Ogbe Bara

Ogbe Bara divined and prepared Ifá for Shangó when Shangó was very poor in heaven; Ogbe Bara was poor himself. When the ceremony was over he invited him to his house, but Shangó, knowing he was in no state to be seen, would not accept.

Shangó looked down from heaven and saw that the world was dirty and wicked, and he swore to wipe out the wrongdoers. As he made ready for battle, a tornado tore the roofs off many houses. Ogbe Bara was away on a journey and had left his wife at home.

As trees and buildings came down, Shangó saw the roof of Ogbe Bara's house fall, not knowing it was his. The woman was singing, calling on the house of Ifá, and the song told Shangó it was his benefactor's house. So he left the house alone and went back to heaven. Because of this Ifá you must be careful never to be ungrateful to your benefactor.

Three brothers went to Orunmila to improve their father's fishing business, and he told them to give a goat to Eshú, but they had doubts and did not do it. The boa, the rabbit, Iroko and the guinea fowl were given the same advice and also refused.

At work, the eldest brother sank into the swamp; the second, pulling him out, had his hands torn off; and the third broke his jaw as he shouted. The squirrel laughed, and the branch it was sitting on fell on the boa; frightened, the boa took shelter with the rabbit and ate its seven young; the rabbit fled to Iroko and broke the guinea fowl's 201 eggs, and the guinea fowl cried war.

God sent a heavenly Rider, who ordered a ceasefire and heard each one out. He freed the three brothers, who confessed that their misery came from not sacrificing; he forbade the squirrel to laugh at other people's misfortune, ordered the rabbit to block its burrow and the boa never to go into caves again, and the guinea fowl to lay its eggs in the sand. That is why things are as they are today. No sacrifice should ever be put off.

Akensheolu was a depraved bandit who terrorized the town, keeping everyone from going to the market, to the farms and to the river. The elders sent for Ogbe Bara. In the divination they marked him ebbó with a rooster, a goat, a machete and food, and he set out to face him.

At a fork of four roads, he pretended to be senseless so that passers-by, talking about him, would let slip which road led to the bandit's house. When he got there, he challenged him with his bow and three arrows. Akensheolu shot, but Ogbe Bara, with an incantation, turned each arrow aside; and when he charmed his own, saying that a messenger goes where it is sent, it went through the bandit's heart.

He cut off his head as proof. The widow called down an eclipse so he would not find his way back, but Ogbe Bara called down the light — because whoever closes their eyes opens them again in time — and the road cleared. He was received in triumph. Because of this Ifá you must make ebbó to survive a hard mission, and not refuse it out of pride.