeing the mess, the Moon went out to punish the children. God stepped in to find out the reason and she explained. God scolded her: she meant to take revenge on innocents for a simple oversight, and those same children were the ones who welcomed her with songs of praise every month. The Moon apologized for her forgetfulness, forgave the little ones and said that the next day she would wash the dress again and that this time she would hang it on a line, not on the ground, to appear on Earth the following night.
On Earth, Death and the others waited in vain that night. The Moon rose only the next night. Until then she had appeared every 30 days; from that night on she does so every 31.
Death admitted to Ebbó that events had proved him right, and promised not to return to the world. That is how Orunmila and his son Ebbó drove Death from the Earth.
However, Death had already said that her main food was human flesh. She had to find another way to feed herself and turned to the fierce deities, who supply her with sustenance on Earth: Ogún, who rules fighting, accidents and war; Shangó, who rules thunder, lightning and electricity; Olokun, who rules water, witchcraft and spells; and Shapaná, who kills with every kind of epidemic. Even those who die at the hands of the elders of the night are taken to Heaven before Death by her own messengers. Sickness, however, who is Death's wife, is slow to claim her victims, above all if they protect themselves with sacrifice or with Osain, lord of medicine.
Orunmila found out and reminded the other deities of the order that God gave in Heaven: do not kill on Earth. God had only allowed Death to feed on those who did evil and on those condemned by the weekly court of the divine council. Then why did she take the innocent along with the guilty?
There Orunmila set out his famous treatise. He told the deities that, in creating man to serve them, God expected men to be good like them and also to live forever. He added that good would have had better chances against evil if God, in allowing Death in, had divided men: eternal life for whoever did good, and Death only for whoever practiced wickedness. Then the generations would see that only the wicked die, and they would end up convinced to do good and to hate evil. If one has to choose, nobody wants to die. There Orunmila points to the basic flaw of creation, because in general the good die before those who do harm.