Ogbe Roso

After creating human beings, heaven became so full that Olodumare grew tired of sitting to hear, as he used to, everyone's daily complaints. He told the deities and the people that he wished to dissolve into the void. Before doing so he would choose, among his two hundred divinities, the one who would take his place both above and below, and he called them all to an examination to see which one was fit.

Before going, Orunmila consulted Ifá and was ordered to give a goat to Eshu. He carried out that ebbó and set out. When the deities were gathered, Olodumare showed the Ude, his badge of authority, and all of them stepped forward boasting. Meanwhile Eshu took the appearance of a high personage of heaven and told Olodumare that only the idle deity who came in dressed in white was fit for the post. Olodumare doubted that deity, but he obeyed Eshu.

He put Orunmila to the test for a week and left him the badge. Orunmila hung it on the altar of his guardian angel. Osain, the deity of medicines, was a close friend of Orunmila, the two were always together, and he was the only god allowed to enter Orunmila's house without asking.

The deity of sorcery gathered his followers and planned to win Osain over to steal the Ude from Orunmila's house, since he considered himself the most suitable keeper of Olodumare's badge. He claimed to have been the chief of the four guards of the pendant whenever Olodumare bathed before the rooster crowed. The sorcerers got Osain's agreement.

With the pact sealed, Osain entered Orunmila's room, hypnotized him, and left him in a pleasant sleep. He took the badge and sent it to the deity of the night, the one of darkness. As soon as they received it, they opened a cavity inside the chimney of Orunmila's hearth and hid it there.

Orunmila woke up and noticed that the badge was missing. He sent for the awo who had divined for him at the start, and they told him to make an ebbó of crushed yam with rat meat and fish meat; he was to scatter it behind the house and leave part of it in the kitchen chimney. He did so. Then birds and goats roamed around the house eating the offering, even the one in the chimney. That day Akpetebi, Orunmila's wife, went into the kitchen, discovered the badge, and told him. Orunmila took it, cleaned it, and hung it on his neck, since he had to wear it when he returned, after the seven days, to sit in his place at the daily meetings. He arrived at the gathering wearing the badge and spoke the usual greeting at the entrance; everyone answered him. That was enough for Osain, the deity of darkness, and the others to understand that he had it again, and all of them bowed to the ground before him.

On leaving the meeting, Orunmila decided to hide the badge under his pillow. That night Osain came back to congratulate him on his success, waited for him to fall asleep, and hypnotized him again. He lifted Orunmila's head, took out the badge, and gave it to the elders of the night, who buried it in the rubbish dump. Orunmila woke up, saw that it had been stolen, and summoned his awo again.

The three awo arrived and the divination gave Ogbe Irosun. They prescribed an ebbó of crushed yam and small pieces of rat and fish, with the leftovers thrown on the dump, plus a goat for Eshu. One of the companions of the awo suggested that whoever took the offering to the dump should go armed with a machete, to dig into a rat burrow he would find there and catch the animal before leaving the ebbó. Since the idea was his, they gave him the task. When he saw the burrow, he dug; the rat fled to another one under the roots of a tree, and as he kept digging he struck something metal: it was the badge. He killed the rat and went back with it and with the badge to the awo.

Orunmila cleaned it, hung it on his neck again, and that night went to the gathering of the deities. After the exchange of greetings he sat in the central chair, which by courtesy belongs to the one presiding over the big table. The conspirators noticed that he had it again.

When the gathering ended, the elders of the night agreed to throw the badge into a river. Osain took it again in the same way and gave it to the sorcerers, who threw it into the river Okun Osa. It gleamed like a diamond and drew all the fish. A small one was first and gulped it down; a larger one ate the small one; and Amiegho, king of the fish, seeing this, devoured the second. On his way back to his lair he was caught in a net.

On the eve of the day to return the badge to Olodumare, Orunmila could not find it and was bewildered. He called his trusted awo again. After divining, they ordered an ebbó for the river Okun Osa: a male goat for Eshu and, for Ifá, a banana and three fresh fish just taken from the river. The young man who had found it the time before proposed that first, from an anchored canoe, an ebbó of crushed yam with fish and rat be thrown into the river, once “three fish in one” had been gathered. No one knew what he meant, and they asked him to solve the riddle himself.

The young man asked for a bag of money, which then was worth 65k. He explained that at the river they would see a fisherman bringing his canoe to the shore with two not very large fish, which he would sell for 65k. Again they sent him to do it. At the river he found the fisherman with two fish, one big, with a swollen belly, and a small one; he asked what the bigger one cost and was told 65k. He paid, threw the ebbó into the water, and returned with the fish.

When they split it open they found a smaller fish inside, in whose stomach was another, and inside that one was the badge. This is how it came back into Orunmila's hands.

Orunmila, fearing another theft at night, asked his three awo and their helpers to keep watch until dawn, dancing, eating, and drinking. They accepted if he gave them gifts and money while they danced. He set large oil lamps in five places: the dump, Eshu's altar, the front and the back of the house, and his Ifá shrine. They ate the three fish and the banana, drank wine without measure until morning, and then Orunmila offered the goat to Eshu. The awo divided the meat among themselves and went to their homes.

At last the day to present the badge arrived. When the assembly had gathered, Orunmila appeared wearing it. With Olodumare in his chair, he took it off and held it out to him on his knees. Olodumare asked him to leave it on his neck and wear it always as a divine inheritance, and warned him that many enemies would try to ruin him by theft, but that from that date none would succeed.

Obatalá had made Osain his physician in heaven, and Osain practiced with propriety. On one occasion he was called to prepare a remedy for one of Obatalá's wives and, once the work was done, he had relations with her. Orunmila, meanwhile, had used his badge to curse everyone who had caused him those troubles.

One night Obatalá made out, from his harem, a muffled voice: it was Osain, speaking through his nose. He went opening the doors until he reached the bedroom of his favorite wife and called out. Osain, with nowhere to hide, took the form of a snake and crawled into a hole in her chimney. Obatalá came in, asked who the intruder was, and saw no one, so he had Orunmila brought. Looking into the mirror of his badge, Orunmila saw Osain in the hole, and Osain begged him mentally not to give him away. In the name of their old friendship, Orunmila did not hand over his friend. He recommended to Obatalá an ebbó with a rat, fish, a hen, a goat, and the firewood from the wife's chimney. Obatalá brought the materials and wanted to do it right there; Orunmila insisted that it be done in his Ifá shrine. So they took everything to his house, including the logs where Osain hid as a snake, and on arrival Orunmila sent the messengers away.

Osain came out to give thanks. Orunmila told him that he knew of his part in the theft of the badge and that this predicament was the punishment for his faults. Osain opened up and confessed his complicity, and to repair the harm he offered to be Orunmila's servant forever and to do whatever he wished. Orunmila accepted.

That is why today, before a child is born, Osain makes all the remedies to care for it before birth, up to the moment it is born, and Orunmila keeps the final credit.

Ogbe Iroso left heaven and settled in the world, where he went on practicing divination with Ifá just as before. The beginning was hard. Although he mastered the craft and had a good heart, he hardly profited from his work, because people abused his kindness. Two awo lived beside him as diviners. One was named Uroke Mi Lawo Ligorin; the other, Uruke Milawo Le Turuye. They recommended three offerings: a goat for Eshu, a rabbit for the elders of the darkness and a rooster for his own head. He also had to sacrifice a bell with a rattle, treat it with the proper leaves and leave it in the place where he kept his Ifá. They told him he would have to arm himself with patience, since changes, trials and experiences of every kind were waiting for him. He carried out the ebbó just as they told him.

The troubles were born in heaven. The awo of heaven were annoyed at the generosity with which Ogbe Iroso helped some ungrateful humans. He knew how to relieve the poor without asking for payment, and that left the awo above with nothing to do, because his work on earth took work away from them.

His enemies kept sending him one blow after another. First they let loose countless debts upon the earth. Then they turned to the divinities that rule death and illness, so that each of them would bring him back to heaven. All three, debt, death and illness, resisted going, because he would identify them at once. Death set a condition: it would go only if riches reached him first, because it believed that a poor man like him would let himself be overcome by money. Illness demanded that a wife be brought to him beforehand, since he lived alone on earth. Debt asked that a son be sent to him beforehand, since he also had no descendants.

Meanwhile, the conspirators decided to send Patience (Suuro) ahead. Her task would be to wear him out until he fell and to find out how weak he was in the face of the other visitors. She is the elder sister of wealth, and custom dictates that the first thing she does is to pass through the house of the guardian angel of every inhabitant of the earth. When she reached the place where Ogbe Iroso's guardian angel was, the angel begged her to look after his ward and to prepare him against any threat. She accepted the pact and went to live with Ogbe Iroso.

Ogbe Iroso was told again never to lose his patience. When the visitors were already setting out for his house, his two diviners recommended that he offer Eshu a he goat and three stakes.

That very night he dreamed of his guardian angel, who announced the arrival of a large sum of money. At that moment the bell of his Ifá began to ring and served as a warning. On waking he saw the money approaching, and behind it, hidden, the messengers of death. Letting it pass would have meant that death would reach him. With the help of patience he shut his eyes and ordered the money to vanish from his house before he opened them again. He explained that, without the traps of his enemies, he would have received it gladly. The money left at once.

Illness followed, and it sent a wife ahead. The bell of his Ifá rang again, and so the guardian angel warned him once more. When he opened the door, he found a beautiful young woman with illness hidden behind her. Patience gave him the strength to speak to her this way: “Beautiful young woman, I would have been very happy at your side, but you let illness accompany you to my door. I am sorry, I cannot receive you.” Frightened, the young woman withdrew, and illness followed her.

Then came debt, with a child in front. The guardian angel rang the bell again and warned him with a song. On waking, Ogbe Iroso found a group of children. Leaning on patience, he saw the debt hidden behind them and sent them away. The children went off, and the debt with them.

Back in heaven, the messengers lamented. Money blamed death for keeping it from staying with an honest man. The young woman blamed illness for keeping her from marrying that affectionate man. The children reproached debt because they could not live with a father who would have given them an excellent education. It also weighed on them that Patience, their elder sister, lived with Ogbe Iroso. So they resolved to go down to earth, to join her, with no one to accompany them.

That afternoon the money arrived first at Ogbe Iroso's house, and he became very rich. A group of young women followed it, and he married every one of them. The children arrived last, so he had a great many children at the same time. As a gesture of gratitude toward his two diviners and his guardian angel for the sacrifices, he held a feast with cattle, pigs, rams and goats, and plenty to drink. In the middle of the celebration he sang the episode of the messengers of misfortune, which he had overcome with patience.

He came through the test with honor. Through patience, and also through the sacrifices, prosperity returned to his life with no misfortune hidden in it, and he lived happily forever.

When Ogbe Irosun came into the world, he married a woman named Moriyeke, a name that means that a mother was born again as her son. She was a corrupt woman. At that time the awos met every week at the house of Ogbe Irosun. From the moment she began to live there she behaved badly, and he was very unhappy.

One day, after a quarrel, she packed her things and went to her mother. A sorcerer named Ojigbona began to court her. She warned him that she was married to a very strong man, but he insisted so much that he ended up marrying her. It was not enough for him to seduce the wife: he also began to throw mysterious darts at Ogbe Irosun. Ogbe Irosun always wore a magic amulet hanging from his neck, and thanks to it he saw the evil intentions of his enemy and sang. The song warned that sickness and death were approaching and that he had to stay awake. That is why this odu has the nickname Ogbe Maasun, which means “Ogbe does not sleep.” With these warnings he was able to undo the schemes of Ojigbona.

One day Shangó came to challenge him. He asked whether he was not going to take revenge for his wife, who had gone away with another man, and whether he did not feel ashamed. Ogbe Irosun answered that he did not see why he should feel ashamed that his wife had left him, that he was not angry, and that he would only be angry if the deities, Shangó included, became angry at what she had done.

Faced with that challenge, Eshu, Suakpana, Shangó and Ogún said that they were angry and that they would go and punish the woman. They asked what he would give them if they succeeded. He promised a rooster to each of them and a goat to Eshu. They promised to bring him the woman in chains within seven days.

That night, Ogún struck the woman on the head with his mallet while she slept. When the pain became very strong, Ojigbona consulted his oracle, which told him that the pain would stop only if she went back to her former husband. Ojigbona went without any shame to the house of Ogbe Irosun and asked him to heal his wife. Ogbe Irosun replied that he was not a doctor, that as a priest of Ifá he knew only about ebbó, and that he should give a rooster to Ogún. Ojigbona showed the rooster at once, and with it Ogbe Irosun paid his promise to Ogún. The headache disappeared, but she kept living with Ojigbona.

The next day, Shangó put a drum in the woman's chest and began to play it. She complained of pain in the chest and, when she was about to die, she was taken to Ogbe Irosun. He asked for a rooster as an ebbó and with it paid Shangó for his effort. The woman felt better for a moment, but she stayed with Ojigbona.

Then it was the turn of Suakpana, who threw corn at her. She got up with a very high fever. She was taken to her former husband, who asked for a rooster and with it paid Suakpana. She improved, but she stayed with Ojigbona.

Eshu let time pass. When she thought she was completely healed, he tied her feet, her hands, her throat, her stomach and her waist. The next day, Ojigbona saw her in that state, gave up and left the house, leaving her alone with her mother. Her mother took her to Ogbe Irosun and asked him to heal her. He asked for a goat for Eshu and a ram for his own Ifá. She improved, but he did not want to accept her again as his wife.

From all this we conclude that Orunmila normally does not take revenge on those who offend him. If the deities had been more violent, they would have destroyed the woman at a single blow. He waited until the others began to mock him, and even then he refrained from acting directly and let others do the hard work. On no occasion was it Orunmila in person who punished the woman. He has the power to make and unmake, but he refused to use it. This is how he expects his children and followers to behave: to keep perseverance as a lasting virtue.